Picture-Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1927)

A Confidential Guide to Current Releases WHAT EVERY FAN SHOULD SEE. "Beau Geste" — Paramount. A gripping film production of this unusual mystery melodrama of the French Foreign Legion. Ronald Colman, Xeil Hamilton, and Ralph Forbes score individual hits as the three devoted brothers. Entire cast excellent. "Ben=Hur" — Metro-Goldwyn. A beautiful and inspiring picture, directed with skill and originality. Ramon Novarro, in title role, gives earnest and spirited performance; Francis X. Bushman excellent as Messala; May McAvoy, Betty Bronson, Kathleen Key, and Carmel Myers all handle their roles well. "Better 'Ole, The"— Warner. Don't miss it. Syd Chaplin gives you the laugh of your life in the famous role of Old Bill, veteran Tommy who doesn't take the war too seriously. "Big Parade, The"— Metro-Goldwyn. Grippingly realistic war picture. Story of three tired, dirty doughboys, one of whom is John Gilbert, who falls in love with a French girl, played remarkably well by Renee Adoree. "Don Juan" — Warner. Beaut}', action, and excitement are combined to make a splendid film version of this old tale. John Barrymore gives skilled performance. Mary Astor, Estelle Taylor, and entire cast well chosen. "Faust" — Metro-Goldwyn. Beautiful film. Superbly directed and convincingly acted. Well-chosen cast, with Emil Jannings making a robust but malignant Mephisto. "Fire Brigade, The"— Metro-Goldwyn. A real thriller about firemen and fires. Don't miss it. Charlie Ray is his old, lovable self as a boy fireman in love with a millionaire's daughter — May McAvoy. "Kid Brother, The"— Paramount. Another big hit for Harold Lloyd. Ingenious comedy of browbeatei. 3rounger brother who turns out to be the hero of the village, and wins the girl, Jobyna Ralston. "Les Miserables"-^Universal. A clear and graphic film presentation of this great novel, with moments of beautiful acting b}' its very good cast of French players. "Old Ironsides" — Paramount. Magnificent historical film featuring the frigate Constitution and manj sea battles. Esther Ralston and Charles Farrell furnish the love interest, Wallace Beery and George Bancroft the comedy. "Rough Riders, The"— Paramount. Interesting picture built round Theodore Roosevelt's part in the SpanishAmerican War, and interwoven with the simple, human love story of a girl and two soldiers — Mary Astor, Charles Emmett Mack, and Charles Farrell. "Scarlet Letter, The"— Metro-Goldwyn. Outstanding for the surprisingly fine performance of Lillian Gish and the magnetism of Lars Hanson. A sympathetic and dignified, though not entirely faithful, treatment of Hawthorne's novel. "Sljde, Kelly, Slide"— Metro-Goldwyn. Corking baseball picture, featuring W illiam Haines as a wise-cracking Yankee recruit, with Sally O'Xeil as the girl who helps to take him down several pegs. "Stark Love" — Paramount. Unusual film that was produced in the mountains of Xorth Carolina, with the mountaineers themselves enacting the simple but intensely interesting story. "Varietj" — Paramount. The muchheralded German picture dealing with the triangular relations between three trapeze performers — a girl and_ two men. Terrifically gripping. Emil Jannings. Lya de Putti and Warwick Ward give inspired performances. "We're in the Navy Now"— Paramount. Uproarious comedy, with Wallace Beery and Ra3-mond Hatton as a couple of rookies in the navy by accident. "What Price Glory"— Fox. Swift, engrossing film version of the unusual war play. Racy story of the rivalry between a captain and a sergeant over a French girl. Edmund Lowe, Victor McLaglen, and Dolores del Rio. '♦^ FOR SECOND CHOICE. "Affair of the Follies, An"— First National. Film of a dancer who is sought by a rich man, but marries a poor clerk, with ensuing