Variety (Sep 1933)

Tuesday, September 5, 1935 FIL^i REVIEWS VARIETY n9 Talking Shorts MADHOUSE MOVIEC Novelty ■" 9 Mi Its. Rialto, N. Y. : , Paramount Good'ad^ea tl^c^t works for amaz- ingly eobd laugh, purposes, . It's BcrejVy siap.-tbgetjier stuff nnd no- body getttogr any-'screon credit. So.naebqdy-shpuld have. It's worth . d'evieloplijiff into "a series, as a mat- ter of fact, and—unless overdone— pretty .sure to. click-. ' "' ' Starts -.with 'Screwy Sports'. ■Thslt's some wrestling 'shots, with a vejry.fpnny running description. ■ A f^vir'ffike . shots-".thrown in just .; to confuse . the •• Issue. ; Th'en 'Nutty Newsreel,', which is pretty much self rexplanatory.'. Roy Atwell is shown at a boat arrival as a states- man--and asked to speak, with his usual goofy stuff resultant. A shot calledxradio crooners' meet consists of a^'Unch of hogs in a pen. Couple niore'"along those lines. This sec- tion is 'Silly. Slants on Family Pho- tographs'. That turns out to be a scene from Mae West's 'She Done Him Wrong'. Played straight first. Then with a substitute sound track In Yiddish dialect burlesquing the thing beautifully all the way through. Night caught this short was the high spot of a good picture program and got some applause. ICauf. ETHEL WATERS 'Rufus for President' Musical; 20 Mins. Strand, N. Y. Vitaphono With'a personality which vibrates through' the audience and a torchy hum which carries to the further- most nooks of a.theatre like an am- plified base viol, Ethel Waters is a unique screen subject. She is sure- fire in every sense of the. phrase, possessing-a refreshing and atten- tion-commanding verve. .Surrounded-by an all-colored cast Miss Waters is provided with a theme well knit to her own lines. It opens and' closes in a cabin, with main action centered in the dream sequence of herself as vice-presi- dent and her little boy as the coun- try's chief exec. The colored congress is a veri- table patchwork, of laughs. And few are forced. The gags and dia- log are timed and in accford with a continuity, something not often found in the average short. 'Underneath a Harlem Moon' is Miss.. Waters' specialty, rendered during full-length close-ups.' Waly. 'LABOR'S HOLIDAY' Novelty 8 Mins. Paramount, N, Y. Paramount A - rather meaningless idea as backgrduhdlng::' of a male chorus. Views, of' primitive farming meth- ods contrasted ■ with modern tractor field niachinery are shown = to the- accompaniment of an oH-screen leolure. Leads Into views of steel 'mills, railroad trains, cotton mills, etc. Object seems to point out that Machinery has set'the worker free and everybody's happy or ought to be, and factory over-prOductlon hasn't anything to do'with depres- sion, or shouldn't have. Anyway; the preliminaries lead up to a group of a score of male singers in workmen's clothes and bearing sledges, shovels and what- not and furnishing a ringing vocal finish to ah otherwise blah subject Rush. 'USE YOUR IMAGINATION' Hal LeRoy and Mitzi Mayfair. Dancing Sketch 18 Mins. Hollywood, N. Y.. Vitaphono 1545-1546 Something the scenarist—if any— failed to do. Sounds as though it had been written by the dance di- rector. Mostly dancing with a couple of interpolated specialists and a line of girls in a nicely done seated dance and manual routine. LeRoy is an elevator boy with hoofing ambitions. He falls for Mitzi Mayfair, a guest at the hotel, and get.? fired for day dreaming, Later they meet at "the newsstand where he has just been hired and he joins her act. " Neat hoofery in duo and singles and LoRoy plays the callow kid with little effort. Should pleas6 practically any audience. Chic. FISHERMAN'S HOLIDAY Industrial 8 Mins. Hollywood, N. Y. ^'itaphone 5532 Very much like a short made by another company a couple of years ago. under 'Fishermien's Paradise.* Shows a professional fishing crew hauling in. tuna and eventually hooking, but not landing, a shark Follows the- fish down into the cold storage hold and through the cannery. Not helped by a fiat and uninspired off screen voice. Chic. B'way to Hollywood (With Music) Metro production and rcleaae. Directed by Willard Mack. Hnrry Ra.pf, associate pro- ducer. Screen play by Mack and Rdgar Allan Woolf. Musical arrangement by Dr. William Axt; art director, Stanwood Ropers; camera, WlUlam Dnnlels and Nor- bert Brodlne. At Capitol, New York, week Sept. 1. Running time 83 mins. liUlu Hackett... .k.. < Alice Brady Ted Hackctt Trank*'Morgan Anne Alnslee Madge Kvans Ted Hackctt. Jr...'