Variety (Nov 1931)

36 VARIETY FILM HOUSE REVIEWS TSiesdaf, November 10, I931 PARAMOUNT, N. Y. New York, Nov. 7. inexablllty of the Paramount's stage policy, particularly the man- ner In which It allows strong and special build-ups for any names that may be secured, Is probably Us great advantage over the unit Sys- tem, Blng Crosby Is the featured stage personality tiils week. ]3oubt- ful whether the theatre could have been so helpful . for this singing single if confined to a unit's limit- ations. . Crosby (New' Acts) is on the stage twice and a third time sings off' stage as accompanist for a. dance production. There's no chance.for anyone ever to forget that he's the big man this week. Not a' bad method,, either, especially when the central' figure stands up under the plugging strain. Crosby does. Picture Is Kuth Chiatter ton's 'Once a Lady* (Par). Hublnoff and the Crawford's, standard house fea- tures contribute their usual guar- antee against complete floppage for any Par- theatre btlL Combination Baturday. afternoon was drawing good enough biz; though .not ca- padty. Stage show opens and closes on Crosby as the center of the picture. Starter is an . Interior set lighted from the rear for silhouette effect Crosby Is singing to a girl. 'When the traveler closes Crosby steps up to the apron for the customary Tm glad to be here' hoke. His second song Is delivered ' while seated on the . rising organ, played by Mrs. Crawford. He steps back, to the apron for his third vocal, this bring- ing the show Into full stage and the ^Lrst'glrl number. An Introductory Oriental In exotic, costumes plus' Chinese silver finger- nails' by the Danny Dare girls pre- cedes Vanessl's first dance. Before getting Into action she poses scan- tily clad: during the line girls' routine. 'Vanessl knows how to sell appearance through dancing aiid she does It in both chances here.' The second Is the rumba from her vaude- ville turn, danced in the final scene .of this presentation. Jb^Jimmy .Conlln .and Myrtle Glass Ini their knockabout pianolog divide the two main stage parts. As an Idea of what a mugger is up against In a picture house, .Conlln - seemed almost good looking here. But his piano stuff and - comedy alone and with Miss Glass couldn't be missed or miss anywhere. They have a fat boy In support now. He hoofs and ghosts offstage for the dancing cur- tain biz. Cafe set for the finish, with Crosby called on twice to sing. His stuff Is carried through a mike wherever he stands^ making it seem tile stage Is flooded with micro- phones. Two are in the open. In Crosby the Paramount has a single who entertains and perhaps a name that will attract a little ' money. Another CBS radio turn, also vocal, Is booked In the Para- mount . for later on. Paramount- Publlz Is making use of its radio affiliation. Makes BKO look that much, worse for falling to capitalize Its own (NBC)' opportunities. Bige. . her personality alone. ' Ben Bemie thinks she's ready for stardom, or BO he told the customers at her debut She's been his protege for two years. After Miss Janis had registered - unanimously with her 'Farmer's Daughter* number, Mas- ters Invited BemIe up, and the lat ter walked down the aisle and up to tell what a great performer he thought Miss Janis was. Good Judgment of the bandman to have withheld, the plug from the stage until the audience could judge for Itself. That -reiaponse to the Bemle popularity wouldn't have been fair to the glrL For the next 20 minutes Jack Pep- per and two of his stooges kept un- leashing a steady rat-tat. of laugh- ter, from all' parts of the house. Third of the stopges didn't show for the first performance. Pepper cut his own ■ warbling contributions down to mere mention, leaving It to the two Hebe zanies to sock out one laugh wal'op after the' other. - They can not only handle a gag with surefire precision, but they can hoof and play the violin and planoi one of them almost like a virtuoso In the latter two departments. ' It didn't take long for that audience; to be theirs with the walkoft palm- whacking as big as anything heard here In some time. . Eddie House contributed a divert- ing organlog called'Nominations for the.Hall of Fame,' and outside of the six news clips the screen; In the ishort-subject category, unreeled a long commercial showing the build- ing of the 1,000-mile, natut'al gas pipe line from Texas to Chicago; Bill Hay, of WMAQ and Amos 'n' Andy fame, did, a McNamele for the subject, and, stepping out of his ele- ment, showed that he could crack other than