Picturegoer (1934)

^CTUREGOER Weekly fill' March 3, 1934 Let Our Film Critics Who Really See The Pictures Guide You Frank McHugh and Hugh Herbert. If you cannot laugh at them and with them, there's something wrong with you — or with me. There are a few feet of film I would have cut out had I been Warner Bros, (or the Censor). It is a pity that one is forced to grimace even for a moment during this fine entertainment. — M.B. Y. The Big Shakedown America is determined, apparently, to stick to her racketeers. The beer racket is a thing of the past, but in this picture we are introduced to a new one — the drug racket. This consists in making imitations of well known proprietary commodities and underselling the genuine article. The racketeers, too, have the same pleasant little habit they had in the beer business of forcing chemists to buy large stocks. How all this is possible I do not know; the law must be singularly lax, for I am assured that the game has been operated. In this picture the drug racketeer is played by Ricardo Cortez, who gets a young chemist to fake various toothpaste and toilet commodities. But when he starts asking him to imitate a famous antiseptic, and digitalis, a powerful heart stimulant, the chemist rebels. The racketeer thereupon frames him in the shooting of a rather importunate mistress who had been giving his game away. The chemist is forced to go on with the fraud until at last his wife nearly dies in child-birth through being given the faked digitalis; as it is, the baby has to be sacrificed. The chemist goes gunning for the racketeer, but finds another has been before him. So he throws the body into a convenient vat of sulphuric acid which dissolves it and eliminates all traces of the crime. He then hands the rest of the gang over to the police and being freed himself starts again, as the synopsis somewhat naively puts it "with an honest drug store." It is all rather tedious and slow in development and one is never really convinced by the characters or the plot. Continuity is scrappy. The comedy moments are, however, good and there is a sprinkling of wisecracks which will give you a laugh now and then. It is a pity to see an actor of Ricardo Cortez' ability being given such a thankless role as that of the racketeer, but he makes the most of it and displays that polish and easy naturalness which always distinguishes him. Perhaps some company will give him another break like The Melody of Life one of these days. Bette Davis has little to do but look attractive as an inglnue, the wife of the chemist, which latter role Charles Farrell plays competently but not remarkably. Glenda Farrell is very good in the small role of the ex-mistress who is so unceremoniously "bumped off," while Allen Jenkins is excellent as the racketeer's lieutenant. — L. C. I Am Suzanne Since his declaration of independence something like a year ago, Mr. Jesse L. Lasky has become one of our most original and individualistic producers, and here again he turns in a picture that is charmingly "different." / Am Suzanne possesses the merits of novelty, fine craftsmanship in construction, an agreeable, if leisurely, story and, by no means least important, a good Lilian Harvey r61e. It is, moreover, a very pleasing antidote to the convention in plots which has in the past few months caused us to experience the symptoms of acute movie indigestion at the mere mention of the words " back stage." Although the story is set in the theatre, no capering chorines blossom overnight into Broadway sensations, no pale young crooners turn up to "save the show" at the last minute, and no "spectacular" ensembles form themselves into flower patterns for the purpose of holding up the action interminably. Novelty is provided by the introduction of the famous Piccoli Marionettes and the Yale Pupetteers in support of the human players. "Suzanne," played by Miss Harvey, is a successful Parisian dancer who is managed by an engagingly unscrupulous bogus Baron and his mistress. She meets Tony, a boy marionette impresario, and their friendship so disturbs the Baron that in order to preserve his " meal ticket he proposes marriage to her and by skilfully arousing her sympathy wins her consent. Then Suzanne crashes in her tight-rope act one night and breaks her leg. Forsaken by her manager who believes her career is over, she is nursed to health by Tony and his family. Here we are initiated into the strange backstage life of the Marionette people and made to feel as if we know the members of this ancient and hereditary craft whose lives are bound up with their puppets intimately. The exhibitions of the dolls, too, staged on an elaborate scale are always interesting, and almost overcome preconceived convictions that the movies are not a good medium for marionettes. The effectiveness of the picture lies largely in the moderation with which all its points of appeal have been accomplished. Its delightful moments of phantasy are never overdone and the sentiment never overstressed. Mr. Lasky and Director Rowland V. Lee have succeeded, too, where her other Hollywood directors have failed, in creating the right mood for the exploitation of Lilian Harvey's elfin personality and she is better here than in anything I have seen her since Congress Dances. The role, of course, gives her scope to