Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1936)

MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST 135 TRAITOR. Puritan 57min Ag 29 '36 Cast: Tim McCoy. Frances • Grant. Carl Hackett Director: Sig Neufeld A western melodrama. Audience Suitability Ratings "General patronage." Nat Legion of Decency S 10 '36 Trade Paper Reviews "Plenty of action pervades this Western in which stalwart Tim McCoy plays the role of a Texas Ranger. . . Picture will please action fans." + Film Daily pl3 N 6 '36 Motion Pict Daily N 5 '36 "McCoy's Westerns standard. This is no okey." + Phila Exhibitor p40 O 15 have been of good exception. Estimate: '36 "Not the usual Westerner. . . Stage-coaches are up-to-date Detroit models, haciendas have clean glass windows and cowboy garb is natty. Plenty of hard riding, though, in spite of these advances. Okay for a dual bill. . . Plot gets blurred toward the end which is somewhat of a letdown. Otherwise handled in even manner." H Variety pl9 N 4 '36 + Motion Pict Daily p5 S 22 '36 "It has names, but they act like beginners. It has comedy, but it is all muffed amidst bad recording, putrid direction. Farrell is wooden. So is his leading lady. Margot Grahame looks like a mummy. Estimate: for neighborhoods, twin bills." Phila Exhibitor p39 O 1 '36 "This light romantic comedy will not heighten Charles Farrell' s popularity. Story has too many Cinderella trimmings at the outset to hold interest. Hollywood producers tried doing the same sugary type of yarn with Farrell not long ago with sad results. This English effort is equally flat in attempting to show Farrell the comeback paths. Despite the slim, easily recognized story, Monty Banks has done a commendable job knitting together uninteresting developments." 1 Variety p23 O 21 '36 TUGBOAT PRINCESS. Columbia 68min O 15 '36 Cast: Walter C. Kelly. Edith Fellows. Valerie Hobson Director: David Selman "The differences between two tugboat captains are settled by an orphan girl and their rivalry is changed to a friendship." Nat Legion of Decency TROUBLE AHEAD. Atlantic 75min S 17 '36 Cast: Charlie Farrell. Margot Grahame. Gregory Ratoff Director: Monty Banks A dialogue film produced in England. "It tells of the annoyances that beset an American film idol, lured to London by an enterprising press agent to make a film for a producer who wants to make a screen star out of a blonde cutie in whom he is interested." (N Y WorldTelegram) Audience Suitability Ratings "This trite story has a most obvious ending. General patronage." — Nat Legion of Decency O 1 '36 Newspaper and Magazine Reviews "We hope the reciprocal trade agreements will not encourage importation of tired little productions like this. . . Gregory Ratoff does his best to save the proceedings. Family." h Christian Science Monitor pl7 O 31 '36 "Perhaps the most completely uninspired photoplay since the early flicker days is 'Trouble Ahead,' so jarring an importation of cinematic cliches that even a fervent interpretation by Gregory Ratoff of a role of the sort he does best cannot save it from almost immediate oblivion." J. T. M. NY Times p26 S 21 '36 "It is a shambling and bogus little weakling too feeble to withstand Broadway competition. It adds little to the stature of British film production, and will not, I feel safe in predicting, cause any uneasiness to other candidates for the best film of the year." William Boehnel — NY World-Telegram pl6 S 21 *36 Trade Paper Reviews "Produced in London by Pathe, this importation is light, pleasant entertainment as program pictures go. Though never rising to its potential heights, which sounder production and sharp supervision would have attained for it in capable Hollywood hands, it has frequent moments of charm in its late sequences that effectively play on patrons' romantic emotions." H Film Daily p7 O 19 '36 Audience Suitability Ratings "The picture is a routine job and a bit too familiar to be continuously interesting. But Walter Kelly, forsaking his Virginia judgeship to go to sea provides amusing interludes, and Edith Fellows and Valerie Hobson play well." T. J. Fitzmorris -f — America pl44 N 14 '36 "An unpretentious story ... is told with sympathy and understanding. . . Good acting, capable direction and a simple, heartwarming story are combined in a pleasant and interesting film. Family." E Coast Preview Committee + Fox W Coast Bui N 21 '36 "General patronage." Nat Legion of Decency N 5 '36 "A, Y & C: fair." Parents' M p46 Ja '37 "Family." Sel Motion Pict pll D 1 '36 Trade Paper Reviews H Motion Pict Daily p7 O 22 '36 TUNDRA. Burroughs-Tarzan 78min Ag 15 '36 Cast: Del Cambre Director: Norman Dawn See issue of September 28, 1936 for other reviews of this film Audience Suitability Ratings "Scenically beautiful and abounding in thrilling adventure, the picture will hold the interest of the entire family. . . Many interesting scenes of wild animal life add to the educational as well as the entertainment value of the picture. Excellent for type. Family." Calif Fed of Business & Professional Women's Clubs "Excellent for schools because of pictures of wild life though not exactly accurate as to scenes or the tundra. Family. Good." DAR "This film abounds in entertainment values. . . Details of Alaskan life seem at times hardly authentic but the picture is thoroughly enjoyable for any audience from beginning to end." Nat Soc of New England Women + + Exceptionally Good; + Good; -\ Fair; 1 Mediocre; —Poor; Exceptionally Poor