!' Uusaoll Hardie Ted Hnckett, Jr., "aa a child. ..Tncklc Cooper Ted- the Third Kddle . Qulllan Ted the Third as a child. .Mickey Rooney David. Tnd Alexander Joe Mannlon Kdward JBrophy Wanda Ruth Channtng Grace Jeon Howard Also Jimmy Durante, ray Templeton, May Robson, Cl.iire- DuBrpy, Muroel Evans, Claude Kayo, Nelson Eddy, Una Me'rkel. Albortlna Rn.sch. Dnnner.s In very brief bits. . A saga of the theatre that will please. It should get fair box oflice attention and, in tho more sophisti- cated show centers, appeal unusu- ally to the behlnd-the-footlights' fans. Little from Metro's costly 'March of Time' Technicolor musical has actually been resuscitated, although Metro's now historic and costly floppo venture inspired this com- bined effort by Hafry Rapf, Willard Mack and Ddgar Allan Woolf to re- trieve something, from the celluloid wreckage. Some of the rest of it, it has .been diversely reported, will be clipped for exhibition as shorts. Patently it was primed to trace the hoofing, variety Haclcetts from their Tony Pastor's days until the third-generation success of grand- son Ted Hackett III as a film juve- nile st^r. In thrit wise is -dovetailed in all .the array of venerable variety talent which Metro had assembled for its 'March of Time' production four years ago. With the collapse of the musical vogue that dittoed. Instead, save for it Technicoloi' shot of Fay Templeton in a pot pourri of her old-time .songs. Weber, and Fields are not seen but are talked about. .Joo Weber becomes a character in the script—during the second-generation sequence—as the. means for Hackctt II clicking on Droadway while his outmoded parents proudly decide to hoof their way alone on the tank town cir- cuit.''. fiome of tho show biz stulT is very faithful. Mike Shea and Shea's Buf- falo arc mentioned by name. The shot.s of Variety .still flash tho 25c price, which was the newsstand price at -tho time of tho action. Dia- mond .Tim Brady, 'Mr. MiLoheU' (the late Julian MitchMl?) as Weber and Fields' stage director,' the dressing rooms showing Weber and Fields, Miss Templeton and Wil- liam Collier's names adorning the doors, and such intimacies are deft ly blended in. (Apparently the orig- inal 'March' called for W&F, Miss Templeton, Collier, and others to appear in specialties, but all of that is out on the cutting room floor.) Under the circumstances of the trade inside stuff which the aver age fan won't get, it's really a high ly creditable job that the Metro artificers have done. True, the 88 minutes are a bit longish and it drags not a little, but the yeoman chopping already evidenced indi cates what the original problem must have been. . The hypo stuff is evidenced by the casting inclusions of moderate marquee names to punctuate the proceedings. It's all Alice Brady and Frank Morgan's picture in ster- ling characterizations as the origi- nal hoofing Hacketts of Tony Pas tor's time and down through the years into the third.' generation Madge Kvans and Russell Hardle (Ted Hackett, Jr.), sustain the sub- romance interest. Miss Evans makes an impression in a consis tently charming yet dramatic de lineation of Mrs. Hackett, Jr., while Russell Hardle gets across the ijlea of being a No. 2 edition of his old man—a natural-borh chaser al- though lacking the tact and consid- eration shown in the Morgan-Alice Brady stuff. The third generation has Jackie Cooper as Ted III as a child, and Eddie Quillan playing the matured Ted III when he becomes an over- night Hollywood click. The kid goes Hollywood and his berserk stuff is opportunity for a' little pro-Holly- wood propaganda on behalf of the poo'ple who make the films, without jjccoming too obvious about it. The unassighed'ca.st names which are also included are dragged in by the heels, strictly for ballyhoo value. Among 'cm are Durante, whose brief appearance in it. studio ante- room, as a would-be film a.spirant, Is .strictly a onc-to-fillrPay Temple-- tori and May Robson in tho I'csur- rectod;Tcchnicolor stuff; Una Morkle in nn anonymous bit merely shown flirting with the stage actor; others in nondescript bits and the Rasch dancers in retrieved terps from tho proviou.sly planned revue, Mi.ss Brady and Morgan rate .some sort of a croix-de-Metro for helping su.stain so cffoctively, with not a Miniature Reviews ' Broadxyay to Hollywood' (Metro)." Backstage flicker with' flocK of marquee naincs that .wlU please fairly well right down the line. 'One Sunday Afternoon' (Par). Only non-musical, on. -.stage .to Itust the summer in .New York, and still- current, \ made into a picture without vital change. Artistic idea ad- ■ dressed to the discrimlnatingt ■ and seems fated accordingly.