Picture-Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1928)

61 A Confidential Guide to Current Releases WHAT EVERY FAN SHOULD SEE. "Beau Qeste" — Paramount. A gripping film production of this unusual mystery melodrama of the French Foreign Legion. Ronald Colman, Neil 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. "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. "Cat and the Canary, The"— Universal. One of the best mystery stories yet filmed. Very spooky and exciting. Excellent cast, including Laura La Plante and Creighton Hale. "Garden of Allah, The"— MetroGoldwyn. Alice Terry and Ivan Petrovich in poetic film version of this famous story of Trappist monk who forsakes his monastery, meets a young Englishwoman in the desert, and marries her without revealing his identity. "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. "Seventh Heaven"— Fox. Tale of a Parisian waif whose first taste of happiness is snatched from her when her hero, a sewer worker, is swept off to war just as they are about to be married. Admirable performances by Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. "Slide, Kelly, Slide"— Metro-Goldwyn. Corking baseball picture, featuring William Haines as a wise-cracking Yankee recruit, with Sally O'Neil as the girl who helps to take him down several pegs. "Stark Love"— Paramount. Unusual film that was produced in the mountains of North Carolina, with the mountaineers themselves enacting the simple but intensely interesting story. "Sunrise"— Fox. One of the best of the season. Skillfully directed tale of a farmer, his wife and a city vamp. George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, and Margaret Livingston. "Way of All Flesh, The"— Paramount. Emil Jannings' first American film. Simple, human story revealing the star at his be?t in a tragically pathetic role. Belle Bennett, Phyllis Haver, and Donald Keith. "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. "Adam and Evil" — Metro-Goldwyn. Lew Cody and Aileen Pringle in amusing domestic farce of the complications stirred up between a bored married couple by the unexpected arrival of the husband's t.vin brother. "Angel of Broadway, The"— PatheDeMille. Excellent picture of entertainer in rowdy cabaret who tries to mock the Salvation Army, but is eventually reformed. Leatrice Joy and Victor Varconi. "Back to God's Country"— Universal. Renee Adoree in thrilling tale of trapper's daughter rescued from the villain by a handsome young engineer — Robert Frazer. "Barbed Wire" — Paramount: Pola Negri and Clive Brook in unique war drama of French peasant girl who falls in love with a German prisoner and is shunned by her fellow townsmen. "Callahans and the Murphys, The"— Metro-Goldwyn. Entertaining sure-fire film of Irish brawls and reconciliations, notable chiefly for the comedy of Marie Dressier and Polly Moran. "Camille"— First National. Norma Talmadge lovely in unconvincing modern version of Dumas' tragic love tale. Gilbert Roland shines in romantic role of Armand. "Captain Salvation" — Metro-Goldwyn. Somber film of religious bigotry in New England of the '40s, and subsequent sinister happenings on board a convict ship. Lars Hanson, Pauline Starke, and Marceline Day. "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. "College"— United Artists. Buster Keaton in amusing college comedy of awkward bookworm who, to impress his girl, strives vainly to become an athlete. "Desired Woman, The"— Warner. Another of those desert films. Irene Rich in role of titled Englishwoman at British army post whose cruel, jealous husband sends on a perilous mission any man who dares look at her. "Drop Kick, The"— First National. Richard Barthelmess in melodramatic college film of young student who becomes dangerously mixed up with a scheming vamp. "East Side, West Side"— Fox. Excellent film of a boy prize fighter whose ambition to become an engi neer leads him away from his Bowery sweetheart and into the life of a treacherous society girl. George O'Brien and Virginia Valli. "Fighting Eagle, The"— Pathe-DeMille. Rod La Rocque in excellent role of patriotic French country youth in the service of Napoleon whose affair with the emperor's spy, Phyllis Haver, gets him into trouble. "First Auto, The"— Warner. Melodrama, laid in the '90s, of a father's estrangement from his son because of the son's ardor for the newly invented horseless carriage. Charles Emmett Mack and Patsy Ruth Miller. "Forbidden Woman. The"— PatheDeMille. Engrossing film of lady spy and her machinations. _ Full of suspense and exciting complications. Jetta Goudal, Victor Varconi and Joseph Schildkraut. "Gay Retreat, The"— Fox. Entertaining war comedy featuring Sammy Cohen and Ted McNamara as two doughboys who go through all sorts of idiotic nonsense but eventually emerge as heroes. "Gentleman of Paris, A"— Paramount. Adolphe Menjou at his best in delicately acted French farce of a philanderer who is discovered by his valet to be having an affair with the valet's wife. "High School Hero, The"— Fox. Gay comedy of high-school life, featuring youngsters who really look like highschool girls and boys. Nick Stuart and Sally Phipps. ' "Hula" — Paramount. Clara Bow, in thin story of Hawaii, is the wild daughter of a rich planter who sets her cap for a cold, reticent irrigation expert — Clive Brook — and gets him. "Jazz Singer, The"— Warner. Vitaphone picture, featuring Al Jolson and his voice, also May McAvoy. Story of Jewish cantor's son who is disowned for going into musical comedy, but eventually returns to take his dead father's place in the synagogue. "Jesse James" — Paramount. Fred Thomson in glorified chronicle of the life of the famous bandit. Full of thrills and suspense. "Judgment of the Hills"— F. B. O. Strong, simple tale of a hard-fisted mountaineer who is afraid to go to war, but eventually becorhes a hero. Orville Caldwell and Virginia Valli. "King of Kings, The"— Producers Distributing. Sincere and reverent visualization of the last three years in the life of Christ. H. B. Warner dignified and restrained in central role. Cast includes Jacqueline Logan, Joseph Schildkraut, Victor Varconi, and Rudolph Schildkraut. "Loves of Carmen" — Fox. Robust and entertaining, but not much like the original "Carmen." Dolores del Rio is the ragamuffin gypsy heroine, Don Alvarado her soldier lover, and Victor McLaglen the toreador who comes between them. > (Continued on page 117)