Picture Play Magazine (Jul - Dec 1929)

.\l)\ IK l [SING Mi l ION 119 E. Jackson and Paul Porcasi 01 stage cast, Evelyn Brent, Glenn Tryon, Robert Ellis, Leslie Kenton, Arthur H man, Merna Kennedy. "Fox Movietone Follies of 1929"— Fox. All dialogue and song. Pageantry of colorful revue, with wisp of story, and all the ingredients of a stage show, except a certain cleverness. Many well-known faces, including Site Carol, David Rollins, Stepin Fetchit, Sharon Lynn. "Innocents of Paris" — Paramount. Dialogue and singing. Debut Maurice Chevalier, French stage star of unique personality due for merited success in another picture. Shoddy story of waif befriended by junkman and hitter's rise to fame on stage. Astonishing performance by child, David Durand. Sylvia Beecher and Margaret Livingston. "Bridge of San Luis Rey, The"— Metro-Goldwyn. Part dialogue. Story of notable novel, faithfully brought to screen, with reverence and pictorial beauty. Frustrated, unhappy lives of five characters end with collapse of ancient Peruvian bridge. Lily Damita, Raquel Torres, Duncan Rinaldo, Don Alvarado, Emily Fitzroy, Henry B. Walthall, and Ernest Torrence. "Desert Song, The"— Warner. All dialogue and singing. First operetta to reach screen, with solos, duets, and choruses of stage representation. Silly story, but no fault of screen's telling of it, but whole thing too long, therefore tedious. John Boles, Carlotta King, Louise Fazenda, Myrna Loy, John Miljan, and Johnny Arthur. "Not Quite Decent"— Fox. Part dialogue. Hard-boiled night-club queen discovers long-lost daughter as chorus girl listening to temptations of villain, so she exposes serpent to girl in great, big scene of simulated drunkenness and toughness. Theatric, unconvincing, but tolerably interesting. Louise Dresser, June Collyer, Paul Nicholson, and Allan Lane. "Show Boat" — Universal. Part dialogue. Life aboard a river theater traced on a wide canvas. Stirring musical accompaniment, but well-known story does not gain in film version. Laura La Plante, Joseph Schildkraut, Emily Fitzroy, Alma Rubens good. "His Captive Woman"— First National. Part dialogue. Dorothy Mackaill at her best, opposite Milton Sills. Silent episodes on charming island, where love blossoms. Murder trial with surprising sentence. Beautiful photography, excellent acting. "Christina" — Fox. Silent. Quaint, pretty, though sirupy, picture, with Janet Gaynor as Dutch girl, and Charles Morton her circus sweetheart. Troubled love, but certain to turn out right from the first. Rudolph Schildkraut, Lucy Dorraine. "Lady of the Pavements" — United Artists. Old screen friends in new trappings, but familiar situations. A haughty countess, Jetta Goudal, spurned by her fiance, counters by making him fall in love with a cafe girl, Lupe Velez, picked up and made a lady overnight. The affair gets out of hand, the girl flees, and the lover follows. William Boyd is the man. Lupe sings and sings. "Noah's Ark" — Warner. A spectacle of more eye than ear interest, unsurpassed in its Deluge scene. Modern se quences culminating in a hopeless tangli in the World War, which Fadi the biblical sequences, where the same characters appear. O'Brien, Dolores Costello, Guinn Williams, Noah Beery. Romantic, poof .-inn's untirinnocenl country "River, The"— Fox. etic, and slow picture effort to win an lesn't know what it ai about. .Ma: nificenl backgrounds " est and stream and besl acting of Charles Farrell's career. Mary Duncan unusual as persevering siren finally sublimated 1>\ love. *'... RECOMMENDED— WITH RESERVATIONS. "Fast Life"— First National. All dialogue. A hollow story, topheavy with theatrics and bombastic talking. Melodramatic situation in which the governor's son, Chester Morris, hesitates to confess a murder and save his friend's life. Other players John St. Polis, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Loretta Young. "Melody Lane" — Universal. Songs and dialogue. This feeble imitation of "The Singing Fool" is the vehicle for much crooning after the manner of a past age and an old-fashioned story. Eddie Leonard, Huntly Gordon, Josephine Dunn. A baby girl is the inspiration of the singing. "Twin Beds"— First National. All dialogue. A moth-eaten farce in which an inebriated stranger wanders into the bride's bedroom and things have to be explained before happiness sets in. Patsy Ruth Miller is charming as the bride. Jack Mulhall, Armand Kaliz, Gertrude Astor, Zazu Pitts. "Thunder" — Metro-Goldwyn. Silent. The trials of a veteran engineer who suffers from a schedule complex are portrayed by Lon Chaney. The climax comes with hauling a relief train to flood sufferv.'s over a submerged track. Too much detail. James Murray fine. Phyllis Haver and George Duryea. "Wheel of Life, The"— Paramount. All dialogue. Action revolves slowly, and by coincidence. Heavy efforts to dodge love in India, that hotbed of romance, until a stray bullet paves the way. Richard Dix a very un-English Englishman, and Esther Ralston does not gain by speeech. "Drag" — First National. All dialogue. Richard Barthclmess at low ebb, in story about a country newspaper editor whose in-laws are a "drag" to his career, until he finally returns to the city and his first love. Alice Day, Lila Lee, Lucien Littlefield, and Tom Dugan. "Father and Son" — Columbia. All dialogue. Artificial plot and dialogue, the sweet, sweet palship of father and .-on all hut wrecked by fortune-hunting stepmother. A homemade phonograph record saves the day. Jack Holt, Micky McHan, Dorothy Revier, Wheeler Oakman. "Idle Rich, The"— Metro-Goldwyn. All dialogue. Story of conflict between young millionaire and his stenographerwife's poor family, in realistic comedy. Poor recording and photography, but good acting. Bessie Love, Conrad Nagel, Leila Hyams, Robert Oher. lames Xeil, Edythe Chapman, Paul Knu er. Kenneth Gibson. 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