Universal Weekly (1932-1936)

November 5, 1932 UNIVERSAL WEEKLY 15 ""I Get Prouder of Motion Pictures Every Day of My Life" Says Mae Tinee, Chicago Tribune Critic^ Inspired by Universal Picture. This Is a Rave, Says Critic of Movie Review 'Once in a Lifetime' Wins a Big Hand By Mae Tinee Good Morning! Right here on this spot, at this time, I want to give Universal a great big hand! In "Once in a Lifetime" this company has attained a double barreled achievement. The first barrel is a workmanlike and exceedingly entertaining adaptation of the uproarious stage satire. The second — which possibly should have been mentioned first — is a reputation for good sportsmanship. There was no deleting of lines or situations that kidded Hollywood. Instead, they were permitted to blossom as the sunflower. Universal has, to its everlasting credit, proved Hollywood able to take joke and pass it on with a grin, even if the joke WAS on the picture colony. Honestly, I get prouder of motion pictures every day of my lifel They're growingl The people who are making them are growing. By fits and staKs and pains — maybe — but, still, lustily taking root in good old common sense and reaching aspiring tendrills toward the sky. The play by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, who, it is said, had never been to Hollywood before they wrote it, starts its story with the start of talking pictures. Then, as everybody knows, the world of the cinema went just plain cuckoo over the wonderful invention dropped into its lap. A vaudeville trio — two men and a girl — down on their luck, trek to Hollywood. May Daniels and Jerry Hyland are smart. They nourish the brilliant idea of starting a school ""Back Street" Coes Sweeping On "Back Street" is regarded by experts as the most remarkable picture of the year in Its consistent power at the box-office. It opened in the Rockaways and Long Beach, around New York, and has just played its repeat bookings in the same houses to within a few dollars as much money as it took in the first time it played these houses. And it established records In all of them then. Frank McCarthy, Eastern Sales Manager, has just received a letter from A. H. Barnett, Manager of the Buffalo Universal Exchange, with some astounding figures on "Back Street" In Its neighborhood runs in Buffalo. It Is just a casual letter, like one official might send to another, but it contains a startling statement and all of the figures are included in the letter to back up this statement. Here Is the letter. "Dear Frank: "I thought you might be Interested to learn that 'Back Street,' in the Publlx neighborhood houses, did more than any other picture shown in the past two years, particularly In the Elmwood and Seneca Theatres. "The grosses In each situation were as follows." (Figures on request). wherein formerly silent players shall learn to talk in a manner that shall not confound the world. George Lewis, the other member of the trio. Is just a dumb Indian nut eating stooge whom they love and who loves them. Not for the world would they leave George behind, though he Is just the big tame bull In their china shop of plans. . . . Ha, ha. Is the laugh on them! In their scheme of things, even as It is in heaven, the first turns out to be last and the last first. ... I The film sports the wealth of killing incident and dialogue that made the play the joy It was. And what a cast this movie boasts! Aline MacMahon, in the leading feminine role, delivers one handsome performance! She's proved in numerous less Important assignments that she was a comedienne of parts. This trip she establishes her right to be classed with Marie Dressier, Edna May Oliver, and the other grand and glorious girls who make laughter a necessity and a pleasure. Russell Hopton is great as her brainy sidekick, and Jack Oakie is immense as the dumb cluck who comes to rule their world. Onslow Stevens plays a forgotten man — .an author who never gets to see the god who hired, pays, and gives him nothing to do — with delightful irony and great facial expressiveness. Gregory Ratoff as Herman Glogauer, the god-president of Glogauer Productions — Is almost too good to be true. Louise Fazenda caricatures a lady columnist with zest and perception, and there are loads of other capables who simply slay you. Direction, staging, costumes, scenery are assets of the first water. "Why, this is a rave!" you say. When there's something to rave over — rave, says I. See you tomorrow.