Scotch gags. Commer-. ilal reel impressed as something subsidized .'by the Samuel Insull In- terests. ROXY ORIENTAL, CHICAGO Chicago, Nov. 7. Though everything about the cur'^ rent stage assembly spells compara tlvely meagre money; It's a nice lit tie package of entertainment. It's tuneful, lively and funny. Lack of a box-oflflc'e name to blaze across the marquee may have been responsible for the slow, uneven start at the turnstile. It'll be up to the feature, 'Platinum Blonde' (Col), and the star, Jean Harlow, to bring them to the window, with the outlook to that end not so sanguine. But once In, It's a cinch they'll be satisfied and sent away happy. With Frankle Masters moving deftly and hot too talkatively in and out as the m.c, the stage affair shoved off. Band took the initial spot for a whimsical arrangement that brought into play a flock of In- direct lighting and phosphorescent blackouts. Five youngsters, the Jim Jam Glrla, romped on for a fast and furious ragout of acrobatic bits. It was a pell-mell profusion of flli> flops, cartwheels, front-overs; back- bends and rope-skipping, with the tempo increasing as they shot through an otherwise simple routine. .Quintet had little difficulty In regis terlng solidly here. Blackout' between Masters and l^ivlenne' Janis could have bc6n clipped from the continuity to. the show's advantage.. It was the now moss-grown gag about the husband, the wife, the lover, and every word spoken' with an 's*. If anything, it weakened the introductory buUd-up for'Miss Janis when It came her turn to g6 Into her own act. But this blonde, known to the habitues of the College Inn and the midnight listeners of station WBBM, found it easy to make the hurdles in her Oriental debut Here is a piquant personality, a nicely balanced self assurance, a deftness for interpret Ing a comedy song number. But the thing she heeds most and lacks is a pair of pipes that will carry a •well- rounded tone across the footlights and Into the' upper reaches of the balcony. " Perhaps she can get there with PARAMOUNT, L. A. liOS Angeles, Nov. 6. Harold B. Franklin has a prob- lem on his hands -with the Par. He knew it from the start, admittedly, and vrlth courage he tested the stage show thing, but hasn't as yet bested it so far as this site is con- cerned. No theorizing now what's the .matter. He gives 'em Chevalier at a $16,000 investment, emd the best he can do Is $1,000 In the blacks That's perhaps quite noteworthy consider- ing the long string of red weeks during the Piibllx regime, and also since. Including iMSSlbly the cur- reht week with a Chatterton on the screen. With the 9we|l David Mendoza orchestra no longer 66. men, but considerably reduced, on stage, he still has a truly noteworthy instru- mental teani in his theatre, yet Franklin seems unable to'make 'em buy It. When, they weht for Che- valier the femmes beat that 60c barrier 'by flocking In at 36c be- fore one o'clock, with the rest of the day sluggish, notably in the eve- ning, for the real dough Intake. Even Franklin's conlipetlsh is rooting for hltn. There's an ulte- rior an^le In that they look to him as a pacemaker and torchbearer to pep up the oV sluggish downtown, but thus far, while they too have been forced to .adding live enter- talnment it's still blah. True, this current show \b no crl terion. The 'Dream of the Big Parade,' an elaborate 111. song In actuality from a Jack Mills' tune, with some of those hokum pome patters. Isn't big time any longer. The straight musical hors d'oeuvre^ preceding was niuch more impres- sive, with the Mendozaltes mixing up the "Fledermaus' waltz and a little 'Student Price' with cOn temporaneous pops; The toy bal- let was the second stanza, and then the military ' finale, with a literal American flag climax, naturally ac counted for by Armistice day, but still suggesting something lacking. Max I^erner is tenor soloist with the male ensemble in the vocallza' tlons. The military finale was rather, gloomy in Its .general im- port, with an arm-slung and smoked-goggled war yet vocalizing on one side of the rostrum, As an anti-war message oke, but as stage fare, establishing In these times a little Pollyanha wouldn't be such a bad idea on the whole. •Once a I,ady' (Par-Chatterton) feature; Par short, Screen Souve- nirs,' old-time, clips, with comedy chatter, and liewsreel, plus usual trailers, on screen. Lou McDermott, presentation stager, and Mendoza leave In couple of weeks. Franklin's ne'w stage policy has yet to be decided at this writing. He's committed to "the