Universal Weekly (1928-1930, 1933-1936)

Vol. 29, No. 22 Universal Weekly 29 Mary Philbin, Fred MacKaye and Otis Harlan are the principals in “Girl Overboard’’ for next season. Harlan lends his whimsical wit to a waterfront romance of young love. loses her lover and her career through the jealousy of a young physician. After a slight operation the doctor sprays Adella’s throat with a medicine that causes her to lose her voice entirely, as he had planned. With her career gone, she succombs to the surgeon’s love-making and agrees to marry him. Attired in her bridal finery, the girl miraculously recovers her voice when she hears her real sweetheart singing the love song he composed for her. Kathryn Crawford is charming as the aspiring opera singer, and Jean Hersholt is magnificent as the devoted maestro who see her through countless difficulties. Le Roy Mason plays the surgeon who performs the operation on Adella. Henry Armetta is excellent as the girl’s grandfather. The lover is enacted by John Reinhardt, an extremely attractive young man who has the distinction of being the son of the great composer, Heinrich Reinhardt. Renaud Hoffman directed the picture. Its sound version contains some fine melodies, deep organ music and brilliant bits from opera scores. Mary Philbin has a sympathetic vehicle in “Girl Overboard,” a story of the San Francisco waterfront by John B. Clymer.. Fred MacKaye and Otis Harlan are in the cast, which was directed by Wesley Ruggles. Denton, played by MacKaye, serves his father’s term as a forger to save his mother’s heartaches. When released on parole, he is forbidden to marry on penalty of serving the rest of his term. Denton saves a young girl, Mary Philbin, from the river and takes her to the schooner where he lives with Cappy Evans, portrayed whimsically by Otis Harlan. The parole officer learns the girl is abroad and threatens to send Denton back to prison unless she leaves. She is again bothered by a bully and returns to the ship. Denton marries her in defiance of the parole officer. Through a fluke the girl is arrested in a skirmish with the bully, but dismissed when the judge learns she is Denton’s wife. Keefe threatens return to jail, but relents when he sees the girl’s little garden in a comer of the boat. The harbor scenes and the life on the old schooner are colorful and authentic. Mary Philbin has also been selected to star in “Brawn of the Sea.” The action is much faster than in “Girl Overboard” and the dramatic values more sharply drawn. Garret Ford wrote the story and infused it with the hatred of an old sea captain for his son pictured against a background of wild sailing adventures, a blazing ship, a miraculous rescue and a gripping fight. The girl whose lot is cast in these desperate surroundings forms a strong contrast to the brutality of setting. In “She Belongs to Me,” Paul Sydney has painted a strong drama of jealousy and bitterness between a father and son who both love the same woman. The old man’s love is a desperate eleventh-hour passion, the son’s a clean blade of young idealism. The result is one of the most poignant and powerful dramas yet to reach the sound screen. No cast has as yet been announced for “She Belongs to Me,” but an all-star company of outstanding popularity is being assembled at Universal City. The reputation of the actors in these all-star productions, plus strong dramas, both in silent and sound versions, assures tremendous box-office appeal. The big trial scene in “The Drake Case.’’ Gladys Brockwell as the defendant cowers at the inquisition of the prosecuting attorney, played by Forrest Stanley.