Variety (Jun 1935)

Wednesday, June 12, 1935 PICTURES Film Reviews SPRING TONIC (Continued fi'om pnee 12) Bine, Mlna relying solely on heiv nasty disposition to get along. Cir- cus eeema to be near the lodge •where Misses Trevor and Pitts are planted, for In due time both Kins and. Mina show up; he on the make for the girl, Mina more or less baffled and purposeless. Mitchell and Durante work in their energetic routines. Story and direction are excep- tionally poor. So much so as to make a professionally standard cast look bad. Miss Trevor struggles bravely agalns. great odds, and Ayres is at all times at an utter disadvantage. Character of the pic- ture calls lor no production values. Boll. THE CLAIRVOYANT ORumont-Biltlsli pioilucllon and GB-Fox release. Stara Claude Hnlns and Fay Wray, Dlrcclod by .Maurico Elvey. Story, Ernat Lothnr; comeru, Errol Hindu. At Roxy, X, Y., week June 7, '33. Runnlni; time, 73 uilns. Mnxlnuis (MInil Hc.ider) Claude Rains Rene, His Wife .Fay Wray Christine '. Jane Daxtcr Simon. Uon Field Madame Mary Clare Customs OITlcor Jacic Ralne Lodging Housekeeper MaiKRret Dftvldge Blmetcr Denier \Varron Derelict Donald Calthrop 'The Clairvoyant' is an effort to fit material to Claude Ualns but a mild excuse as screen entertain- ment. It is an 'absurdly fanciful story short of being able to measure up to average grosses in this coun- try. Rains plays a mindreader who 'suddenly comes Into posses.sion of actual powers of prophecy. Story gives him these powers only when a certain girl, daughter of a rich newspaper publisher, is in his pres- ence. He predicts a train wreck, long-shot winner of a Derby and flnally a tunnel explosion. 'Without ever raising any reasons for real dramatic tension, narrative plods ELEANOR GATES' 'POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL' SOLD BY MISS GATES' EXCLUSIVE HEPRESENTATIVE FLORA STARR in Associati ith LESTER LEE io Fox Film for Tulhle V^nloii Starring !jIIlRL£V TF,.M1>L£ Saturday Eve. J'ost, CosynopoUtnn atorlcs and Other Material Now Available, Jnchiding "THE SKY CHASER" "WE ARE SEVEN" "rilOKUE" "THE PRAIRIE GIRL'* "THE I'LOW WOMAN" "CUPID; THE COW PUNCH" • Offlcoa of LESTER LEE BKO Building, Rndlo City, New York Circle 7-::i75 FRED SANBORN MGM STUDIOS CULVER CITY. CALIF. along to an end which reunites the soothsaying hero and his wife. Action begins with the married pair doing a mindreading act. They Hop and Rains gets a hunch that a train he is aboard is about to run Into disaster. He gets off, urging others do the same, and five minutes later his hunch comes true. Then he goes back to the English music halls tLS a reclaimed mlndreader. AVhcn about to be canceled he picks the winner of the horse race, and then the girl starts Interfering with his m.Tirried life. This ends after a ridiculous trial against the prophet when his guess that a tunnel explo- sion will occur actually happens, supposedly killing many ihen. As he's about to be hung- or something, this strange guessing power comes to him and he sees all the men es- caping from the tunnel alive. They do and he's freed. Trial scene brings out some odd and unprece- dented court procedure. Rains has done better than in this one, part is aga,lnst him. Fay Wray Is satisfactory as his wife, and Jane Baxter fits as the other girl. Dialog Is ordinary but undoubt- edly handicapped by motive of the story. Char. AIR HAWKS Columbia production and release. Fea- tures Ralph Scllamy, Tala BIrell, Wiley Post, DouRlass Dumbrllle and Victor Klllan. Directed by Albert Rogell; screen piny, Grittin .Tay and Grace Neville; camera. Harry Freullch. At Strand. Brook- lyn, week May .11. ':)«. half of double bill. Running time. C8 mins. Barry Ralph Bellamy Wiley Post ^ Wiley Po.it r^tty Lynn Tala