idea that a town-of 1,200,000 should support big* stage shows. Other showmen now contend that despite the numerical population the geographical situation of L. A. with its sundry communities mltl gates against' downtown patronage, Too many naborhood sectors like Hollywood, Beverly, West Holly wood, "Westwopd and others ke.ep 'em in their nabes, saving on the old petro\. (everybody drives out here), not to mention that 50c park Ing. fee tap at. the near'est-to-the Par auto park. - Abel. The great gasp at the Rpxy this week is the. stage show going naughty. A muscle dancer, no less, and what a mustile dancer! Scene is an Arab tent, with the vocal en- semble ranged right and left against the tent walls in appropriate, desert costumes, and an Amazonian con- tortion dancer taking the center of the stage for a deliberate and em- phatlo wriggle routine, her heroic proportions inadequately garbed in simple trunks and brassiere. Making tiie purpose and Intent sure, the. Boxyettes come into the scene for an ensemble routine, like- wise dressed tn the clinging gar- ments of the orient&l dancer, bare of hip and torso. The line steps are chaste enough but the dressing and the centrial specialty girl are a new departure for the Cathedral. Patri- cia Bowman likewise-gets Into the sequence for-a solo session, dressed likewise in flowing skirts, b'ut rather more' sufRclently costumed for hpr mild version of the wild abandon of the nomad technique, the dance also including some vivid panto- mime, in a dance addressed: to the community's Sultan . or Sheik or whatever it la in Arab tents. The Oriental motif la played .up in another stage episode, apparently designed as appropriate to the Indian chapter in the current fea- ture, "Friends and Lovers' .(RKO). This employs a troup of 13 Arab tumblers working before a mosque- like back drop, masked by a prac- tical wall, and. the Roxyettes in tlie uniform of 'the French Foreign Legion, for military drills, a unison tap routine and flninlly a climax In wall climbing after the old zouave idea. It all'works into a war elfect climax to th6 .tiine of the 'Marsel- lalse.' Tumblers' contribution, is fast and spectacular,, with special reference to striking pyramid: build- ing, the understander at one time holding not-less than 10 people in a cluster on his Moulders. Three of the Arabians are women—or in women's garb—and as active as the rest in acrobatic feats. . Troiip is programmed as the Liazeed Co. Specialty Introduced in the display is handled by Mills and Shea, made up of travesty acrobatics and a neat number filling a gap' between the Arabian display and the Roxyette bit Finale discards the Oriental Idea entirely, and in deference to Armis- tice Day, which comes about mid- Week, stages a fitting patriotic tabr leaux. Stage is dimly set as a bat- tle field with French soldiers grouped on one side and American dough- boys on the other,' apparently in twin bivoucs, the center space be- ing vaguely suggestive of no man's land. The whole stage picture Is faced with - a scrim upon which misty night clouds drift slowly. Opposite soldier groups sing 'It's a Long, 'liong Trail,' and for finale the surpliced figure of a woman ap- pears Under a spotlight mounted high in the middle background for the solo of 'Nearer My God to Thee.' The singer is Martha Attwood, so- prano of the Metropolitan company, and. her Impressive voice giyes a flne touch of digmity to an appro' prlate observance of the war memo rial. Feature picture runs 60 minutes, the rest of the fllm program being a Mickey Mouse cartoon short, one of Walter Putter's 'Curiosities,' and the newsreel. Medley of standard operatic arias forms the overture, working.up to a crashing crescendo in a full volume climax of the Roxy symphonlsts, a feature that brought unusual applause. Rush. MICHIGAN Detroit, Nov. 0. This week's sffow, titled 'Hlttin' the Deck,' looks- like it might have been underwritten by the Navy League. Show waves the flag and for good :e(rect "While waving: the flag is not'done here often, when it is done they do It right. ISddle Welsteldt has put on an opening and a closing production number that alone are enbugh to establish this show. The talent, while not entirely naval. in type, are cos- tumed In the night uniforms to fit in. Kyen Eduard Werner and Bob Nolan are togged up In brass but- tons. Talent headed by the Three Sailors and the Thre^ Queens, billed here as Queen, Queen and Queen, and Paul Klrkland. Opening Is preceded 'with Brenk- ert effects on the travelers depict-- ing a