Silver Screen (Nov 1936-Apr 1937)

60 Silver Screen for January 1937 Review OF THE New Pictures THE GARDEN OF ALLAH Tragic Romance in the Desert— Sc I znick International THE Technicolor version of the Robert Hichens novel, a best seller of several generations ago, is by far the most beautiful of the color pictures. Never on stage or screen have you seen anything so breathtakingly lovely as the silhouettes of desert caravans against the rising and the setting sun. Marlene Dietrich is certainly one of the Glamour Girls who takes to color like a duck to water. The glamorous Marlene is simply ravishing in her close-ups, and her reddish gold hair, clear blue eyes, and perfect profile make her the most beautiful of the stars yet to be seen in technicolor. Co-starring with Marlene is Charles Boyer, the handsome French actor who has a devastating appeal to women. The story, alas, is not nearly so exciting as the color and the stars. As you probably remember, it's about a Trappist monk who breaks his solemn vows to the Church and runs away from his monastery in Northern Africa to see the world. In a nearby desert town he meets and marries a young woman Avho has also just escaped from a life of repression. The monk is continually haunted by his broken vows, and this secret gradually becomes a definite barrier between them. Finally he confesses to her what he has done, renounces his love and worldly delights, and returns to his monastery to seek again a peace of sou\. No matter how beautiful the color and Marlene, it is still the story of the renegade monk. A pictorial highlight of the picture is the dance sequence of Tilly Losch. Also in the cast, and excellent, are Joseph Schildkraut as a poetic desert courier, Basil Rathbone as Count Anteoni, and Lucile Watson as a mother superior. GO WEST, YOUNG MAN A Neav Mae West Laugh^EiTt— Paramount T'HE new W^est picture isn't ^ up to the glorious old standard of "She Done Him Wrong" but it manages to be very amusing and gay (the censors don't have to frown too much) and Mae's fans will all be quite pleased about it. Mae plays a spoiled and temperamental Hollywood movie star who is doing a personal appearance tour in the East. And, as is the Hollywood custom, she is accompanied by a press agent whose business it is to see that she says and does the right things. Mae has an eye for sinewy males and Warren William, her press agent, has quite a time of it keeping her out of entangling relations. Mae's car breaks down (Connie's Rolls rented out for the occasion?) in a hick town and she has to spend the night at Mrs. Strothers' boarding house, and here she meets Randy Scott, a country boy Avith an invention and a lot of sinews. Isabel Jewell and Maynard Holmes, as a couple of movie-mad fans, are excellent. And so is Elizabeth Patterson as Aunt Kate. Alice Brady, unfortunately, is entirely wasted. As you know, the picture is adapted from Lawrence Riley's successful stage play "Personal Appearance," in which Gladys George starred for over a year. Some of the best lines are deleted (censors no doubt) but they still have that SAvell one where the mo\'ie star calls her fans a "bunch of THEODORA GOES WILD A Gr.vnd, HiL.Ajiious Comedy— Co/iu«b/a OLUMBIA may be one of the smaller Hollywood studios but when it puts its mind on turning out an uproarious romantic comedy it chalks up a hit every time. Theodora is a ivorthy follo\v-upper of .Mr. Deeds. Irene Dunne, than whom there is none Icnr'icr on the screen, plays Theodora, a \-.in\; girl brought up in a strict New r.nnland town by tivo spinster aunts and as full of repressions as a fruit cake is of rai'iiis. In secret, and under the nom de |)hune of Caroline Adams, she writes a daring best seller on a subject she knows nolliing aboiU, viz.. Sex. The book is imiiu'diaicly banned by the Ladies Literary Sotiety of the tOAvn— of which Irene is a mem her. \ swell situation? Vou bet, and the picture's full of til cm. On a visit to her New York publisher, she meets Mclvyn Douglas, a dashing "Fugitive in the Sky" has a gay cast — Gordon Oliver, Warren Hull and lovely Jean Muir.