Picture Play Magazine (Jul - Dec 1929)

64 "The Last of Mrs. Cheyney." "Smiling Irish Eyes." The Screen in ReVievtf Backstage At Its Best. It is not exactly a new story that you will see in "The Dance of Life," but you will see it better clone than ever before, and the picture in its entirety will rank with the finest of the new season. Faithfully adapted from the play "Burlesque," it tells the story of a tender-hearted little dancer who sticks through thick and thin to her husband, a likable though worthless clown, whose dumbness she overlooks and whose unintentional cruelty she forgives. All this yields a series of brilliant character studies sharply etched against the background of a cheap burlesque show and the screen's most gorgeous and authentic representation of the "Follies." In short, this is a picture to miss at your peril, for it will take its place among the lasting successes. Intimate, revealing, on the screen, it is hardly fair to reduce the story to bare words. They could not do justice to the appeal of the characters. This lies in their dialogue which deftly, completely, uncovers their thoughts and emotions and causes the spectator to share their viewpoint amazingly. The picture has the rare and precious quality of awakening sympathy for every character. The weakness of Skid, the clown, in neglecting Bonny, his wife, with his first taste of success on Broadway, is made to seem a lovable weakness for which you cannot reproach him, because you know what manner of man he is. Nor do you resent Bonny's return to him on the eve of her marriage to a good man as merely the striving for a happy ending, for you know that it is what a girl like Bonny would do in real life. Flal Skelly, who played Skid on the stage, undertakes the same role on the screen and acquits himself with glory. As for Nancy Carroll — well, I don't know where she is headed for unless it be among the immortals of the screen, if there are any. She is a superb Bonny. Of all the singing actresses, she alone can best express heartbreak while raising her voice in joyous song. Dorothy Revier. as a "Follies" vamp, is excellent, together with every one else in the cast. The Great Garbo. One of the most brilliantly searching moments of acting ever seen in my fifteen years' observation of the screen occurs in "The Single Standard." It is furnished by Greta Garbo. She washes her hands, then her hair. Ah, but what is not back of this simple act, and who could make it mean more ? Even echo is silent. Miss Garbo stands on a pinnacle, alone. Only she could make the story matter, or give it even ephemeral conviction, for it is a shallow, pretentious flirtation with the subject of a woman's right to live her life with the freedom enjoyed by a man. It proves nothing except that in an emotional extremity a little child shall lead them. Beginning with her love affair with an English nobleman disguised as a chauffeur, who commits suicide, to avoid scandal for them both, Ardcn Stuart, the girl who would live freely and fully, meets Packy Cannon. Ex-pugilist, artist, sailor, he captivates her and she embarks on a lengthy cruise with him. Comes the fateful day when Packy thinks that enough is plenty, so he orders his ship back to San Francisco. It is then that Ardcn, stunned and crushed, stumbles into her cabin and abstractedly washes her hands and then, crazily, her hair as if to cleanse herself of the torture that consumes her. Again in her old surroundings, Arden marries a suitor who has faithfully loved her in spite of the lune de micl without benefit of clergy. Three years later Packy, haunted by the girl he can't forget, comes to take her away and Ardcn is all for going, until she is suddenly made aware that her little son shall be the man in her life from then on. How she comes to this conclusion is melodramatically set forth, but Miss Garbo succeeds completely in rising above the theatrics of the exhibit and exposes a soul in torment. Her performance throughout is something to treasure, while the meretriciousness of the story and the glitter of the backgrounds will further insure the success of the picture, particularly with feminine free spirits who see themselves in Ardcn. Nils Asther is Packy. I thought him fine. John Mack Brown is the husband with a problem. Most people think him fine, too. Others are Lane Chandler, Dorothy Sebastian, Robert Castle, and the invaluable Kathlyn Williams.