battleship under way. Trav- elers back to allow for na'val clips showing ships in action .on the screen.'Stage lights up with band on, set being the quarter deck of a battleship with the giins over- head. Eduard Werner directing the opening number, military in char- acter. The first glimpse of the set brought forth a response of ap plause. The combination of the colorful set with the life sized gun turret with the martial hitislc played by the entire Michigan orchestra of 2S men Instead of the usual stage band of 16 got the most hardened of them to loosen up on applause. EMBASSY 'Wliether it's an act or not, and newsreel peo|>le say It'a the McCoy, the biggest laugh in many 'weeks at both newsreel houses is being pro- voked by the nanclfled «wner of a tiny dog awarded a medal for hero-, ism at the recent animal gatlierlng in New York. Cold, weather , is benefiting .pne theatre and apparently detracting from the other. Saturday after- noon when there wasn't a seat to be had in this theatre thiere were plenty of holes in the Luxer. From the standpoint of .programs both were almost identical in standard news coverage and, with the ex- ception of .Unlversal's freak group at the Luxer, practically on the same level in entertainment values. Difference, in location of the houses is thus, most strlklngly..rec(irded as the maijor reason for. the variance In attendances. Either that or the horde of newsreel' fans cannot' get accustomed to the Luxer's lighting system. Newsreels more and more are fol- lowing events oh the calendar that occur seasonly, just as the seasons, themselves, change. Hoover buys the first Red Cross stomp this year like the last. The Prince of . Wales presents another regiment with a fiag. Bavarian girls do some more dancing. Maryland has a chance to get a plug for her turkeys. Italy's great laugh getter will do reviewing anytime as will poli- ticians submit to Interviews on formal subjects and chlldr.en will sing and skate. But the newsreel people claim It's aU news.. Polltlcaf inquisitions and the run of shootings and murders 'which the newspaper^ feature are more and more being skimmed over. If touched at all, by many of the reels. Propaganda rather than bonaflde pccurrences seems to be the pre- vailing taste pf .newsreel city desks. With football on the screen, as In the bowU' increasing in public favor, no reel has yet used any ap- parent Ingenuity in covering a game. No one, evidently, has thought of Introducing the camera platform on the football fleld the ^ame as at many prize flghts. While there is naturally no comparison in area between the two there is un- questionably little doubt that an intimacy and clarity of plays wbuld be provided the newsreels by such' a perch In any part of the fleld beyond points of Interference. Married women whp are not heads of families should, give their jobs to the needy. This stereo- typed theory is advanced by a wo- man magazine writer. ' Embassy evidently didn't use all of its footage on Washington l>rldge last week. Now trick photography is introduced.. It's getting the laughs since fans never seem, to tire of oddities. Although the coverage of the Mlchlgan-Frlnceton game is un- usually good, and far better than the same for the Notre-Dame-Car- negle Tec clash, Fox-Hearst In the current sports excels In horseflesh. That high jump In Australia is worth the price of. admission. With the exception of one, every rider with, or without, his horse takes a bad spill. English steeplechase and galloping at the Belmont track are included. Broadway cokles have a hard time suppressing sighs when what looks like a ton of the stuff and implements Is dumjped into fur naces at New York's police heS- quarters. , _ The ^Akron's first voyage ov^p Now Yoric is well covered from within as weU as without SamA material for both theatres so thatit looks as though one cameraman did" the Job for all.' . ", ■WliUe LaPoIlette Is recorded a* opposing the war debt moratorium ; a society deb talks about youth the ;nee<r for. new prohibition laws. ■ Helen Madison, Londos in ocUon.' Spanlah bullflghUng, and MayS Walker are • among the. remaining TRANSLUX Paransount carrlets Wall Street t« Washington via. Topeka this we^ through an interview with a Kansas senator who gets on the record that • the time has arrived when the Gov. • emment should put an end to paDu^ b|»ars of the short size. ' w Cellege bpys pelt .each other in' England and America on the Luxer screen. Over here they flght fora' glove while on the other side flour bombs, are hurled. ■While