Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1936)

122 MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST SMARTEST GIRL IN TOWN — Continued brigade. . . Mediocre process stuff mars an all 'round fine production. . . Too frequently pedicular, trick camera lensing spoils an otherwise laudable film." Herb Sterne + Script pl4 N 14 '36 "Open telegram to able screen comedians Broderick, Blore, and Rhodes: Sincerest condolences Stop/' — Stage pl8 D '36 Trade Paper Reviews "Consistently entertaining and often uproarious, this contains all the ingredients that shape a romantic comedy success, with smooth acting by the principals, Ann Sothern and Gene Raymond. Family." + Box Office p31 O 31 '36 "If you wanted to pick flaws in the plausibilities missing in this story you could find plenty, for the plot construction is stretched for the fun to be found in it. And the writers found the fun in plenty — and the result is that any audience is in for one grand hour of enjoyment and light laughter." -| Film Daily p7 N 10 '36 "Here's a jolly, artful and glib little romantic farce that almost everyone will heartily enjoy. . . Though rating a program picture, it will hold up in the best of company and should develop considerable box office draw. With pictures like these RKO is setting a high standard for B product and will do itself much good." + Hollywood Reporter p2 O 23 '36 + Motion Pict Daily p2 O 24 '36 "Pleasant comedy . . . [that] ought to be pleasing program. Estimate: okey." -f Phila Exhibitor p33 N 1 '36 "[The] film hasn't enough substance to be anything beyond the duals. Picture is quite amusing in an ordinary way, however. . . Harry Jans disports as the lazy hubby of Helen Broderick. It's a negligible role made less attractive by Jans. Erik Rhodes is a thickwitted baron, not altogether impressive." f Variety pl4 N 25 '36 "The Gene RaymondAnn Sothern combination clicks again in a fast, flip comedy which exhibitors generally should find to the liking of folk who want their entertainment light and easy. Just the kind of offering which will supply either the cocktail or the cordial on any well arranged dual menu." -f Variety (Hollywood) p3 O 23 '36 A SON COMES HOME. Paramount 75min Jl 31 '36 Cast: Mary Boland. Julie Haydon, Donald "Woods. Wallace Ford. Anthony Nace Director: E. A. Dupont See issue of September 28, 1936 for other reviews of this film Audience Suitability Ratings "A: perhaps; Y: doubtful; C: no." Christian Century pl343 O 7 '36 "Suitability: -adults & adolescents." Mo Film Bui pl54 S 30 '36 "Fair. Adults & young adults." -) Motion Pict Guide D '36 "Mary Boland's ingratiating comedy is insufficient to balance inept direction which has consciously played up the insincere and improbable to harry the emotions. Good waterfront photography. Adolescents, 12-16: no; children, 8-12: no." Motion Pict R p8 S '36 "A: affords unusual character study; Y: mature; C: unsuitable." Parents' M p43 O '36 SON OF MONGOLIA. Amkino 105min N 20 '36 Cast: Tseven Rabdan. Igin-Khorlo. Sosor Barma. Gombo. Bato-Ochir Director: Ilya Trauberg Mongolian dialogue film with English subtitles produced by the Soviet with native Mongolian actors. This is the first Mongolian film produced. "Tseven, the shepherd, rides off across the tundra to find an enchanted garden and prove his worth to his shepherdess, on the advice of a venal soothsayer. He wanders into Manchukuo, by mistake, overhears Japanese officers and a Manchurian prince plotting to take over Mongolia, discloses the plot during a wild scuffle in a circus and lands in the enchanted garden — in chains. With the aid of a Manchurian sympathizer he worsts his enemies and makes his way back to his own country, where he describes the forthcoming attack and is cheered no end by a display of Mongolian military strength." (N Y Herald Tribune) Newspaper and Magazine Reviews " 'Son of Mongolia' is the only Russian film in a year which I have been able to enjoy without reservation. Even then I was uncertain during the first few minutes, when some business having to do with the introduction of Dulma's three suitors looked very much like the horseplay which has disfigured most recent films from a similar source. . . But the uncertainty was soon over. . . [It is] a film packed full of fascinating and informing novelties, and a story distinguished by the presence everywhere in it of a vast., happy, and primeval good-nature. . . If 'Son of Mongolia' were nothing but a newsreel it would still be one of the finest of current films. . . [It] however, is more than a newsreel. With Tseven Rabdan playing the role of Tseven, and with Ilya Trauberg doing an imaginative piece of directing, it grows into something picaresque if not epic. . . [Tseven] is one of the best actors I have ever watched, just as this is one of the best films — an Oriental 'Western' if you do not mind the contradiction in terms." Mark Van Doren + + Nation p677 D 5 '36 "Crudely made, but effectively acted, the new Soviet film, 'Son of Mongolia,' pulls no punches in describing one of the tinder-box spots of the world today. . . While frankly propagandistic, it achieves its most telling points through a picaresque tale about an ignorant but heroic herdsman. His exciting and colorful adventures make the work entertaining as well as provocative, and it is a pity that it could not have been directed and photographed more expertly." Howard Barnes + NY Herald Tribune plO N 21 '36 "A strange film as beautifully jumbled as the political environment out of which it sprang, like a handsome weed, 'Son of Mongolia' is a travelogue of unique and authentic richness, an amusing Far Eastern horse opera of picaresque character, and a scientifically valuable anthropological document in which the Soviet film industry may well take pride." B. R. C. + NY Times p21 N 21 '36 "After a long list of mediocre films the Soviet motion picture industry . . . begins to show signs of coming back into its own again with 'Son of Mongolia,' an engaging blend of fantasy and realism. Not that 'Son of Mongolia' is to be listed among such Russian film masterpieces as 'Potemkin', 'Ten Days That Shook the World', 'China Express', 'Chapayev' and others; it has none of the brooding intensity or passionate frenzy of those films. But rather that it has enough vitality and charm of its own in a minor way to make it seem excellent entertainment. . . A melodrama combined with satire and propaganda, 'Son of Mongolia' has enough good things in it to make one + -f Exceptionally Good; + Good; -| Fair; \ Mediocre; —Poor; Exceptionally Poor