Ulrell Arnold Douglass Dumbrllle Lewis : Robert Allen Mona Bllllei Seward Tiny Victor Killan Drowen Robert MIdrtlemass Gertie Geneva Mitchell Holden Wyrley Birch Shulter. ward Van Sloan Leon Bill Irving Burbank c. FmnUlln Parker nioodle Peggy Terry Pete Al Hill Evidently produced with the idea of cashing in on Wiley Post's -stratosphere cross-continent flights, which to date have not jelled, this air thriller has all the ear-marks of being a sleeper. It's exciting en- tertainment with or without the celebrated round-the-world aviator. After digesting the implausible infra-red ray machine, which figures basically-tn the plot, the tempo of the action is maintained with hardly a Ict-up. Even discounting lack of heavy draw names, 'Air Hawks' should get out of the dual-bill class in many spots. Starting out like a routine dr.ama of airplane company operations, story rapidly develops the unusual. Two aviation firms are battling for air mall contracts. Albert Rogell has not overlooked a bet in building up suspense every time the 'death ray' machine goes into action. He has capable aid from Freullch, who has done a bang-up job with the camera, and Ed Bernds, sound expert. Rogell spots his lighter moments with rare judgment after a. thrill sequence, touching only lightly on the mech- anism of the 'infra-red ray' outfit, preferring to build up the human side of his story. Undoubtedly, there has been some shifting around of the Wiley Post sequences. If the aviator had been successful on any of his coaat-to- coast flights, the Post slant would have figured more prominently. As it stands, this portion of the picture Is introduced plausibly and without detracting from the main theme. Bellamy. Tala Bircll, Dumbrllle, Killan, Geneva Mitchell and Edward Van Sloan contribute strongly throughout. Something new in air dr.imas, Its word-of-mouth bally should help even In face of marquee weakness. UN OISEAU RARE ('Rare Bird') (FRENCH MADE) Paris, June 1. Mcca Films production and H. Rous- slllon release. Featuring Max Dearly and Pierre Bra.-iaeur. Directed by Richard Pot- tlcr. script and dialog. Jacques I'rcvert; muglc. H. Po\i.hsIkuc; camem, Joan IJarhe- lot. At Marlvaiix, Paris. Running time, lUO mine. .Mellevlllc M,iv Dearly Jean Bertlilflr Pierre Drasseiir Valentin Forlichet Pierre l.arquey Renco Monlque Holland Leonle Madeleine tiultty (In French) This ranks among the fiirmicsL iicreon farcps sliown in France llii.s yo.ir. Only competition l.s 'Adom.ii Aval.-itour,' in whicli Nocl-Nool and I'Vrnandel got their lau'^'hs together, but latter is a kid of Frt^ncli ai-iny life and tluis incomprohcn.sible out- side of France, whereas the .situa- tions and dialog of 'Rare Bird' ai e funny anywhere. A.s In the. 'J/,iKt Billionaire' 'Hone Clair's film. M.ix Dearly plays a kidding version of a big bu.«iiicKS man. In fact, his work heie re- .st;mbles that in the Clair opus, al- though the filniK are not comparable otherwise. 'Bird' Is far less pxliiiv- agant, more boxofflce and, as a mat- ter of fact, really funnier. Film kids advertising slogans, contests, boards of directors, swell summer hotels, passionate young women, and the devotion of old servants. Plot Is not extraordinary, but picture is made by dialog, di- rection and acting. Dearly plays an eccentric mil- lionaire who wants to find out how the other half lives. He does so by going to a swell winter sports hotel disguised as the poverty-stricken winner of a slogan contest conduct- ed by one of his conipanies. Bras- seur, a popular comedy Juvenile, plays the winner of the second prize, genuinely poor, who Is taken for a millionaire by the hotel people. In this commonplace farce struc- ture of mistaken identity and re- versed positions. Dearly, Brasseur, Larquey and Madeleine Gultty pro- duce some genuine French laughs, without any dirt but with plenty of satire. For New York, with good dialog titles, it would be perfectly comprehensible, and the work of Max Dearly would go big. Stern. Red Blood of Courage Ambassador production and release. Stars Kcrmit Maynard. Directed by Jack Kng- llsh. Story, James Oliver Curwood. Screen play. Barry Barrlnger. Camera, .