coverage of the niarrlage (tf Queen Marie's niece to a commoner Is the. same in both theatres, Pathe'a talking reporter explains to the au- " dlence with English accent the- great condescension which has been made.' Luxer on the sex angle gets Bert- rand Russell to say briefly that- there should be one standard for man and wife. If the gpver.nment takes over the Jeb pf rearing chll. dren Russell sees the time when matrimony will be conspicuously altered. Universal beat thOj other reels in getting a fllm. record Pf the new lights in the Statue of Liberty's' crown. Paramount also is stepping up. It Is ahead on several subjects. In- eluding the fllmlng of Ruth NIchoV ° burned plane Ih Louisville and an-- intervlew with a nine-year old boy who rescued his mother from a burning home. With a wrestling clip on the pro*:' gram and coverage of football. games, Pathe is the flrst to remind that the hocky season is'close at hand. 'It pictures the Rangers in practice at Sprlngfleld, Mass. . Hunk Anderson doesn't credit a college dli>loma with carrying much In the line of grammar. He's strictly . football and Notre Dame, howevw, and probably uses all of those 'th'ems' in the -wrong place Just for emphasis. Hd talks about the old and the new uniforms and then demonstrates why the lighter of thS' two is the safer for the wearer. Young Charlie Chaplin is telling the fans he wants tp f pIIpw father's footsteps. It's some publicity for children's trip to Europe. Unlversal's curios Include a lot of laughs and interest with moat or the mirth summed up in those Mc- - Namee's sarcasms. Among them, are; World's tiniest library; Coney Island In a Tacoma backyard; raz-. Ing Chicago's flrst skycraper; blow* ing up a mountain; SwItzerlsndJ. favorite game: the Dartmouth and Yale game; t,os Angeles', puppy laundry; wedding with Bohemian, trimmings , in Chicago corkscrew factory. The flrst of Floyd Gibbons Badlo- Pathe series, titled 'The Great De- cision,' is shown. It has been re* viewed in 'Variety.' "Waly. Using no overture, the opening or- chestral number partly taking it's place was worked up Into a pretty long opening, but still getting the show going okay. Nolan interpo- lated a vocal chorus and at the conclusion the line of 16 girls went Into a good eccentric routine. Well executed and reflecting credit on the dance producer, Fred Evans. The Three Queens on next for a well routine tap trio. Doing all the usual, they had no trouble In getting across. A routine that per- haps might be considered stereo- typed if done by three men was nevertheless liked as done by three femmes. Paul Kirkland on next with his ladder, which got across, then Into his tissue paper cone jug- gling bit. This specialist worked himself so that every minute he is on he keeps the interest. His hoke dancing as the time filler also fits. The Three Sailors on next got a laugh with their entrance and had them eflgellng all th3 time they didn't have them laughing right out: These boys seen here for the flrst time at popular prices can play anywhere, and what they lack in box ofllce name value they make up for In audience reaction. For the finale they did expert tap danc- •Ing. \ The set en this shpw vCost a lit- tle more money than usubl - here. The line of 16 girls means four extra and the talent not costing too much reads Ihto a show that will help business for this house. STANLEY, J. C. Jersey City, Nov. 7. . It's radio week here and the show opens In darkness with Ed Lowry and a radlp faintly, seen. He an- npunces a mike and the light ris» tp a misty blue, dlsclesing the^» Stanley girls and the orchestrtu The scrim Is raised and the gin? are shewn in skirts, three to^ cplpr, and they dance and pose prei tlly. iowry sings and tlien an- nounces a surprise. Going o"' " returns as iMaurlce Chevalier, giT' ing a brief but good imitation. He next brings In the real PW Cook, who gets a great recopUon and plays all his radio charactew. Lowry does a Rudy Vallee, golM to sleep pn the flpor. Lee also welcomed, sings several nwn bers through an amplifier. It "n*"; have been better had she <lo»?,S: least one ur.assisted mechanicaiwi but shd' cllclrs,' The Sisters of the Skillet foil**' They answer some letters and vw» stage Imitations of well known raoj" characters through the ft^P""?; Ending with the Amos 'n Anw group, they arouse, a Btottaoij"/ plause by an excellent B'J'"^ Crawford, They are both funny ««> good. • Baby Rose Marie concluae* Nothing is usually duller .^^fSnt child actor, but this one is dlttere" (Continued pn Page 38)