Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

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61 /hE>g\?iew A critical summary of the new pictures, with guide posts pointing to the high road and the low, not forgetting the path between. her loss of the only man she ever loved. There is always such a man in the life of ladies like Diana, and such a great love is essential to a story about them, in order to pave the way for the noble sacrifice they make before we are asked to believe that death further ennobles them. If you read "The Green Hat" you know the story. It is rather closely adhered to in the film. But if there is any doubt in your mind why Iris March's husband, Boy, committed suicide on their honeymoon — "For purity," as she cryptically put it — you ought to see the picture to clear up the mystery. He becomes David and dies "for decency" as a pair of handcuffs are about to fulfill their destiny. But Diana is just as cryptic about his decency as Iris was about Boy's purity, so even in evading the issue the film, paradoxically, is faithful to the original. If one has any patience with heroines of this ilk, it must be admitted that Greta Garbo plays them better than any one else. She can look neurotic without being funny. The scene of her real bril Dol liance occurs when Diana is ill and semidelirious in a Paris hospital. In assuming the role of Neville, the pseudo-hero of the piece, John Gilbert's gallantry is far more tangible than that of Diana, for he sacrifices himself to support Miss Garbo. The role is merely that of a leading man and not calculated to arouse sympathy, either. When Neville meekly follows his father into the latter's study, there to agree to jilt Diana, Mr. Gilbert plays a losing game. His subsequent marriage to Constance is a further step downward, so far as common sympathy is concerned. Well-known players in the cast are Lewis Stone, Hobart Bosworth, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Dorothy Sebastian, and John Mack Brown. No, Diana's close-fitting felt hats are not tinted green, but the Hispano-Suiza name plate has a spotlight trained on it, so Michael Arlen should worry. A Domestic Medusa. Whatever the rest of the month may yield in noteworthy pictures, "Craig's Wife" must hold its own as one of the best. This character study of a woman whose passion is bossing her home and every one in it is not thrilling — it is absorbing. Her domineering is accomplished with gentle firmness and even charm, for she is what is technically known as a lady. Her husband is a man of means and their home is one of tasteful completeness. But Mrs. Craig will not permit roses in the living room, because she cannot bear the dropping of petals on the floor, even when the roses are brought to her mother-in-law, a reluctant visitor, who knows that Mrs. Craig did not really marry a husband, but a home. Every movement of the servants and every thought, almost, of her husband are "managed" by Mrs. Craig. She attempts to manage her younger sister's love affair but fails, and through her heedless interference causes her husband to spend a night in jail, nearly causing him to be implicated in a murder. The Photo toy Ball ores del Rio and LeRoy Mason portray primitive passions that are just too wild for words in "Revenge." picture ends with Mrs. Craig deserted by husband, relatives, and servants. This bears no resemblance to the cut-and-dried movie plots the fans are supposed to prefer — so much comedy, so much suspense, so much love and so much obstacle before all the pieces settle into a happy ending. Instead, it is merciless exposure of a type of woman all of us have known, if not wholly, then in part. It is beautifully played throughout. Irene Rich, as Mrs. Craig, fastidious, smartly dressed, a gentlewoman, relentlessly portrays her devastating effect on every one who comes within her reach. Miss Rich's performance is flawless, in my opinion topping" anything she has done, and Warner Baxter, as Craig, adroitly and sympathetically depicts the struggles of a man in the toils of a domestic Medusa. Virginia Bradford and Carroll Nye are the young couple, and Ethel Wales, Lilyan Tashman, and Jane Keckley are some of the other admirable players. Do You Believe in Gypsies? Wild, gypsy passions inspire "Revenge," Dolores del Rio's latest fling, but after the rumpus is over one comes to the conclusion that it is just a masquerade, a fancydress party for a troupe of energetic, though uninteresting, actors. As usually happens in cases of this kind, the backgrounds are elaborate and beautiful, with hordes of gypsies participating in tribal dances and all the rest of it. But the story concerning Rascha is never believable for a moment. Unless the spectator has just been released from the nursery, he is apt to be ahead of the story as it unreels the tale of the bear -tamer's daughter who turns in disgust from her pets once they are tamed, and whose ideal of love is a great, big, strong man who will beat her in lieu of petting her. Nearly half the picture is given over to Rascha's preparation for this brute's appearance on the scene. When lorga materializes, in