Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1937)

36 MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST ESPIONAGE— Continued wasted upon a poor vehicle. Mature." S Calif Council of Fed Church Women Fox W Coast Bui Mr 6 '37 "Action moves along in jaunty fashion, with enough complications to keep one interested if not highly intrigued. Adolescents, 12-16: fair; children, 8-12: too intricate a plot." H Motion Pict R pi Mr '37 "Mature." Nat Council of Jewish Women F 24 '37 "General patronage." Nat Legion of Decency Mr 4 '37 "Refreshing entertainment. Adults & young people." + Sel Motion Pict p9 Mr 1 '37 "[It is] a breezy farce. . . Bright dialogue and some amusing nonsense. Family." + Wkly Guide F 27 '37 Newspaper and Magazine Reviews "Of course, if you are caught in the sidewalk congestion on the Boulevard on Dollar Day and find yourself pushed into a picture house showing 'Espionage,' there is no reason why you should get rough and fight your way back to the street. Remain at least until you cease panting, by which time the amusing elements of this production may impress you sufficiently to lure you into sitting it through. But do not expect anything high, wide, and handsome in the way of a story." h Hollywood Spec p7 Mr 13 '37 "If you gather that 'Espionage' makes little sense, you will be right. Yet it is not a downright bad picture because the staging has something of the quality of 'Rome Express' in it; the performances of Mr. Lukas and Miss Gallian are excellent. . . Harry Rapf's production would have been improved with a clearer idea of what class picture 'Espionage' was to be fitted into." Marguerite Tazelaar h N Y Herald Tribune pl8 Mr 10 '37 "Whether 'Espionage' was deliberately fashioned as a burlesque on spy pictures or turned out to be so silly that it inadvertently became a satire, is difficult to say. But in either case it is pretty feeble entertainment. . . [It is] unimportant and rather dull." William Boehnel — NY World-Telegram p29 Mr 10 '37 Trade Paper Reviews "Here is a production that has all the best interests of Mr. Exhibitor at heart. It has a laugh-loaded script, this spy melodrama to end all spy melodramas, and a trio of hilarious performances which guarantee that the film has what it takes to make a box office success. Family." + Box Office p31 Mr 13 '37 Film Daily p3 Mr 6 '37 "The result is an hour of irresponsible makebelieve that never lags and that is never dull. It is a pity that the title gives no hint of the comedy content, for as a comedy it stands out as a top programmer that would be a real help at the wicket." + Hollywood Reporter p3 F 25 '37 + Motion Pict Daily p4 F 26 '37 "Highly entertaining in all its aspects, 'Espionage' should prove entirely satisfactory on dualers in the deluxers and is heavy enough to hold its own atop the bill in the neighborhoods. Edmund Lowe and Madge Evans make an excellent romantic team and the supporting cast comes through with a high-class exhibition of comedy." + Variety (Hollywood) p3 F 25 '37 ETERNAL MASK. Progress 71min Ja 12 '37 Cast: Peter Petersen. Mathias Wieman. Olga Tschechowa. Tom Kraa Director: Werner Hochbaum Music: Vienna Philharmonic Society Music director; Anton Profes Based on the novel of the same title by Leo Lapaire. A German dialogue film with English sub-titles made in Berne, Switzerland. "[It] is the study of a mind diseased — a sympathetic study of a young doctor who is on the verge of insanity as a result of a guilt complex he has acquired because he believes he has murdered one of his patients with his new meningitis serum." (N Y World-Telegram) Audience Suitability Ratings "Adults." Nat Legion of Decency Ja 21 '37 "Among all the films the New Year has brought to New York, one that seems most worthy of note is the Swiss production, 'The Eternal Mask.' . . It is an intelligent experiment, which demonstrates the potentialities of the motion picture. 'The Eternal Mask' will probably not gain large popularity, and may never reach the theaters in your neighborhood. . . It is, however, a picture well worth knowing about, for it may serve to prepare the way for the use of new screen techniques. In any case, there has been nothing like it on the screen before, and a true film fan will find it both interesting and important." + Scholastic p22 F 6 '37 "An extremely interesting and unusual film. [It] is remarkable in dramatizing for the screen so effectively and interestingly such a difficult subject. Recommended to the Committee on Exceptional Photoplays. Mature. Outstanding." + + Wkly Guide F 6 '37 Newspaper and Magazine Reviews "Filmed in Switzerland, told in German with superimposed English titles, this is a strange yarn for the medical-minded." (1 star) Beverly Hills Liberty p55 F 13 '37 "[It is] one of the best hospital pictures yet made in Europe and definitely an improvement over the Hollywood clinical cinema. . . 'The Eternal Mask' is an exceptionally competent screen feat of knitting psychoses and hospital routine into a picture of public interest." + + Lit Digest p24 Ja 16 '37 "[It] is an interesting study of a young doctor's mind, more mysterious before it plunges into his subconscious than after, but worthy of the closest attention throughout." Mark Van Doren + Nation p81 Ja 16 '37 " 'The Eternal Mask' is a film of fine intentions and fine execution. Its greatest merit, one that evidently bowled over the unsuspecting critics, is that rather than serving as a new vehicle for 'boy meets girl,' it really has something to say and actually confines itself to the subject in hand. . . [It] is worth seeing." + New Theatre & Film p46 Mr '37 "[It] is no ordinary motion picture. . . It is a searching and provocative study in madness that is often moving, sometimes harrowing and always enormously absorbing. . . The production itself is not faultless, but it has been acted sensitively under imaginative direction. . . The theme is rich in screen possibilities and they have been realized excitingly in a notable motion picture." Howard Barnes + NY Herald Tribune pl9 Ja 13 '37 "Made with technical skill as well as dramatic intelligence, the result is often fascinating. The story is curiously real, even when dealing with fantasy. . . 'The Eternal Mask' is + + Exceptionally Good; + Good; 4 Fair; JMediocre; — Poor; Exceptionally Poor