Picture-Play Magazine (1936)

58 THUMBNAIL "The White Angel." "The White Angel." — Warners. A companion piece to "The Story of Louis Pasteur," this newest of the biographical dramas recites raptly, reverently, the saga of Florence Nightingale. Victorian England of 1850 was shocked when this daughter of the aristocracy dedicated her life to reforming hospital conditions in London, later recruiting a band of women to accompany her to nurse the wounded in the Crimean War. She overcame prejudice with fortitude and courage; she triumphed over official red tape with fanatical devotion to duty, enduring everything with sublime abnegation until, her work recognized by the public, she was received by Queen Victoria. There the picture ends, though Miss Nightingale's work did not stop then. She opened the profession of nursing to women as we know it to-day. All this is set forth uncompromisingly. Often it is beautiful, frequently dramatic, and the sincerity and high purpose of the picture are unquestioned. Kay Francis, imbued with the spirit of the lofty undertaking, never falters in her portrait of the amazing heroine. Of course Miss Nightingale couldn't have been so sensuously beautiful, but Miss Francis can't be blamed for looking like a dream walking. "San Francisco." — MGM. A rousing melodrama in the good old style, climaxing with the earthquake and fire which destroyed San Francisco in 1906, is this lush and showy entertainment. The period and the disaster have never been approached in the many attempts that the screen has made to reproduce it. The addition of sound adds to the terror and realism as the earth yawns and buildings crumble. Preceding that we have the conventional but not unlikable story of Clark Gable, tough boss of the Earbary Coast, and Jeanette MacDonald, a choir singer who strays into Mr. Gable's "Paradise" bordello and becomes an opera star at the famous Tivoli. This to assure "The Poor Little Rich Girl." "San Francisco." you that our singing princess of the screen sings even* thing from topical songs, arias from "La Traviata" ari "Faust," to "Jerusalem" and "Nearer My God to Thee.'j And sings them all beautifully, of course. So inspiring^ in fact, that Mr. Gable is converted to spirituality t| the hymn and kneels praying in the street as his hom» | less fellow citizens vow to rebuild San Francisco. The-* is more, much more, to the picture than I have told yon But as every one will see it for its thrills and sensatio alism, no further recommendation is necessary. "The Poor Little Rich Girl." — 20th Century-Fox. ley Temple in a song-and-dance show with a mild plat 1 is just what the majority want, especially those of uf who found "Captain January" rather drab. The story commands no respect and demands little of Shirlev ent as an actress, but her singing and dancing maki passing amends. Her tap routines are marvels of precision and grace, and her songs are tuneful and cuu. '.'. seems that the current rewrite of the old story has the poor little rich girl meeting up with a small-time radii team, joining their act and making the trio a sensation— as well she might. Her father recognizes his lost daugh> ter's voice on the air and — well, that's about all. Tht story is riddled with holes and implausibilities, but it j a splendid vehicle for Shirley. "Fury." — MGM. Mob violence is dramatized whl skill and terror up to a certain point, but this widely ta claimed picture doesn't reach its goal with me. I' mers down to conventionality, a courtroom sequent ping the climax. The object of the story is to show how easily our citizens are inflamed by the desire to lynch a fellow man without a trial to determine his guilt: how they will sacrifice a life to gratify the sadism that lies ii r ' i rury.