\rthur Reed. Film editor, Richard G. Wray. At .\rena, N. Y., week June 3,' '30. RunnUig time. .'i3 mlns. Jim Sullivan Kermlt Maynard Ueth Henry Ann Sheridan -Mark Henry Reginald Barlow Hart Slager Ben Hendricks, Jr. Frenchy George Regas Meyer N'at Carr Joe Charles King There's everything here for the action fan except the skyline ride of the hurtling horsemen, but plenty of fast riding on the flat. It should satisfy In nabes and' spots where action and mayhem are the demand. Unlike most of the bravo dramas, 'Red Blood of Courage' has a fair story base to Justify the sanguinary events that transpire, and the director has done an intelligent Job of pacing. The scrlpter also has exercised good Judgment in providing his hiero. Kermlt Maynard, with a minimum of words and maximum of action. Stpry concerns a gang of hijack- ers who've learned that an old man's land is fabulously rich in oil. They imprison him, and the leader, who bears a striking resemblance to him (Reginald Barlow In a dual role), acts as host to his niece, Ann Sheri- dan, arriving from the city. Girl hasn't known the old uncle, doesn't realize the deception. Along comes Maynard of {he Mounted, In mufti, hunting a lost colleague whom he believes to have been murdered. His prying leads to his capture by the gorillas, and his suspicion of the gang, strength- ened by similar reactions of the girl, cause him to investigate their af- fairs. He discovers evidence that the gang has killed the other Moun- tie. He and the girl are conferring on means of gaining the gang's secret when her pseudo-uncle and his chief henchman break Into her room. Maynard conceals himself in a closet and the phoney uncle is preparing to slaughter him when he is himself shot and killed by his own lieutenant. Latter tries to pin the murder on Maynard, has him seized and locked in a room. The real uncle now suddenly ap- pears, cuts Maynard's bonds and the latter escapes to summon the Moun- ties by cutting In on a telephone line. Gangsters have trailed him, shoot him off his tree telephone perch and rush back to tell their leader the cops are enroute. May- nard, close behind them. Invades a room where the heavy is trying to overpower the girl. AU-over-the place fighting ensues, with Maynard loser as the heavy's stooge crowns him with a chair. They then grab the girl, prepare to escape In a buckboard. The chief renegade fires the building, leaving Maynard and Old Uncle to cook. From there on the film races to a happy ending, with the doomed pair escaping the fire and Maynard joining the .Mounted in the pursuit of the vil- lains and the girl. There is plenty of good fighting and fast riding streaming throuprh the film, with Maynard working In rodeo trick horsemanship legiti- mately and effectively. But divorce- ment of the buckboard from Its horses, with the girl left alone in a horseless carriage that keeps straight In the traffic lane until Kermlt dashes up to snatch her to his heart and horse. Is a bit too thick, even for an actioncr. Cast does exceptionally good work, pspcclally Barlow and Ben Hendricks, Jr. Miss Sherld.an Is a newcomer who l.s acceptable in a sliadowy role. Photography is fine. i?0)l. Republic Now Official Hollywood, June 11. Monogram Pictures changes its i.radfmark to Republic tomorrow (12). First rocrlonal Hales meet will take plpre In Si-attle June 15. MEN ON WINGS (RUSSIAN MADE) Moscow Kino-Comhlnot for Amkino re- lease. Features I. I. KovaUHambor.sky, E. K. Melnlkovn, A. P. Chrlstyakov, V. V. Shchukin. Director, V. Ralsman. Screen play. A. Mncheret; camera, L. Kos- matov; music, .V. Krlultov, At Cameo, N. Y., week June 7, '33. Running time, B1 mln.