-i Strikingly good perforpnancos by Gary Cooper in a character role, and by Frances. Fuller, newcomer from legit. The Masquerader' (UA). Ronald Colman's finale ' for Goldwyn. A fine production with too much story handicap. Star will have to draw on his own. 'Her First Mate' (U). Sum- merville-Pltts co-starrer with better yarn than others of tiit series. 'The Big Chance' (Eagle). Rush production to beat major studios' prize ring cycle, and a little out of 1>reath. Limited ' appeal. 'One Man's Journey, (Radio). Heroizes a country doctor, Lio- nel Barry more. Carries sym- pathetic interest ,a^d appeal. May get its best results in the smaller towns. 'The Important- Witness' (Tower), i Gangster plct.Vire with a minimum ,of vio^nce and considerable . com&3y. Action on a bus lends some novelty. Indie program picr ture, good in. its class. 'GRodbye Again.' (WB). Per- fect for audiences of quick wit, but too slick for others. little heart-throb, the true trouper's spirit that the- show must so on at all costs. The finallhg Hollywood scenes show the old gent whipping his gone-Hollywood juve ' star grandson into pliysical shape and moral cognizaince of .what his stew parties do to financial invesfmentq, and the livelihoods of' many others who are depending on ^ him. The. fade-out is a kicker,' as Morg&n does a quiet collapse while his wife, cautioned by the - sound- machines working, chokes her emotions as she watches Ted ni. gro trough .a, hi- larious niusical sequence ' as - her aged husband grows cold in her arms. Both young Cooper and Micke> Rooney as the second and third gen-, eratlon HackettJ rate commenda tion along with Eddie QuiUan's flip work as the recalcitrant Hollywood Juve. The authenticity of the vaudeville evolution and backstage stuff'is in sur-l by such stage vets as. Mack and Woolf having been tho artisans i. this reconstructed flicker. Metro, of course, gives no indica tion oj any 'March of Time' antece- dents in its preiss matter, but it is inevitable that the reviewers dwell upon that. They all did in New York where, incide;>tally, the Capitol staged a Thursday midnight invita tion preview to which the Broadway buncl. and show people were gen- erally invited. It proved a good sendofC. Metro likewise wisely 'has rushed 'Broadway to Hollywood' out e; the height of the revived screen musical vogue. Abel. flicker debut and in this one role establishing herself as an eminent player of a distinct type, that- of the ch-..:oh mouse heroine. She looks the role and plays it with effortless eloquence. Cooper makes a depart- ure, playing a character role that calls for nice judgment, enxbodying a composite of that . 'lade of humor that verges close to pathos and needs nice balance. It seems a little astoni.shihg to find this- player of niany formal lefidihg man roles sud- denly blossoming intOi^v very human character as though he hud been playing homespun peoiilB all his life. Cooper has for years been playing a procession of stuffed ^Irt polite roles and somehow giving them a huma.n touch that they didn't in- trinsically have; by virtue- of some subtly awkward masculinity, sup- pressed in poUtc roles, but vaguely sensed. But 'One Sunday After- nj)on' • unhappily hasn't the story setting for the necessary universal appeal. Early sequences are slow; process of building the sentimental situation of a likeable-country boob getting himself married to the wrong girl and then trying dumbly to make the host of the bargain, is labori- ously accomplished and it Isn't In- herently screen material. The mob isn't easily persuaded to take ■ Its heroes diluted with half-comic frail- ties, or its drama gro-(vihg out of dull commonplaces. It shouldn't be so, but it Is. Biff Grimes, with his clodhopper' love- making and the boobish pretenses with which he conceals his naive virtues, is infinitely morje interesting than any stereotyped hero, bui he calls for more sympathetic under- standing than the average fan has in his or her equipment. \ htory has a peculiarly stage way of seeking" its points by indirection, A sentimental scene Is likely to de- velop out of comsdy, such as the episode where Biff Is about' to mur der his successful rival while his yokel friend'' Is expressing comic terror nearby. A multiplicity of such cohfllcts -with formula are likely to confuse a|td disturb the average picturegoer." Finish Is the best of the footage and -one that will register every- where. The wofnian the hero didn't win and whom he has been dream Ing of for yeaVs, turng put unwor thy. Out of his realization of the fact, ha fujirns to the patient but neglected'rea» wife with the awak- ened affectio-1 she long had starved for. Rush. HER FIRST MATE Universal production and release. SUni Summorvllle and Zasu Pitts starred. Di- rected by William Wyler. Adaptea by K.