Screenland (May-Oct 1930)

84 SCREENLAND Reviews t?> SEAL OF i : Colin Clive, center, heads the superb all-British cast which interprets "Journey's End" on the screen. Joe E. Brown and Winnie Lightner provide hilarious comedy in fast-moving farce, "Hold Everything." Journey's End YOU know I don't scatter superlatives lightly; so when I tell you that "Journey's End" is one of the great pictures you'll know it's pretty serious with me. Right now I had better warn you that I am prejudiced. The play by R. C. Sherriff as presented on the New York stage was, to me, a beautiful and moving thing. And the picture, contrary to all precedent, is just as good as the play. The same man directed both — James Whale. The film has a different cast, but quite as efficient. Altogether I should say that this motion picture version of the great English war play is the shining example in screen annals of an adaptation that lived up to its promise. At first I missed the flesh-and-blood actors; then the beauty and pathos of the play took hold, and I forgot I was watching shadow men. It was reality — and out of Hollywood! "Journey's End" is a neat little triumph for Tiffany-Stahl and for the movies generally. The superb cast, headed by Colin Clive, includes David Manners, Ian MacLaren, Anthony Bushell. Hold Everything Norman Foster, a newcomer to the screen, plays opposite Claudette Colbert in "Young Man of Manhattan." OLD EVERYTHING" has everything for those who like their film fun frank, fast, and furious. It's a rousing, rowdy comedy with no nuances; but who wants to be bothered with those, anyway, when Joe E. Brown and Winnie Lightner are present? If you liked Miss Lightner in "Gold Diggers of Broadway" you will go for her here. She's funnier — and louder. As for Mr. Brown, he works hard and fast; and if there are those on the Broadway Rialto who claim that he has imitated a certain other comedian named Bert Lahr, their contentions don't make Mr. Brown less funny. There's a slapstick prize-fight that is the most hilarious ever screened. Take the children and tie them in their seats; or they'll roll down the aisle and you'll roll right after them. For sex appeal we have Carpentier and Sally O'Neil, with Dorothy Revier for very good measure. But the picture belongs to Winnie and Joe; it's theirs to have and to "Hold Everything." The opening in Warner Brothers' new Hollywood Theater was an Event on Broadway, New York. Young Man of Manhattan A ND what a young man! From now on, young girls will /\ be going east instead of west. Norman Foster plays the title role in this screen adaptation of Katherine ~" Brush's popular novel. He's something new in film heroes. He doesn't sing. He isn't particularly handsome. But the boy brings a fresh quality to pictures — an average, wellmeaning, lovable character, neither poet nor rough-neck, just human. You'll like him. He is always believable as the newspaper reporter who won a lovely wife and couldn't keep her, until he mended his ways and went to work. The wife, both in the picture and private life, is the gorgeous Claudette Colbert. Real newspaper girls will cast covetous eyes at the endless variety of Miss Colbert's very smart wardrobe and will wonder how she did it. But that's movies. Thanks to Monta Bell's direction, the adventures of Ann and Toby assume an interest out of all proportion to the very juvenile plot. Charles Ruggles as the family friend very, very funny — as usual.