-i. Bellayev 1, Koval-Snmborsky Galya lil.'itrova E. K. Melnlkova Khrushchev A. P. Chrlstyakov Rogachev V. V. Shchukin (III Jtn.tsiaii) Except for leciinical excellence of direction and photography, this pic- ture doesn't pack much b.o. Thin on story but strong on propaganda. Thesis here is discipline, with all personal Interest and individualism subservient to the state. Secondar- ily, it Is a vehicle for advertising the aviation progress of Russia. Weakest part of the picture, where story and direction nose-dive simul- taneously, has to do with a crash where the cameraman has to be content with a long-range, indef- inite view of a smoking plane after the crackup. No clbseups whatever. Later, there is an extremely ama- teurish sequence, evidently interpo- lated to show the efflciency of the fire department and ambulance service. Story Is built around the Soviet flying school. Baliayev, commander of the 'air squadron, is an almost fanatical stunt flier. He's interested professionally and sentimentally, In Bitrova, a girl student, who later becomes a full-fledjjed aviator. As- signed to show off .X new plane, he goes up in spite of last-minute warning that its feed line is Imperr feet, also defies orders by Rogachev, head of the school, ngaln.st stunt- ing. His plane crashes, he is hos- pitalized for a long time and, when he return's to tjie school, finds he is in disgrace with the service, and the girl, for violating discipline. The girl is in love with him, but her loyalty to the' .state is greater than her admiration for the man. Acting of the principals Is re- strained and effective, with Shchu- kin, programmed, as 'honorary ar- tist of the Republic,' doing a splen- did piece of work. The girl, Melnl- kova, Is a blond, chunky and shy on fl.a., but expressive and capable. K-oval-Samborsky Is fair, not un- like Reginald Denny in looks. Next to Shchukin, be.st work is the char- acter comedy of Chrlstyakov, avia- tion mechanic. Direction of the principals is. in the- main, very good, but the film l6 slow in tempo, extremely draggy In spots where the camera Is held endlessly on empty corridors of a school interior. English titles suffice and this Cameo showing is billed .is the American premier. Bon. Taylor, Claude Dampiei', Ralph Ince and others, he perpetrates a lot of splendid horseplay that cannot fall to get laughs. But 85 minutes of this is considerably too much. With some resolute deletion this would make a splendid second fea- ture in the United States, and sure to bo a draw in the provinol.il cen- tres here. -Jolo. Justice of the Range Columbia production and relen'je. Fea- tures Tim .McCoy. Directed by David Sel- man. Story and screen play. Ford Beebe: dim editor. Albert Clark: camera, George Meehan. At Criterion, N. 1f., week June 0. '3S, as half double bill. Running time, 118 mlns, Tim Condon Tim McCoy Janet McLean Bllllo Seward Bob Brennan Ward Bond Hcdiey Graves Guy t.'sher John McLean Edward LeSaInt Enough action to sati.sty the west- ern fan, so this Tim McCoy boss, opera is good fare of its sort. Boasts nice direction and unusual cast support. . Range vvar and family feud, a midnight slaying and robbery, and a battle to save the family ranch. McCoy is the cattle detective hired by one faction and then by the other, only to find himself accused of the ranch foreman's murder. Some .sleuthing enables McCoy to end the feud and hold the ranch Cor its rightful owner. Mystery angle accentuated,, but