Silver Screen (Feb-Oct 1935)

5 6 Silver Screen for October 1935 ghost you may ever hope to find. Helen Mack makes a lovely daughter, and little George Breakstone again does one of his magnificent sick-room scenes. Allen Vincent deserves a lot of praise for playing a perfect cad without being conventional. Ethel Griffies, as the town's gossipy hypocrite, rated big applause from the preview audience. THE MAN ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE Rating: 56°— Quite Funny— Paramount OUR favorite comedian plays a family man and is certainly put upon by the most irritable wife you've met in many a day, played by Kathleen Howard in a strident voice. He has a charming daughter by his first wife, Mary Brian to be sure, but that's the only bit of charm in the family. His second wife's mother and brother insist upon living with him, and mooch everything there is to mooch. There are some high moments of comedy in the picture, a parking gag that will have you in stitches, and a mother-in-law funeral rib that is quite hysterical. Unfortunately, pathos enters just when the comedy is at its best, and I always say there is no place for pathos in a W. C. Fields comedy. Bill, as the worm, finally turns, and tells off his in-laws, and there's a knock-out of an ending. If you're a pushover for Fields, and I certainly am, you won't dare miss this one. DIAMOND JIM Rating: 80°— Edward Arnold, Hooray — Universal A GRAND picture that's first rate entertainment. Edward Arnold (and there's a real actor for you, nothing namby pamby about him), plays big, bluff, glamorous Jim Brady, who took little Old New York by storm in the days when Lillian Russell was the belle of Broadway. In fact, the picture as you probably surmised, smarty you, is the life story of the man who made two fabulous fortunes in the railroad business, startled New York society by his penchant for diamonds and rich tasty viands, loved the wrong girl twice, and finally died a lonely man. Edward Arnold makes Diamond Jim a thoroughly lovable guy, a man with the heart of a boy in love, a heart of steel in business, and a heart of gold to his friends. You care just awfully when Jean Arthur turns him down. Jean is very good as the two girls in Diamond Jim's life and you can't hate her, even if she does bring sorrow to him. Cesar Romero, as her lover, is quite capable, and Eric Blore and George Sidney are excellent comedy characters. Binnie Barnes plays Lilian Russell as she was at the beginning of her career and manages to make the role really glamorous. Maybe the kiddies won't get so excited over this as their parents, who faintly remember the eccentricities of Diamond Jim Brady. SHE MARRIED HER BOSS Rating: 92 °— Such Gay Goings-on— Columbia THERE has been nothing as gay and nonsensical since the Walls of Jericho fell in "It Happened One Night." Claudette Colbert, the comely lass who copped the Academy Award last year, crashes through with another of those utterly delightful comedy performances, and when Claudette puts her mind on comedy you can be sure of long and merry laughter. She acts as if she hadn't had so much fun in years, and heavens knows, when you and I watch her, we're darned sure we haven't had so much fun in a century. This time Claudette plays a very efficient executive secretary who, after six years, finally manages to marry her Boss— and, alas, his family. Which consists of the most disagreeable little brat (her Boss's child by a former marriage) you've seen on the screen since Jane Withers snarled in "Bright Eyes." Edith Fellowes plays the spoiled kid and doesn't care how nasty she is. She's grand. Then there is the Boss's sister, played by Katharine Alexander, who is so aristocratic and frustrated that she spends most of her time swooning and lowering the drapes to keep the rugs from fading. How Claudette puts the family in efficient running order is a scream, but imagine her dismay when she discovers that her business-loving husband wants her as a secretary and not as a wife. Melvyn Douglass, as the stuffy Boss who becomes human just in time to keep his wife, is perfect. Michael Bartlett, as the millionaire playboy, is all you can want, and when he sings, boy, he sings. Don't miss his special rendition of "The Old Gray Mare," with Claudette helping out with a slightly bucolic mezzo soprano. What fun. And what fun for you when you see it. LITTLE BIG SHOT Rating: 61 "—Meet Sybil Jason, Folks— Warners HERE'S that child wonder you've heard all the talk about, little Sybil Jason, late of South Africa, but now of Hollywood, and I'm pleased to tell you that little Sybil lives up to all her advance publicity. She is a sincere little actress, has perfectly charming manners, and is a marvelous mimic— she does Mae West in the picture, and it's better than any impersonation you've seen yet. The story is none too faintly reminiscent of "Little Miss Marker" and requires Sybil to endure many harrowing experiences and do a lot of crying, but she makes the grade in spite of the plot. Edward Everett Horton and Robert Armstrong play two racketeers who fall heir to a child and consequently become completely regenerated, but not until they've fought it out with as tough a bunch of baddies as ever snarled into a mike. Jack La Rue, Arthur Vinton and J. Carroll Naish are the gangsters. Glenda Farrell plays a hat check girl and is grand as usual, but as usual has little or nothing to do. (Now that I've got Patsy Kelly looked after I must start my bigger-roles-for-Glenda-Farrell campaign. Just a crusader at heart.) Just in case you haven't been reading your fan magazines lately, naughty you, Sybil is the little girl who at six can sing, dance, play the piano, do impersonations, and read a menu in perfect French. When Marion Davies heard about this she said, "Good heavens, why at six I could barely say Mama." THE CRUSADES Rating: 8o°— A De Mille epic with all the trimmings— Paramount THE most gorgeous De Mille spectacle ever filmed! Thousands of King Richard's crusaders marching forth to rid the Holy Land of the Saracen infidels, feasting at Marseilles, the battle of Acre with hundreds of blazing bodies, the death shrieks of men and horses, the clank of arms and the clash of swords, a veritable riot of slaughter, followed by the release of the Christians and their triumphant entry into Jerusalem singing psalms, all go to make an impressive and thrilling picture that you cannot afford to miss. With "Cleopatra" now just a memory, De Mille has set upon the most interestingchapter of Medieval history— the crusades. The story is neatly balanced between romance and war with Henry Wikoxon (the late Anthony) playing Richard the Lion Hearted, King of England, who embarks on a crusade to the Holy Land simply to avoid marrying Alice of France, played by Katherine De Mille (C. B.'s adopted daughter). At Marseilles he promises to marry Princess Berengaria, the daughter of the King of Navarre, in exchange for food for his armies and fodder for his horses. Loretta Young is perfectly beautiful as the little princess who is forced to marry her husband's sword at her wedding ceremony (an old English custom) because King Richard is too bored to come. But when he sees her later he falls romantically in love and forces her to go to the Holy Land with him. Before the walls of Acre the Kings of the World ready their men for battle with the Asiatic Saladin, and there on the screen you see the most colossal battle that has ever been filmed. No one but De Mille could direct a scene like that. Ian Keith as Saladin gets first prize for the acting honors. Others in the long cast arc C. Henry Gordon, Joseph Schildkraut, Alan Hale and George Barbicr.