quarrels and. misunderstandings. Billie Dove, Lloyd Hughes, and Lewis Stone. "AH Aboard"— First Xational. Fast Johnny Hines comedy of an acrobatic shoe clerk who somehow lands in the Arabian desert and saves the heroine, Edna Murphy, from a sheik. "Blonde or Brunette" — Paramount. Sly farce at its best. Adolphe Menjou as a jaded Parisian bachelor who becomes involved between a blonde and a brunette. Greta Xissen and Arlette Marchal. "Casey at the Bat" — Paramount. Wallace Beery in amusing film of baseball in the '90s, with Zasu Pitts as the home-town milliner who wins the heart of our hero. "Chang" — Paramount. Thrilling animal picture photographed in the jungles of Siam and showing the actual struggle of a native family against the onslaughts of the wilderness. "Children of Divorce" — Paramount. A high-society film dealing with the unhapp}' lives of three children of divorced couples. Lots of plot and excellent cast, headed by Esther Ralston, Clara Bow, and Gary Cooper. "Corporal Kate" — Producers Distributing. Vera Reynolds and Julia Faye, an Irish and a Jewish manicurist, join the war as entertainers. Comedy and tragedy mixed. "Easy Pickings" — First Xational. Mystery film, with Anna Q. Xilsson in role of a "boy" crook who turns out to be a long-missing heiress. Kenneth Harlan is the gentleman hero. "Evening Clothes" — Paramount. Adolphe Menjou in mildly diverting story of a bankrupt Parisian boulevardier who, when his creditors permit him to keep one suit of clothes, chooses evening dress. Virginia Valli and Louise Brooks. "Fashions for Women" — Paramount. Gay Parisian farce revealing Esther Ralston in a dual role and an array of beautiful clothes. Einar Hansen and Raymond Hatton. "Flesh and the Devil"— Metro-Goldwyn. John Gilbert, Greta Garbo, and Lars Hanson in a striking film of two lifelong friends who are incited against each other by a scheming, unscrupulous siren. "For Wives Only"— Producers Distributing. Marie Prevost in a giddy light comed}^ of a young Viennese wife who skates on thin ice. Victor Varconi is the husband. "Fourth Commandment, The" — Universal. Good hokum, with Mary Carr and Belle Bennett both present to keep the tears rolling. Deals with the dire influence of too much sweetness in a mother-in-law. "Frisco Sally Levy" — Metro-Goldwyn. Sally O'Xeil in amusing comedy featuring the intimate home life of a family headed by an Irish mother and a Jewish father. "Getting Gertie's Garter" — Producers Distributing. Slim but harmless farce, featuring Marie Prevost's frantic efforts to return to Charles Ray the bejeweled garter he gave her before he became engaged to another. "Hills of Kentucky"— Warner. RinTin-Tin again in a film well worth seeing. Tale of wild dog tamed by a child's kindness. Dorothy Dwan and Jason Robards. "It" — Paramount. Clara Bow makes entertaining this film of an impudent shopgirl who cops the owner of the store, Antonio Moreno, in spite of a ritz} rival. "Jim the Conqueror" — Producers Distributing. Featuring a feud between the cattlemen and the sheepmen, with William Bo3'd and Elinor Fair aligned against each other. "Kiss in a Taxi, A" — Paramount. Bebe Daniels excellent in lively farce of a hot-tempered waitress in a Paris cafe, who rebuffs all comers until Douglas Gilmore steps onto the scene. "Knock=out Reilh" — Paramount. Richard Dix in an exciting fight film — his best picture in 3-ears. Cast includes Jack Renault, the professional heav3-weight, and Maor Brian. "Let It Rain" — Paramount. Douglas MacLean in good-humored comedy built on the prankish rivalry between the sailors and marines aboard a battleship. Shirley Mason is the girl. "Little Journey, A" — Metro-Goldwyn. A Pullman-car romance betv/een a boy and girl who meet on a trip to California. William Haines and Claire Windsor. [Continued on page 116]