Picture-Play Magazine (1933)

The Screen in Review 57 sister loves another man, but in some minds the thought will persist that Paddy was looking out for herself. Miss Gaynor plays her role with skill and manages to win forgiveness for the shortcomings of the character, but it is Walter Connolly whose substantial talent is responsible for the finest acting in the piece. As Paddy's debt-ridden father he has a scene with his creditors that is a gem and his death is splendidly, if sentimentally, done. Fans who are satisfied with the pairing of Warner Baxter with Miss Gaynor will applaud his skill in making the most of a secondary role. "The Rebel." Luis Trenker, Yilma Banky, Victor Varconi. Director : Luis Trenker. Sublimely beautiful views of the Alps make this an outstanding visual feast, but alas and alack, there is little else to justify it. Except, of course, the opportunity to glimpse once more the beauty of Vilma Banky and to see, for old times' sake, Victor Varconi and to recall with regret their finer performances in Hollywood. For this was made entirely in Europe and reflects the faults of recording and photography often found in foreign films. It is a costume picture which deals with an episode in Napoleon's attempted conquest of Europe. The story is commonplace until the rebelmartyr-hero leads his countrymen in a furious assault upon the French invaders. They dislodge great portions of the mountainside, tons of rock and earth hurtling onto the defenseless troops below. This is a genuine physical thrill, except that you fear the beauty of the Alps may be permanently marred. Luis Trenker wrote and directed the film and he plays the hero as well, which manifold activity augurs no good to any artistic undertaking. "Her Bodyguard." Wynne Gibson, Edmund Lowe, Edward Arnold, Johnny Hines, Marjnrie White, Alan Dinehart, Louise Beavers, Arthur Housman, Fuzzy Knight. Director: William Beaudine. Wynne Gibson is a stage star admired by two men responsible for her success, Edward Arnold and Alan Dinehart. Mr. Arnold hires a bodyguard ostensibly to protect the jewels she insists on wearing, but really to keep his rival, Mr. Dinehart. at arm's length from her. Miss Gibson betrays both men by falling in love with her private policeman played by Edmund Lowe. And there you have the skeleton of a funny, robust comedy with melodramatic relief. It is worth seeing if you are tired of the lilies and languors and drawing-room subtleties of neurotic heroines. Here all is straight to the point, with a bang thrown in to make it doublv effective. Miss Gibson gives an excellent performance in the best role she has had in the memory of her admirers, and Mr. Lowe is hard-boiled and wisecracking in his best manner, while of course Mr. Arnold, fine actor that he is, doesn't miss his opportunities. Johnny Hines is laughable as a fabulous press agent and Marjorie White all but runs away with the picture on the strength of a rollicking performance as a brassy-voiced soubrette. "Voltaire." George Arliss, Doris Kenyon, Reginald Owen, Alan Mowbray, Margaret Lindsay, Theodore Newton, Murray Kinnell. Director: John Adolfi. As it stands on the screen, there is no reason for this except to provide another pseudo-historical character for George Arliss to play against a very conventional background of costume melodrama, stagy, stuffy, unreal. But when I heard a woman spectator say "I like to see something nice like this," it occurred to me that there probably are thousands of others who, knowing nothing about the actual Voltaire, certainly know what they like in make-believe. And there's no getting away from it. the picture is nice. Voltaire is a nice old gentleman given to pranks and antics, whose chief interest is protecting the orphaned daughter of a nobleman from the machinations of the king's advisers and winning the support of the royal mistress. It seems that somewhere I have read about a very different Voltaire, philosopher, sage, and scoundrel. But anyhow, the picture is handsomely mounted for those who like spectacle. Satins gleam, plumes nod, tall pyramids of candles blink in golden sconces, the king exclaims "Parbleu!" — French for "zounds" — every now and then, and Doris Kenyon is precisely pretty as an effigy of Madame Pompadour. "Mary Stevens, M. D." Kay Francis, Lyle Talbot, Glenda Farrell. Thelma Todd, George Cooper, Una O'Connor, Charles Wilson. Director: Lloyd Bacon. What actress is easier to look at, to listen to and is more easily comprehensible than Kay Francis? Not that she is humdrum or lacking in glamour, but she is normal, unaffected, and womanly, virtues not to be lightlv regarded in her artificial calling. From which you may gather that I am all for Miss Francis. Anyway, she has a nice picture that brings out precisely these qualities as pleasingly as she does. It builds up in interest and has exceptionally good dialogue, crisp, natural, and dramatic. Miss Francis is, as you might suspect, a doctor in love with a surgeon who is married and who is vaguely mixed up in politics as well. Miss Francis's struggle is to reconcile her career with the promptings of her heart. Like most modern heroines, she tries motherhood before marriage in anticipation of the divorce her Continued on page 62 9SBNHBHHBHMOI