Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1936)

100 MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST NINE DAYS A QUEEN — Continued XIII.' It excels that earlier offering of the British studios in most respects. . . Miss Pilbeam gives an inspired performance as Lady Jane. . . The Edward of young Desmond Tester is almost as compelling a portrait. . . Whatever 'Nine Days a Queen' owes to its distinguished acting, it is still chiefly the triumph of Mr. Stevenson. . . The players themselves he has guided in a tremendously exciting human pattern that makes his screen work one of the greatest genuflections that the cinema has made to the past." Howard Barnes + + N Y Herald Tribune plO O 3 '36 "When the English studios turn to dramas of their country's turbulent past, they are pretty apt to create a film unequaled anywhere. Such a one [is] 'Nine Days a Queen.' . . This new picture belongs in the top ranks of the year's cinemas. . . [It] has an emotional force no other picture on Broadway can touch. . . This is a film to delight any one who enjoyed 'The Private Life of Henry VIII.' Perhaps, in spite of its underlying tragedy, it is just a film to delight any one." Eileen Creelman + + N Y Sun p34 O 3 '36 "The impression prevails this morning that Britain may, after all, be its best historian. In 'Nine Days a Queen,' the English film-makers have risen again to the standard of excellence established bv 'The Private Life of Henry VIIL' . . The new film, being painstakingly accurate, bitterly dramatic and movingly performed, must be set down as the finest historical picture we have seen this season. . . Nova Pilbeam plays Lady Jane with a winning sincerity. . . Desmond Tester, as the young Edward VI, is the most accomplished child actor the screen has known. . . Individually and as a whole it is a faultless cast, and the picture itself is a crushing reply to those who insist that history must be distorted and mutilated to be transferred effectively to the screen." F. S. Nugent + + N Y Times p21 O 3 '36 "Without benefit of Charles Laughton, but with excellent aid from Nova Pilbeam, Cedric Hardwicke, Desmond Tester and Sybil Thorndike, Gaumont-British has turned out another historical film that is one of the season's most legitimate and distracting entertainments, a literate, compelling and exciting motion picture. . . In a caparisoned atmosphere of romance, love, bigotry and treachery, the film gave to this reviewer as good a time as he has had in the cinema this year — swift, engrossing and exciting." William Boehnel + + N Y World-Telegram p8a O 3 '36 "It belongs, of course, to the category of educational pictures, and the general treatment is somewhat of the character of a Charlotte M. Yonge novel. . . It is not entirely fair to this picture to place it too definitely in this class. . . It's an English production, and the English studios manage to dress up their historical pageants with a care and a suggestion of authority that add considerably to the whole effect. The London of the Tudors, life in the Tower, and the like seem nicely done in this particular instance." John Mosher + New Yorker p82 S 26 '36 Trade Paver Reviews "An historical costume piece, this British film is sombre, slow and inclined to be dull. There are no names to help even slightly at the box office on this side of the Atlantic, and the dialog is clipped and muffled in that British manner so irritating to American audiences. Some of it is so slurred by the actors as not to be at all decipherable in the United States. . . Gaumont committed an error in assigning Nova Pilbeam to the Lady Jane role. Miss Pilbeam only last year was playing child parts and here she is cast as a young married queen, although admittedly still in her 'teens and forced to the marriage. . . Expecting her to handle this emotional, mature assignment is unfair to her. . . Photography is only fair, but production fine and, in spots, impressive. Where audiences are highbrow or historically inclined (schools, etc.) picture may do a bit better than elsewhere, but on the whole it won't find the going easy in the United States." h Variety pl5 O 7 '36 NORTH OF NOME. Columbia 63min N 14 '36 Cast: Jack Holt. Evelyn Venable. John Miljan. Dorothy Appleby Director: William Nigh "Jack Holt has the role of an Alaskan seal poacher who, by the vagaries of wind and weather, finds himself the custodian of four shipwreck victims. . . Holt has to keep them prisoner until the Bering sea freezes and he can move out his furs; they resort to every sort of ruse and violence to make their escape." Hollywood Reporter Audience Suitability Ratings "General patronage." Nat Legion of Decency N 26 '36 "A, Y & C: good." Parents' M p46 Ja '37 'Some suspense and much action are combined with the interesting background of Nome in an unevenly paced and slow-moving story. . . The production is fairly good entertainment in spite of certain ineptitudes. Family." -\ Se! Motion Pict plO D 1 '36 Trade Paper Reviews "Plenty of punch-packed action and thrilling melodrama in this film, laid against a picturesque background of the Alaskan sealing waters, and played with conviction by a stellar cast. Family. ' ' + Box Office p31 O 31 '36 "This is a program number that will satisfy action fans. Although the star, Jack Holt, gives a convincing performance, it is pert little Dorothy Appleby, who steals the show. With proper material and handling, she should go very far." + Film Daily p7 O 28 '36 "Rugged adventure, just as hectic as if lifted bodily from the febrile pages of a pulp magazine, makes this ideal fare for the fans who like their slices of life from the action magazines. . . William Nigh's direction, while adequate, is generally stereotyped, which may also be said of the original story by Houston Branch and the screenplay by Albert DeMond, but in material of this sort deviations from formula would probably be resented." -1 Hollywood Reporter p3 O 24 '36 "Windup is fast, furious with romance slight but necessary. Action houses will find enough in this." -| Phila Exhibitor p32 N 1 36 "Interesting and entertaining story off the beaten path is here projected against the old Alaskan fur seal banks and smoky seas of poaching adventure, well adapted to talents of Jack Holt and certain to find a welcome spot on programs where the more carefully made melodramas are in demand. Picture is one of the best Larry Darmour has turned out in cast, production and dramatic substance." -f Variety (Hollywood) p3 O 24 '36 OLD HUTCH. MGM 79min S 25 '36 Cast: Wallace Beery. Eric Linden. Cecilia Parker. Elizabeth Patterson Director: J. Walter Ruben See issue of September 28, 1936 for other reviews of this film + + Exceptionally Good; +Good; -\ Fair; \ Mediocre; —Poor; Exceptionally Poor