the usual gun play and hard riding has not been neglected. Certain amount of suspense is built up, making for stronger interest than customary In cowboy volilcles. McCoy, judging from this feature, Is Improving as an actor, while Bil- lie Seward is good to look at but has little to do here. Ward Bond Is a prominent asset and well-bal- anced cast rounds out. Recording job not of the lilghcst, but western fans won't mind. SO YOU WON'T TALK (BRITISH MADE) London, May 30. Warne r-Flrxi National proluctinn, dis- tributed by r'irst .N'ational, Stani Monty riankH. Dlrei^ted by Wil)i;im Meaudinc. Original story by Tom Ocra^'hty. Pre- viewed Tlvoll ihfatr", l.<mdon. May 2!l, '•').",. Tony Cazcrl Monty Hank;i Kdllh.. ....Vera Pe:ir<n Harriet ... ■Ttha IVl ''re Pauline •; id St.-m|i Taylor Katrina arli'l Angciu!" ri.Tliih yniingor ItalDlr In<-e Wllldlr Whi.'ill'-.. . , .'.'laMdn namidr r 1'f.rbleu Tu'lan Itoyre .Mr. I'll Ming. ..A. Brutnloy Davenport Would li.'ive been a perl't!(t id(;a for a .scrr'c.n vehicle tor Charlos Chafilln. By thf> torms of .-in uncle's will mnin rhaiactiM' is to inherit a largo foiiunc piovidrd he doesn't sp'alt or willo for HO tl;iys. That (lof-n't mean that Monty Hunks (lo(>Kn't acquit hi self with honors. Ills long apiirenticcshlp in Ihf siknts has tindonbtcdly hflpfd. A lily fed liy Pf tor I'.ornai-d. Voi;ii pi:\rr-c, p,ortha Ti^lmoif, lOnId Stamp CIRCLE OF DEATH Willis Kent production and releuae. Fe.i- tuies Monlle Montana and Takinia t-nnutt. Directed by Frank Glendon. From story by Roy Claire. Camera, James Dlan*in<t. At Arena. N. y., Juno 8-9. '33, as half double bill. Running time. r>5 mlns. Little Buffalo ontle Montana Mary Carr Tove Lindan J. F. Henry Henry Hsil Yak Yakima Canutt Despite some excellent riding by Montie .Montana and Yakima Ca- nutt, a lesser Western. Story dis- plays no originality, but director has managed to sustain some Inter- est largely through action. Old yarn of the white baby saved by the Indiana after a massacre. He grows up with the redskins, speaks their lan.guage and is best rider in his group. He successfully aids a white cattle owner to thwart and round up a K,T.hg of rustlers. Falls In love with the r.anchovvner's daughter and they meet for the final close-up. Montana looms as a new figure for Westerns but he will have to Im- prove as an actor. Tfakima Canutt has been In Westerns for years. Henry Hall, as the gambling house owner and head of the riistlers. Is bad here. Remainder of cast, aside from Princess Ah-Tce-Ha. Indian miss, turns in comparatively feeble performances. San Diego Exhibs in Trap Hollywood, June 11. San Diego exhibs, hard hit by the exposition, expect a business up- beat with return of the fleet and 50,000 gobs. Armada leaves the end of thla month and returns In September, Berkowitz Takes 'Parade' Hollywood, June 11. Sam Berkowitz has closed a deal with Albert Rule for coast distribu- tion of 'Death Parade.' Rule stays on for exploitation tieups. FLORENCE R0G6E Acknowledges with thanks the many favorable notices on her production "THE GREEN GODDESS" at Radio City Music Hall, New York VARIETY (Issue June 5) Says: MUSIC HALL. N. Y. Apparently they realized the need for a good show for a backer-upper and told Flor- ence Roggc to go to It . she hart turned out something differ- ent, and in spots something very beautiful even for Mush; Hall. Something different at the ]Iall Is by way of being a novelty In Itself. the ballot formations mu'h more Intei-catlng . .Several of the figures drew a hand for sheer beauty of placement and move- ment. Miss Rogge rates beau- coup bows on her effort. It's the handsomest thing done here In some time. C'/t/c. FLORENCE ROGGE Director of Ballet at Radio City Music Hall Since Its Inception