-xrl Sntll, II. M. Walker and Clarenca Marks from 'Salt Water.' play by Da.n Jarrelt, Frank Craven Ani John Golacn. George Robinson, photog. At Roxy, New York, week Sept. I. Running tlnje, 0* mins. John Horner Urn SummervtH* .* . rTA .... Mary Horner,...^ Hattte t Percy Davia ' 3Ani .............-*....*.I Socrates. '.. THE MASQUERADER Sefmuel Goi'dwyh production. United Ar tlsta. relcVtse. Ronald Colman starred Ellssa Landl featured..' Directed by Rich ard Wallace. Adapted by Howard' Esta- brook from John Hiinfer Booth's Crama- tlzatlon of Kathcrlne Cecil Thurston's novel. Dialog by Moss -Hart. At RU'oIi, New York, starting Sept. 2. Running time, 78 mins. John Ronald Colman Evo Chllcote Ellssa Landl Lady Joyce ; ....., J-ullette Compron Brock ;....HBlllwell Hobbes Frfiser ; David Torrence Lakely .Crelghton Hale Robbing ' Helen Jerome Eddy Alston .Eric "Wilton Speaker Montague Shaw One Sunday Afterhoon Paramount production and release. Star- ring Gary Cooper. Directed by Stephen Roberta. Produced by' IxmlB D. Llghloh from stage play of same name by James Hagen, still current in New York. Camera- man Victor. Mltner. At PAramount. New York, week Sept. 1. Running time 6S mlna. Bin Grimes Gary Cooper Virginia Brush Fay Wray Hugo Barn«tead Nell Hamilton Amy Lind Frances Fuller .Snappy Doyirner Roscoe Ka'rns Mrs. Llnd Jane Darwell Mrs. Brush Clara Blandick Dr. Stnrtzman ..........Sam Hardy .Schneider .Harry Schultz Ulnk Hoops James Bartls Foreman ; A. S. Byron Watchman .Jack ClUTord Another adapted stage play with a legit background of success, whksh weighs in for. >the screen as less th ■ u average boxofflce, principally because it is still pitched in stagre tempo for the screen and unfolds haltingly. Its substance Is delicate character humor and elusive senti- mental appeal and these arci quali- ties that are dlfllcjlt to translate from footllght to celluloid. Briefly, the story lacks vigor in- its transition. Record of the play, the only non-musical to last out the summer on Broadway, argues that it has the popular element in the original, but it doesn't carry it along to its picture version. Its faults -cannot be laid at the door of the players who give the story engaging interpretation, par- ticularly the performances of the two central characters by Gary Cooper and Frances l-'ullet, the lat- ter a stage actress making her .Classiest of class production,' treatment and casting failed to blow the breath of life Into this noted synopsis, which became a best seller in 1905 and remained one for over a generation. As a temporary cinematic off-to-BulXalo for Ronald Colman,' who'll be away for awhile unless the calt of the coin should coax him back,. 'The Masquerader' fails to leave a strong final Impres slon.- Colman on his own must do any drawing. Colman can be relied on to do as well as can be done with a part that suits his style, but here his best Is not enough. When Guy Bates Post essayed the double-lead role in ISl"? and for several years thereafter, the quick-change phase of 'The Masque- rader' had' a lot to do with it. But pictures have done away^any nov'- elty of proteanlsm. That leaves everything up to the story Itself, and the Katherine Cecil Thurston story, now pretty much of an an- tique, registers ho dice. The time is etfetched to,the pres- ent, with the depression as the rea- son for the British political crisis. It seems implausible that the nation and his own party should sO much depend on John Chllcote, a stew and a hop head,, just because Chllcote can make pretty speeches. But he can't make 'em -when stewed on up to his eyes in snow. Just as Miss Thurston did back in '05, Sam Gold- wyn and Ronald Colman do In '33— they .call in the do.uble. No audience gasps like the ones in the old days when Colman car- ries on a dialog with himself, at a safe distance away on his own half of the split. They differ physically only by a .