Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

69 Dialogue takes its place on the screen as never before, and certain audible pictures evoke applause and reveal new favorites. Joseph, played, respectively, by Marguerite de la Motte, Dorothy Revier, and Lon Poff ; but unfortunately none of them has much to do, and Constance dies early in the film and with her perishes the slight love interest. The rest of the picture concerns the heroic efforts of D' Artagnan in his service to France and the romantic emphasis given the famous motto, "One for all, and all for one." Whatever the lapses of the picture as a whole, at least it achieves an impressive climax — imaginative, inspired. It occurs when D' Artagnan dies from a stab by the renegade brother of the king. As his life ebbs, the heavens open and a fade-in reveals his companions and himself marching along with cbrawn swords through the clouds toward the beginning of greater adventure. Twice in the picture Mr. Fairbanks recites a brief invocation in verse and an appropriate musical score accompanies the film. Of the players I liked best William Bakewell, as the twin brothers, and Ulrich Haupt, De Rochefort. as George O'Brien, Dolores Costello, modern sequence of "Noah's Ark," as well as culminates in the Flood. A Boy Detective. Besides being an all-dialogue film, "The Dummy" has other claims to distinction. Its leading role is played by Mickey Bennett, the boy actor; it has no love story beyond the reconciliation of an estranged husband and wife, and it permits us to hear Zasu Pitts for the first time on the screen. Quite enough to lift it above the ordinary? Then we agree, and I hope you will see it. Without being sensational, it is quite worth while by reason of its suspense, its well-knit dialogue and the intelligence which pervades throughout. It seems to me these qualifications are enough nowadays, when so much second-rate stuff is palmed off by the producers merely because of a few snatches of dialogue, in many instances grafted onto the film after it was completed in silence. "The Dummy" is Barney Cook, the office boy of Walter Bobbing, a lawyer, who believes that he has traced the kidnaping of Peggy Meredith to a certain band of crooks. The mother of Peggy has received a letter demanding the usual ransom and is on the point of complying with the demands of the criminals, when Babbing begs her to leave the matter in his hands if she wishes her child restored to her alive. Quick-witted Barney, the boy who has lately forced himself into the lawyer's employ, suggests that he can be of aid in trapping the crooks. Cleverly Babbing telegraphs to the band to meet a rich, dumb boy who will arrive from Chicago at a certain hour. Of course Barney is the mute in question, his orders being to get word to Babbing of the kidnapers' whereabouts. This is the nucleus of the plot from which suspense and complications develop until everything comes out all right. Capital performances are contributed by every member of the cast, though the brilliant Ruth Chatterton hasn't nearly enough to say to suit me. However, compensation is. found in Zasu Pitts, whose voice is exactly suited to her odd individuality, and Vondell Darr, the child who made a hit in "On Trial," again is lovely to eye and ear. Others are John Cromwell, Fredric March, Jack Oakie, Richard Tucker, and Eugene Pallette. The Wrath of Jehovah. As a colossal spectacle "Noah's Ark" has never been equaled, and the Deluge floods the screen with stupendous reality. The destruction of the w ojr 1 d is overwhelming, a mighty cataclysm to eye and ear, for sound adds to its verisimilitude, and the rush of waters is not only seen but is heard in furious uproar. This is the spectacular high light of the picture, naturally enough, for nothing more of physical action could climax it. Preceding this, however, is a modern story concerning characters who reappear in the biblical sequence. All their problems are supposed to be analogous, but the relationship is slight enough to be ignored. It is on the strength of the Deluge that the picture must find its chief claim to greatness. It begins in 1914 on a train in Europe. Marie, a member of a German theatrical troupe bound for Bucharest, attracts the attention of Travis, an American, and his companion Al, together with the leering Nickoloff, a villain painted in bold colors. A wreck enables Travis to rescue Marie and win her gratitude, as well as protect her against the advances of Nickoloff. In Paris Travis and Marie marry, while Al quarrels with his friend for not enlisting when war is declared. When both men are at the front Travis is briefly reunited with Al, only to have him killed before his eyes. Meanwhile Marie, dancing in a wayside theater patronized by soldiers, is recognized by Nickoloff, who is now in the secret service. Because she will not accede to his demands, he instigates her arrest as a spy. When she is about to be executed, Travis, one of the firing squad, recognizes her and refuses to shoot. A bursting shell shatters the scene and Guinn Williams appear the biblical one in the which