Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1936)

MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST 87 "Pleasant little comedy that makes no claims to greatness but which should be pleasing despite its lack of names." H Phila Exhibitor p36 N 1 '36 "Incredible story . . . has been rigged up with old vaudeville gags and directed with a certain amount of zippiness. Result is a farcical cream puff that will please where they please easily. Elsewhere, and for duals, it will be not too hard to accept. . . Whenever people mention Jane Wyatt they mention the Social Register. It astonishes 'em both ways — that an actress in a Social Register could act. Miss Wyatt can. Very nicely. . . There is, however, no memorable scene, acting trick or trait that could be used as a peg to hang predictions on as to her film future. . . Also from the legitimate [stage] is Louis Hayward. And okay, too. On the boyish side, but possessing enough sincerity when, for a few feet of celluloid, a little seriousness is called for." H Variety pl2 D 9 '36 "Again the New Universal has cracked through with first-rate comedy. . . [It] doesn't have a cast heavy enough to warrant heavy billing or exploitation, but it will do swell as the comedy relief on any important dualer. Buzzell's comedy talent bobs up constantly throughout the picture and some of the lines in the previewed edition are still warm enough to get a few raised eyebrows." -| Variety (Hollywood) p3 O 19 '36 M MAD HOLIDAY. MGM 68min N 13 '36 Cast: Edmund Lowe. Elissa Landi. Zasu Pitts. Ted Healy. Edmund Gwenn Director: George B. Seitz Based on the mystery Murder in a Chinese Theatre by Joseph Santley. "Edmund Lowe is a Hollywood film star who is fed up on playing detectives in mystery thrillers, especially those written by the mysterious Peter Dean. So he walks out on his agonized producer and books passage for a sea trip far away from it all. He is followed, however, by Ted Healy, a vociferous studio publicity hound, and the first person he meets is the despised Peter in the ravishingly lovely person of Elissa Landi, who dotes on murders but has never seen a corpse." Hollywood Reporter Audience Suitability Ratings "It is hard to discover whether this is a comic mystery yarn or a slightly mysterious comedy, but whichever way you will have it, it is not very new. That it manages to amuse and mystify us at all is due to the heroic cast which surmounts the added difficulty of uncertain direction." T. J. Fitzmorris h America pl68 N 21 '36 "A & Y: fair of kind; C: no." Christian Century pl574 N 25 '36 "Many good laughs, but some unnecessary drinking. Mature." Am Legion Auxiliary "A well cast and well presented murder mystery. Some unnecessary drinking. Adults & young people." Calif Cong of Par & Teachers "Farce murder mystery. Treated in a farcical-slapstick manner, with many murders but few thrills and little coherence of sequences, this will hold little interest for those who like mystery stories. . . Disappointing to mystery fans. Mature." Calif Fed of Business & Professional Women's Clubs "A handsomely mounted, utterly inane burlesque. Mature & 14-18. Mediocre." DAR "The picture is quick moving, though rather confusing at times. Mature." S Calif Council of Fed Church Women Fox W Coast Bui X 14 '36 "The spirited acting of Edmund Lowe and Elissa Landi contribute much to the entertainment value of the picture which has a large well directed cast. Especially interesting [are] the Chinese Theater sequence and the fog scenes. Mature audience." + Gen Fed of Women's Clubs (W Coast) N 2 '36 "Starting in a clever manner this picture soon develops a boresome murder mystery relieved by the rather questionable humor of Zasu Pitts. Edmund Lowe is satisfactory as the actor-detective and Elissa Landi pleases as the authoress but both are worthy of a better vehicle. Family." f Nat Council of Jewish Women X 3 '36 "General patronage." Nat Legion of Decency N 19 '36 "A well selected cast, with Edmund Lowe and Elissa Landi doing good work; with expert but dubious comedy by Zasu Pitts as a tipsy woman and comedy bits contributed by Ted Healy and a clever little pup. Mature." Sel Motion Pict p7 D 1 '36 Newspaper and Magazine Reviews "While I am a disciple of that school of thought which holds that four comedians to three corpses in a murder mystery picture is a ratio which tends to demean murder and lessen its importance as one of the most emphatic manifestations of our rather complex social structure, I feel that in justice to those who had a hand in the making of 'Mad Holiday,' I must confess I derived entertainment from it. . . Still, I maintain it might have preserved a better balance — say one comedian to one corpse. . . To George" Seitz, director, goes credit for making it entertaining, for presenting the characters as natural humans who make no effort to impress us as actors." + Hollywood Spec pl4 X 21 '36 "Because 'Mad Holiday' seems to us affected, hysterical and boring, is no reason why others should find it so, for it is patterned after 'The Thin Man' type of detective fiction, now the rage on the screen, and its sets, especially the later ones in a Chinese theater are fantastic and original. Edmund Lowe and Elissa Landi do their utmost to be an engaging pair of sophisticates and the jewel robbery motif is reasonably unique." Marguerite Tazelaar — NY Herald Tribune pl9 X 27 '36 "An engaging variation on that macabre motif succinctly classified by the cinema industry as 'whodunit?' is the current 'Mad Holiday.' . . You get the idea, as the gay company of specialized serio-comics becomes involved with the familiar devices of mystery melodrama— masked men, black-gloved hands and Oriental trickery — that maybe Metro and Mr. Seitz are kidding the screen thriller a bit with this one." J. T. M. + NY Times p39 X 26 '36 " 'Mad Holiday* is a better comedy than it is a murder mystery. The characters are gay and interesting and the comic situations in which they find themselves have a lighthearted quality about them. But the puzzle they are asked to solve is just another one of those second-rate riddles. . . [It] has considerable merit as entertainment." William Boehnel -{ NY World-Telegram p7a X 2S '36 "[It is] a comedy melodrama that tempers its blood and thunder with the amiable comedv of Zasu Pitts and Ted Healy." News-Wk p22 D 5 '36 "It's fundamentally a good mystery yarn, different, too. . . Screen comedy is getting screwier and screwier, to the seeming delight + + Exceptionally Good Good: H Fair; j Mediocre; — Poor; Exceptionally Poot