Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1936)

MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST 111 Dvorak is the owner of a one-horse self-trained stable. Seeing the publicity she gets as sucn, and being in the racing game for the sole_ purpose of promoting his automobile business, Smith Ballew buys her horse in a claiming race, knowing full well that she'll want to stick to her nag and he can hire her and get some of her headlines." (Hollywood Reporter) Trade Paper Reviews "Offering an exciting horse race finish and some sparse comedy for its box office appeal, •Racing Lady,' hampered by a weak story and a cast lacking in draw names, stands as a secondarv dualer. . . The screenplay, based on two originals . . . seems to have been written with little regard for the better features of either one. . . It moves slowly and suspenselessly to a thrilling climax which does a lot but not enough to lessen the yarn's inertia. . Miss Dvorak's performance is up to standards given only a chance to be interested in horses her acting was necessarily restricted. Ballew is an unfortunate choice opposite; although he doesn't figure in more than a few sequences, his deliverv is not capable." — + Hollywood Reporter p3 D 1 '36 h Motion Pict Daily pl7 D 2 '36 " 'Racing Lady' finishes a poor second in a race with itself. Despite the fact it is based on two originals and three adapters labored over the script, the result is a trite yarn, lacking in suspense and with a love theme purely Platonic and indicated from the start of the film. Ann Dvorak, Harry Carey, Berton Churchill and a colored player, Willie Best, make a gallant but vain effort to put the picture over. Smith Ballew has the romantic lead, but he is totally unconvincing and his acting borders on the amateurish. Direction is nothing above average. . . 'Racing Lady' will find its best results on the lower end of a neighborhood dualer." — Variety (Hollywood) p3 D 1 '36 RAINBOW ON THE RIVER. RKO 87min D 25 '36 Cast: Bobby Breen. May Robson. Charles Butterworth. Benita Hume. Alan Mowbray. Louise Beavers Director: Kurt Neumann Music directors: Hugo Riesenfeld. Abe Meyer Based on the novel Toinette's Phillip by Mrs C. V. Jamison. "The story ... is laid in New Orleans in 1875. Bobby, son of quality folks who disappeared in the war, has been raised by Louise Beavers, an ex-slave, who has done her heroic best for him. But the time comes when he must be given up to northern relatives. These include his immensely wealthy and, of course, bad-tempered grandmother, a feminine counterpart of Fauntleroy's Earl of Dorincourt. They also include a married daughter with a child of Bobby's age, who is clutching at the family millions." (Hollywood Reporter) Audience Suitability Ratings "General patronage." Nat Legion of Decency D 17 '36 "[It is] a sentimental and amusing story. . . Fine, appealing singing by the youthful star and plenty of pathos and comedy. Familyjuvenile." + Wkly Guide D 5 '36 Trade Paper Reviews "This is a grand load of entertainment. It has been shrewdly tailored to fit Bobby Breen' s talents and is a comedy drama that wins tears and laughter. Bobby sings a wide range of numbers and scores with each. The numbers, nine in all, range from 'Ave Maria' to 'Rain bow on the River,' a popular piece. Stephen Foster's 'Old Folks at Home', 'Ring, Ring de Banjo' and 'The Camptown Races' are cleverly interwoven into the picture. . . Kurt Neumann's direction is his best to date and he has provided numerous touches that gain laughs and tears." -f Film Daily p7 D 5 '36 "This second Bobby Breen picture outdoes the first on many counts. It is a sentimental comedy-drama of the Fauntleroy school, plentifully interspersed with song numbers and wellpacked with laughter and tears. It will have wide appeal, except among the more sophisticated, and will be especially good box office where feminine and family trade is dominant. . . The production is excellent throughout and reflects especial credit on Edward Gross, producer in charge, for w/hom this is a first production assignment, and on Kurt Neumann, director, who has gone the limit for heartthrobs and captured them solidlv." + Hollywood Reporter p3 D 2 '36 + Motion Pict Daily p4 D 3 '36 "Here is the very essence of sentimental drama with music, so cannily aimed at the susceptible hearts of the masses that it is bound to click for a showman's harvest. Second of the Bobby Breen starring pictures, it will enhance the marquee value of the silvervoiced youngster. . . Breen sings a variety of songs with superb technique and persuasive feeling in his liquid-clear boy's soprano, gay and solemn, popular and classic, alone and with chorus, selected to please the simple popular taste as well as the cultivated. . . A tearful feminine preview audience amply attested the boy's power to reach the heart." + Variety (Hollywood) p3 D 2 '36 RAMONA. 20th century-Fox 90min S 25 '36 Cast: Loretta Young. Don Ameche. Kent Taylor. Pauline Frederick Director: Henry King Music: Alfred Newman Based on the novel of the same title by Helen Hunt Jackson. Filmed in technicolor. This is the fourth remake of the story. "[It] is the gradual unfolding of tragedy in the marriage of the girl, reared as an aristocrat, to the Indian, Alessandro, and the terrible ravishment of Indian settlement by colonizing whites in a dark chapter of California's early days." [Variety (Hollywood)] Audience Suitability Ratings "Loretta Young's sensitivity and loveliness make the portrait memorable. Obviously destined for popular approval, the picture can be recommended as a wholesome change from the frequent banalities of the sophisticated drama." T. J. Fitzmorris + America p624 O 3 '36 "A: fine of kind; Y: very good; C: too strong." Christian Century pl343 O 7 '36 "A picture the whole family will enjoy. Family. Adults & 14-18: excellent; 8-14: mature." Calif Cong of Par & Teachers "Mature-family. Excellent. DAR "The color is exquisite and will do much to make more widely known the glories of the 'Golden State.' Family." Nat Soc of New England Women + Fox W Coast Bui S 26 '36 "The story has been tampered with and it is disappointing in spite of its colorful beauty. Perhaps it is the accompanying obligato of music, which is too evident, too strident, in such a symbolic, pastoral play. Family." Am Legion Auxiliary "Family." Calif Fed of Business & Professional Women's Clubs I + + Exceptionally Good; + Good; -\ Fair; 1 Mediocre; —Poor; Exceptionally Poor