demonstrate her dancing ability and in one adagio number she takes a tossing that would horrify anv other star in films to-day. The acting honours, however, are all but stolen by Leslie Banks, who brilliantly contrives to make the Baron both the villain and the comedian of the piece, and certainly the most interesting character. Another fine piece of acting comes from Georgia Caine, an artiste I cannot recall having seen on the screen before, in the role of the mistress. The photography is by Lee Garmes. — M.D.P. Easy To Love Here is a very good example of the way in which farce should be put over. There is not a great deal in the plot, but the director, William Keighley, has seen to it that the action keeps moving, and that there are no long dull patches of dialogue. It might perhaps have avoided stage conventions a little more rigorously but generally the camera work is good and avoids giving a cramped theatrical effect. The cast is an exceptionally strong one. While it does not contain names which scintillate in the big lights, the artistes are drawn from the ranks of those who really form the backbone of most screen entertainments. There is Adolphe Menjou, as serene and debonair as ever in the role of a husband who neglects his wife for polo. At least that is what he says. "Polo" is actually a very attractive brunette equally attractively played by Mary Astor. The wife, excellently presented by that brilliant artiste, Genevieve Tobin — who is another of those on whom the limelight does not shine sufficiently often — employs a detective to watch her husband. Hugh Herbert is the sleuth so you can imagine that the role has plenty of humour. Having discovered the worst, the wife proceeds to pretend to be in love with her husband's best friend, Eric, who is none other than the inimitable Edward Everett Horton. The hitherto happily married pair drift apart, much to the disappointment of the daughter, charmingly played by Patricia Ellis, who has always looked on their marriage as an ideal one and held it up as a pattern to her fiance1 (Paul Kaye). This pair shock the estranged couple into a reconciliation by running away to a hotel and telling them they are going to live together, Paul Muni and Glenda Farrell both score in "Hi, Nellie!" since marriage is obviously a disastrous affair. They are followed by the outraged parents who find them in bed and insist on sending out at once for a justice of the peace to marry them . (Our old friend Guy Kibbee makes of this small part a clever little character study.) The runaway couple agree to marry if the p arents will re-unite. A promise having been obtained, they disclose the fact that they were married the day before. The dialogue is extremely witty and at times daring, but the thin ice is skilfully skated over and there are no offensive vulgarities. The general atmosphere is sophisticated and piquant. — L. C. Sleepers East There is little left of the original story by Frederick Nebel in this adaptation of it, so if you have read the novel you must be prepared to be disappointed. If vou have not, you will find it quite good entertainment, rather slow in starting, but working up a soundly exciting climax. The plot deals with a woman convict on parole who gets involved in a shooting affair and runs away. A gangster is arrested for the crime, but actually it was committed by the son of the mayor. The gangster's attorney sets out to find the missing witness and bring her back, while the other side do all they can to prevent her getting into court. A romantic note is introduced by the woman meeting her girlhood lover on the train which is taking her back as the all-important witness. There is plenty of excitement since the train crashes and the lover is shot and wounded whilst attempting to escape with the woman. Also the counter-intrigues between the gangster's attorney and a private detective in the pay of the mayor are ingeniously worked out. The woman is finally brought to the trial — the court scenes, by the way, are some of the most convincing I have seen in American pictures — and forced to give evidence. I will not spoil the denouement for you by telling what actually happens except that it provides a good, exciting climax. Train sequences — quite a lot of footage is taken up by the transport of the witness to the court — are very well done, as is the actual smash in which the engine driver is killed. He, by the way, is made quite a character and his little story is interesting in itself. He is doing his last run before retirement and has been given an old engine which he is determined to bring in on schedule or "bust" its boilers. Actually in the book the latter is what does happen and I think it much more effective than the collision which takes place in the film. Wynne Gibson gives a noteworthy study of the unfortunate woman who gets innocently involved in criminal proceedings. She has a wide range of expression and the power of making you believe in the character she is portraying as well as enlisting sympathy for it. Preston Foster is very good as her lover and an excellent study of an unscrupulous private detective is given by J. Carrol Naish. Harvey Stephens is natural and engaging as the gangster's attorney. Roger Imhof makes an interesting little character study of the old engine driver. — L. C. 17