Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1936)

92 MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST MAN WHO COULD WORK MIRACLES — Cont. superimposed in the film makes it heavier and at the same time less convincing. A scrappy and inessential feminine interest has been added. . . Roland Young does the timorous little man fairly well: but he is too obviously a cultured type to be really suitable, and when he asserts himself at the end, it is not the revelation of a hidden potentiality in this meek little man, but the cultured element coming to the surface and making the original delineation so much the less believable." h Mo Film Bui pl48 S 30 '36 Newspaper and Magazine Reviews "[We must] arm ourselves against a sea of abstractions, couched in Mr. Wells's embarrassing poetic diction. . . The result is pretentious and mildly entertaining, with no moments as good as the war sequences of 'Things to Come,' nor as bad as what followed them. The direction and the production are shocking. That is not Mr. Wells's fault. And it may not be altogether the fault of Mr. Lothar Mendes, the director, for the slowness, vulgarity, overemphasis are typical of Mr. Korda's productions. . . Mr. Korda, a publicity man of genius, who has not yet revealed a talent for the films, casts his pictures with little regard for anything but gossip paragraphs. Mr. Roland Young is quite the wrong type for Fotheringay, with his intermittent accent and his eyes which twinkle merrily with lack of conviction. . . As for trick photography, of which this film is naturally an orgy, and like orgies of another kind grimly repetitive, it is always to my mind dull and unconvincing and destroys illusion. . . The whole entertainment [is] sometimes fake poetry, sometimes unsuccessful comedy, sometimes farce, sometimes sociological discussion, without a spark of creative talent or a trace of film ability." Graham Greene — Spec p379 S 4 '36 Trade Paper Reviews + Motion Pict Daily p9 Jl 24 '36 "There is a limited audience for fantastic subjects, on stage or screen. Fact that this one comes from the distinguished pen of H. G. Wells won't influence people who don't care for that sort of thing. Like most of Wells's ideas, it is ingenious, but extravagant in conception and not easily grasped by the proletariat." Variety pl8 Ag 12 '36 MAN WHO LIVED AGAIN. Gaumont British 65min N 1 '36 Cast: Boris Karloff. Anna Lee. John Loder. Frank Cellier Director: Robert Stevenson "The story shows an eminent mind-specialist, Boris Karloff, at work in sinister surroundings. Feeling that he is on the eve of a worldshaking discovery, the professor sends for Anna Lee, a young girl who has qualified as a doctor, to act as his assistant. He demonstrates his discovery, a mechanism whereby the mindenergy .of two apes can be drained and transposed so that a complete transference of personality takes place." Hollywood Reporter Audience Suitability Ratings "A: depends on taste; Y: doubtful; C: no." Christian Century pl542 N 18 '36 "Further helped by a clear, smoothly moving plot, fine photography and a hair-raising climax, this story ... is a fine achievement in this type of cinema. Adults." E Coast Preview Committee + Fox W Coast Bui N 21 '36 "The story is well put together and well directed. It provides plenty of macabre thrills without descending to horrific sensationalism. Suitability: adults & adolescents." + Mo Film Bui pl48 O 30 '36 "Objectionable in part. Objection: a horror picture that proves unwholesome entertainment." Nat Legion of Decency O 22 '36 "A: matter of taste; Y & C: no." Parents' M p32 D '36 "Strikingly vivid scenes, in which machines take on thinking qualities and weird experiments with unknown psychoses are treated as universally accepted facts, combine to make this film a fascinating study of the occult. . . Adults." + Sel Motion Pict pll N 1 '36 Newspaper and Magazine Reviews "The mad scientist is at work again . . . with moderately exciting results. Although the theme is a compound of balderdash, it has been projected with considerable skill and imagination. The camera-minded Robert Stevenson has directed the work with properly tricky effects. Boris Karloff bares his fangs and rumples up his hair in a more credible impersonation than he usually offers; the dialogue has some concise and authentic speech to offset the medical nonsense, and the suporting players are excellent." Howard Barnes + NY Herald Tribune p23 D 16 '36 "Even if it isn't art, it is entertainment and of the most welcome kind. . . [It] is primarily a thriller and as such it doesn't call for too much plausibility. But it has what few thrillers possess — finished writing, expert and imaginative direction and polished acting. Although it is frankly fantastic and at times shamelessly absurd, the qualities do not interfere with the story's progress in the slightest degree. It rushes madly along from one w^eird situation to another and the spectator is swept with it. . . It is first-rate weird entertainment." W'illiam Boehnel + NY Worid-Telegram p25 D 15 '36 "Until the idea goes wholesale, quite a fewdramatic sparks are made to fly on the screen. Frank Cellier . . . turns in, as usual, a superb characterization. The rest of the cast play it with as straight faces as they can muster for an occasion which every now and then threatens to become monotonous. The tireless children of all ages should love it." H Stage pl6 N '36 Trade Paper Reviews "If developed more from the psychological angle, this story . . . might have won through. By over-emphasis and uninspired handling the subject quickly drops to the level of bizarre melodrama and horror-thriller." \ Hollywood Reporter p3 S 26 '36 ( Motion Pict Daily p5 S 22 '36 "Exploitable, with thrill angles strong, this will depend on the Karloff draw, selling." Phila Exhibitor p32 N 1 '36 "For lovers of the macabre here is another spine tickler, though not of such a gruesome nature as the Frankenstein series. . . Production is painstaking and realistic and, indeed, the whole thing seems all too feasible. No reason why this shouldn't register anywhere that this class of subject attracts." Variety pl6 S 23 '36 MAN WHO LIVED TWICE. Columbia 72min S 25 '36 Cast: Ralph Bellamy. Isabel Jewell. Thurston Hall. Henry Kolker Director: Harry Lachman A notorious killer wanted for murder is changed by the miracles of modern medical science into a noted doctor. + + Exceptionally Good; + Good; -\ Fair; \ Mediocre; —Poor; Exceptionally Poor