Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1937)

MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST 13 Newspaper and Magazine Reviews " 'Breezing Home* is one of the class B pictures which Universal announces it will discontinue making. In entertainment value it is considerably above the average class B product. For one thing, it has a horserace which in real life would set a grandstand crazy with excitement." + Hollywood Spec p8 F 13 '37 Reviewed by Herb Sterne Script p8 F 27 '37 Trade Paper Reviews " 'Breezing Home/ while an unpretentious, inexpensive production, is nevertheless a very pleasing program picture, bound to satisfy all and become a sure-profit-maker at the box office. Family." + Box Office p23 F 13 '37 "With its human appeal qualities, this yarn makes an interesting and entertaining number. Around the training and the racing of a horse, Finley Peter Dunne, Jr., and Philip Dunne have fashioned a simple down-to-earth story. . . This Edmund Grainger production is well handled all around and for the family trade it is good entertainment and for the [juveniles] as well, it is a swell show." + Film Daily p8 F 2 '37 "A pleasant enough but minor warm-over of the standard formula horse racing yarn. There is a fair measure of excitement in the race. . . Liberties taken with racing custom may bother those who are track wise but the picture will do well enough for the uncritical as support in the dual belt." -j Hollywood Reporter p3 Ja 30 '37 -f Motion Pict Daily p6 Ja 21 '37 "Horse race action drama, short on names, this will serve okey as an action number for the neighborhood, twin bill houses." + Phila Exhibitor p43 F 1 '37 "Similar in theme and production to the other pictures of the racing cycle, 'Breezing Home,' is light entertainment, well handled, but destined for nothing more than a program filler." ■] Variety (Hollywood) p3 Ja 30 '37 Twickenham BROKEN BLOSSOMS. 87min D 1 '36 Cast: Dolly Haas. Arthur Margetson. Emlyn Williams Director: Hans Brahm See issue of June 29, 1936 for other reviews of this film Audience Suitability Ratings "Objectionable in part." Nat Legion of Decency Ja 21 '37 Newspaper and Magazine Reviews "Grimly powerful drama obviously not for the oversensitive. Acting, direction and settings well above average. Adults." -f Christian Science Monitor pl5 F 27 '37 "The refilming was done with singular skill, although some of the spiritual lift caught by Griffith is missing. . . The role of the motherless waif is done with devasting and arresting horror by an exile from Germany, Dolly Haas. In the famous closet scene, with the brute Burrows beating at the door, she is terror incarnate." (2y2 stars) Beverly Hills Liberty p55 F 20 '37 "Griffith's minor masterpiece of 1919 is no masterpiece at all in this English caricature of its celebrated and, of course, exaggerated terrors, the fine work of Dolly Haas as Lucy scarcely compensating for the crudeness of the rest." Mark Van Doren — Nation pl37 Ja 30 '37 "The choice of Fraulein Haas for the part of Lucy could not have been bettered, even if Gish or Bergner had been available. . . A highly emotional and very 'depressing' picture it was, almost C61inesque in its emphasis on savagery and squalor; but — a merit remarkably rare on the screen — its speech was natural, and in both its sweet and its sadistic moments sentimentality was avoided. Moreover, the English types were convincingly English. Let us hasten to claim it as a good British picture." + New Statesman & Nation pl029 Je 27 '36 "The tear-drenched story now emerges as a maudlin romance, much over-acted, and, of course, outmoded as to both substance and treatment. . . The contents of the mid-Victorian plot are so exaggerated and sentimental all real values are lost. . . [It] is in its unique way diverting. Nary a touch of humor or line of comedy is intentionally allowed to creep into its proceedings, yet so untrue are the characterizations, so obvious the situations, that virtually a farce is the result. . . It has been handsomely photographed, its moods are contrasting, and its atmosphere good. It has not the vividness nor pace of an American picture, yet the story, told painstakingly, does not drag." Marguerite Tazelaar 1 N Y Herald Tribune pl5 Ja 14 '37 "[It is a] fine English version of 'Broken Blossoms,' which David Wark Griffith once shaped into a memorable silent film. The English producers have not forgotten that masterpiece. . . [It is] a beautifully acted version. Dolly Haas, her German accent amazingly transformed into believable cockney, gives a performance that can stand right up beside that of Lillian Gish. . . The scenes of beating are pretty strong, almost revolting in their vividness. But this is a picture that wishes neither gayety nor joy. It is a moving tragedy of horror and shattered beauty." Eileen Creelman + NY Sun p27 Ja 14 '37 "It is a pleasure to report that however ambiguous may be Mr. Williams's interpretation of the old Richard Barthelmess role — which has in it, admittedly, a certain inherent strangeness — the work of Dolly Haas, Miss Gish's successor, is a source of endless delight, even at those points where she becomes the victim of maladroit direction. . . Because of her saving presence, it is possible to forget Mr. Williams and his lingering touches, the melodramatic incidents, and the over-stylized Limehouse against which they take place — possible, but still awfully hard." B. R. C. H NY Times pl6 Ja 14 '37 "Out of the wordiness and brutality of the current film little Dolly Haas emerges as an actress of distinction, and her portrayal of the role of Lucy is every bit as memorable as that which Miss Gish gave. . . A harrowing study in sadism that is relieved only by the heroic fortitude of its little heroine, the film is studded with some lonely, jostled moments of beauty, but on the whole is a slow, monotonous and clumsily constructed offering that never quite manages to overcome its obvious melodramatics. . . I commend the film to you for Miss Haas's work and her work alone. It is a performance worth seeing." William Boehnel H N Y World-Telegram p25 Ja 14 '37 "The Dolly Haas-Emlyn Williams 'Broken Blossoms' won't replace the Barthelmess-Gish version in our hearts. It's a gruesome version. Just a bundle of sadism from the British studios." John Mosher — New Yorker p67 Ja 23 '37 Trade Paper Reviews "The artistry of Dolly Haas assures 'Broken Blossoms' an unforgettable niche in the history of the motion picture. This English Twicken + + Exceptionally Good; + Good; -j Fair; J Mediocre; —Poor; Exceptionally Poor