Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1938)

PROFESSOR BEWARE— Harold Lloyd-Paramount AFTER all this time, Harold Lloyd brings forth another of his comedies and, amazingly, its humor somehow seems a little dated. This complaint is basic in the gags, some of which are bewhiskered, not in Lloyd's interpretation of them. He plays a professor who inscribes Egyptian tablets and decides at last that he is the reincarnation of the ill-fated Nefaris. There develops a police chase, because Harold gives his clothes to a tramp, and there's a girl involved. She's Phyllis Welch and nice to look at. Raymond Walburn, Lionel Stander. Sterling Holloway and Mary Lou Lender do good work in their respective parts, and, of course, production is satisfactory. Still — there's Donald Duck. • SOUTH RIDING-Korda-United Artists UON'T miss this picture, boys and girls, if you want to see some of the finest acting that ever floated down the Thames. English as tea and crumpets, Winifred Holtby's novel has been beautifully directed hy Victor Saville with very little of the original flavor lacking. The story has to do with several members of a county council and the reactions of their personal lives on their public acts. Ralph Richardson (Hollywood should grab him — but quick) is the Lord of the Manor; Edna Best, the schoolteacher who teaches him that a ruined life can be rebuilt. John Clements is the young idealist whose housing scheme for the poor precipitates a battle between a greedy contractor and the community. AV E S YOUR PICTURE TIME AND MONEY THE BEST PICTURES OF THE MONTH South Riding The Shopworn Angel Algiers Having Wonderful Time The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse Little Tough Guy Woman Against Woman BEST PERFORMANCES OF THE MONTH Ginger Rogers in "Having Wonderful Time" Charles Boyer in "Algiers" Gene Lockhart in "Algiers" Edward G. Robinson in "The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse" Marjorie Main in "Romance of the Limberlost" Jane Withers in "Keep Smiling" Virginia Bruce in "Woman Against Woman" Jimmy Stewart in "The Shopworn Angel" Margaret Sullavan in "The Shopworn Angel" Ralph Richardson in "South Riding" The "Dead End" Kids in "Little Tough Guy" Shirley Temple in "Little Miss Broadway" • THE SHOPWORN ANGEL-M-G-M METRO likes Margaret Sullavan and soldiers during war as a combination. "Three Comrades" gave her a swell chance, which she took with both hands; and now comes "The Shopworn Angel," a nut which she cracks with perfect ease. In this she plays a shallow, hard, gold-digging chorus girl who somewhere within herself finds a grain of greatness which will not let a boy's ideal die. The scene is laid at the beginning of America's participation in the World War. From all stations of life and all parts of the nation come draftees, among them a shy and imaginative cowboy. He is Jimmy Stewart — perfectly cast, of course — and he meets Margaret in New York. Walter Pidgeon, her manager, discovers he loves her through his jealousy of Jimmy; Walter proposes marriage and she accepts. Then Jimmy is called overseas, and he also begs Margaret to marry him. She knows she represents a dream to him, and that should he be killed he would die with that dream unbroken. So she complies, forcing the angry Pidgeon to wait until the cowboy's identification tag arrives. One is forced to speculate on what would have happened if Jimmy had survived — but that's not very important. Miss Sullavan does a splendid job, being vivacious, and Stewart is often brilliant. You may have a little trouble deciding whether this is a sermon against war or a glamorization (if that's a word) of war. The picture is fine drama, and definitely worth seeing. • WOMAN AGAINST WOMAN— M-G-M HERBERT MARSHALL, Virginia Bruce and Mary Astor form a sophisticated trio in this modern comedy drama. Its war cry is directed at divorce; its setting is a small town. In it Marshall, a lawyer, brings his second wife, Virginia, back to the little town where his first wife (Mary Astor) still lives. Bitterly, using her child as a weapon, Mary turns the town women against Virginia and poses as a wronged wife. It leaves the new wife with a problem on her hands, but the ending is a happy one. The whole idea is mildly dreary until the fade-out, which is somewhat saccharine, but all this is over-balanced by the restraint of Marshall, the beauty of Virginia and the fine performance of Miss Astor. LITTLE MISS BROADWAY— 20th Century-Fox LVIDENTLY, it is with pictures of this sort that Shirley Temple's studio plans to keep its valuable little star on the screen until she's eighty or thereabouts. For Shirley fans, it is a very satisfactory affair. The film provides ample scope for her talents and presents her as a true little angel. Those who have not altogether succumbed to the child, however, will have fault to find with the story in which the very minor conflict content is based on the fear that Shirley, an orphan, might have to return to the most ideal and cheery orphanage imaginable. In the beginning. Miss Temple is taken from this place where all the little girls sing and carry on, and where Jane Darwell sits clucking happily over her brood, by Edward Ellis, who runs a hotel for down-and-out vaudeville artists. Ogre Edna Mae Oliver, who owns the hotel, steps in at this point. She doesn't like the noise the artists make and threatens to evacuate everybody; also, as a kind of vicious afterthought, she gets a court order to send Shirley back to Miss Darwell's ample lap. George Murphy, Miss Oliver's nephew, comes to the rescue and provides romantic interest by falling for Phyllis Brooks. That's all there is. Of course, Murphy is given a couple of dance numbers to do and does them magnificently with Shirley keeping step. She sings several numbers in a manner that is not extraordinary for a girl of her age, but otherwise does her usual smooth job. (Continued on page 85) 53