«?car on the dou'ole's wrist. The loving wife accepts the double when advl!3od of thermasquerade at the finish, ' ' . . v I'hotography Ls foggy, shaded or clear at the proper moments; the camera work ha.? much to do with the picture's technical excellence. There is the polished Colman for the lead, Ellssa Landl for the wife, and Juliette Compton for the other woman, all in.spired examples of ca,stlng, but too bad the inspiration did not extond to tho script. Jiiffe. Zaett Pitta Una Merkel ..Warren Hjmer .Uertqn Cborchlll ...G'^org^ Maxnoq ' . .Henry Armctta More story backgroiind and supr port than they've been accustoii*^. to give Slim S'ummerville and Zasu Pitts ft-oe play for their single "and double comedy work. Result is good. It's their third cO-feature. A look at the credit. sheet »rid discovery that It took .three, wrlf^frs- to sew this one up to picture re';* quirements, ■ explains' "why this ver^ slon Is considerably, jjilt^rent in cLe-" tail from the- play, 'Salt •-Waiter,* which also necessitated' three' "col- laborators. They were* Dan Jair- rett of the four^a-day (and soHie- times next :to closing) Jarre'tts, Frank Craven and John Golden. Th© adapters mentioned are !Earl Sfiell; H. M. Walker and Clarence Marks, but the one who wrote—or remem-* bered—the- dish-breaking sequence is the one.who pepped up the story. For a change, Summerville and Pitts have a literary reason for most of their antics. To replace tho hackneyed situations out of the gaff man's files there is, In this case, something substantial to build the laufhs oh. When Miss Pitts says, "Oh, dear me,' to grab the usual howl, there is a reason now. But the star billing for the team still is wr.rranted, because they remain as important as the story, probably more so. Every close-up of either one, or both, is another inning In- a seven-reel mugging contest;, and the kids howl at. *em in the sticks, ■ It's about ' a peanut ,butcher on the Albany nig:ht boat who yeariis for his' owii ship and ify^ sea, and a loving wife who's trying to pro- mote him' to buy ,'the loc^ I'errjr boat. He, windis up with the ferry boat, ' • Una Merkel, Warren Hymer and Henry Armetta^were added tor laughter's sake, and do their share; Merkel and Hymer cari*y the sec-, ondary romance, doing a' reverse Burns and Alien, with the boy riay- Ing silly kid. \rmetta gets his reg^ ular quota as a'comedy rum runner who sells Summerville a dead duck. The only thing ' he doesn't use la 'GeorgD-a da Wash.' A ferry boat .wreck scene was neatly done, along with balance of production. Direction Illustrates keen unc" rstandlng of comedy values, for this one bobs up with* laughs where they're least expected^ Bige, ■ I - .mm rr THE BIG CHANCE Eagle production attd state rlgfata i»> ioa«e. stars John Darrow and ifbtat^ Ken* nedy. Features Natalie Moorehead. Mlcker Rooney, Matthew Betz, Hai)k Mann, J, Carroll Nalsh, Eleanor True - Boardman. Directed by,Al Herman. No credits sYven* At. Loew's New York, N. T„ ono day, Aug. 21), on double bill. Running time. 03 mins. . Evidently given rush production following major studio trend fo a pugilistic cycle. All the familiar Ingredients, the crooked .iight gang, the soft hearted trainer, the l>eau- tlful young thing and the worldly wise rival. Nothing overlooked^ and nothing added. Even the kid, who her6-worships the boxer, Is very much in evidence, but without much effect. Photography fair, but sound bad; Just enough good stuff cominer through to prove that the rest of the chatter is. bad recording and not the fault of the local operator. Development of the plot does not make for suspense and dialog Is generally amateurish. Hardly fair to blame thb players for conventional work. Chic. ONE MAN'S JOURNEY Radio production and release. Features Lionel Barrymore. May Robson, Dorothy- Jordan, Joel McCrea and Frane«e -De©, Directed by John Robertson. JFi-om Utory. Jltt'jure/^by Katherine Havlland Taylor! At the iftjsio Hall, N. Y. we6k Aug. 81. Running time, 72 mins. - Bll Watt \ ...Lionel Barrymore saran May Robson Letty McGlnnls Dorothy Jordan Jimmy Watt joel McCrea Joan Stockton ....Frnhccs Doe McGinnIs .....David Landau Bill Radford ....James Bush Jimmy Watt (age C) Buster Phelps John Radford Oscar Apfel May Rndtord June Fllmer Doctor Babcock Sam Hinda Dr. Tllllnghas Hale Hamilton A saga of' Illness and the sacri- fices of a rural doctor whose oppor- tunities for medical prominence bring qircumstances which make it Impcsslble for him to accept when they arrive too late. Gloomy ma- terial In a measure but carrying' sympathetic Interest and some ro- mantic flavor. Can be counted on ?o malftc a fair to better b.o. show^ ing. jOne Man's Journey' I.s also a 6"ri6 man cast picture, Lionel Barrymore. He's the country doctor with atten- tion to all. Around him are those who prop up the tale of his experl- enoe.s and self-abnegation* But throughout it's Barrymore. Opening finds the doc returning to a small town after failure In the (Continued on page 23)