Screenland (Nov 1936-Apr 1937)

12 SCREENLAND A G G I N G t h e ALKIES Delight Evans' Reviews on Pages 52 and 53 Follow Your Heart Republic Plenty of eye and ear appeal here, what with Marion Talley's excellent vocalizing reproducing smoothly, and a series of very lavish dance and stage spectacles bringing up the finale. It starts off on a humorous note with the family affairs of a musicallyinclined household, develops a pleasing romance between Marion Talley and Michael Bartlett, and swings into the elaborate ending. It aims to entertain, and it does. A mad, bad movie, but fun. Not always in the best of taste, this hilarious "romance" of a middle-aged movie idol and a pretty little torch-singer is highly burlesqued but always interest-sustaining. Adolphe Menjou gives a perfectly swell characterization, and Alice Faye has never been better — in fact, never as good— as the night-club cutie. The Ritz Brothers, Patsy Kelly, and Ted Healy add boisterousness to a hearty show. Warners dramatize for the screen another chapter in the history of aviation, with a film that has wide interest in telling about the development of plane service between the U. S. and China. Pat O'Brien is the flyer with a dream of air transportation to the Orient, a dream he drives on to realize even at the sacrifice of his own happiness. Pat, Humphrey Bogart, Ross Alexander, and Beverly Roberts all score. Another leisurely, camera-wise performance by Wallace Beery, and a film to more than please the star's particular following. He plays a lazy, shiftless, but good-natured sort — the type Wally has so often played. When he finds a fortune it becomes a problem pretending to work so he can spend some of the money. Elizabeth Patterson is the sacrificial wife and Cecelia Parker and Eric Linden are the love interest. Here's Robert Benchley again, and funnier, if possible, than he was in his previous minor masterpiece, "How to Train a Dog." This time Mr. Benchley calls upon himself to substitute for an absent member at a political meeting, and with the aid of an intricate map and his lively imagination, puts on a great show. There is nothingfunnier anywhere than Mr. Benchley in his deprecatory mood and his apologetic grin. Mary Boland in her first serious dramatic role on the screen emerges with honors, but this one part does not establish Mary as a dramatic star equal in brilliance to her eminent position as a comedienne. The picture is interesting and has strong appeal, as it relates the story of a hardworking woman who must turn her son over to the law for a murder he committed. Julie Haydon and Donald Woods, excellent. But, alas, no lightning to illumine the earnest and really interesting efforts of Constance Bennett, who's called upon to produce emotional storms out of a pallid sky of story material. The same may be said of Douglass . Montgomery, and that fine character actor, Oscar Homolka. It is all about an English officer who escapes a German prison camp, is shielded by a German girl. They fall in love. Fairish. A changed name and much-altered plot brings the rowdy "Sailor Beware" stage play to the screen as a gay rather than naughty offering. Here's, real good fun for everybody, with Lew Ayres as the shy gob, Larry "Buster" Crabbe as the Marine. Mary Carlisle, Benny Baker, and other good players. Ayres may well re-establish himself as a popular favorite with this, and Mary Carlisle will advance far for her work. Good — surprisingly so in view of the comparatively modest efforts in the way of production expense. There is an exciting, melodramatic element prevailing throughout the working out of the plot based on the rescue of three men entombed by a mine cave-in. Barton MacLane as head of the workers, and Jean Muir as his sweetheart give their parts dramatic realison, as do Henry O'Neill, Robert Barrat, and others. "That," says Ian Hunter in the final line of dialogue in this film, "is a portrait of marriage." And so it is, you'll agree at the conclusion of this swell screen reunion of Myrna Loy and Warner Baxter. It is a story of marriage often told on the screen, but not with the novel and sympathetic treatment given this. The acting is excellent, with Hunter scoring as emphatically as Myrna and Warner. Good entertainment.