Variety (Oct 1940)

18 FILM REVIEWS Wednesday, October 9, 1940 ANGELS OVER B'WAY TRIPLE JUSTICE (Continued from page 16) ♦hetic tale of Broadway nightlife and the characters that, roam around -Times Square, Aside from Thomas Mitchell, as a screwball playwnght who sees a story in every iridivxdual, pnd who delights in plotting a finish, there's nothing much in the Hechtian tale. Picture Stutters and. sputters too often to carefully etch human beings/ with result that it develops into an over-dramatic stage play- transformed to celluloid. Picture will have to depend on Fairbianks and Thomas Mitchell for any top key bookings, and at thaf will have to fight hard, to do biz. -Correct groove is in the dual sup- porters. . ■ . Hecht gets little. movement m the unwinding,^. and depends too much on stage technique in trying to put over his points. Ah embezzler (John Qualen) is saved from' committing suicide by the zany: playwright (Mitchell) who proceeds to try and . help the former out of his jam and give him a new lease on life. Fair- banks is a slick youth who shills for ■ a big poicer game, and sets his sights for Qualen who he assumes is a rural hick. There's much byplay. between the trio and a girl who moves in (Rita Hayworth) before plan is wbrked out to recoup the coin in the come-on game. The adventure winds up successfully for each member of the quartet, and each goes his sepa- rate way. . Characters are all over-drawn, yfiih Mitchell providing, many sharp cracks on the philosophy of life and living. Mitchell does much to hold together the minor. interest retained in the running. Fairbanks fails to get much sympathy, or attention as the wise young Broad way ite who knows all the angles. Rita Hayworth is passable as the-girl, while Qualen is bewildered enough as the pros- pective suicide. Action is largely confined to three sets, and is tire- some with its overlength of dialog that goes off on tangents. Wait; DIAMOND FRONTIER Universal releAae of Marshall Grant pro- duction. Stars Victor McLaglien. features John Loder, Anne Nagel, Philip Dorn, Cecil Kellaway. Directed by Harold .Schuster. .Original screenplay, £;dmund L. Hartrhann, Stanley Rubin; camera, Milton Krasner. At Rlalto, N. T., Oct. 3, '40. Running time: 71 MJMS. Regan,. i.........'. .Victor McLaglen Charles Clayton ,John Loder Jeanne Kreuger.., Anne Nagel Stafford. .Philip Dorn Noah ;............... .Cecil Kellaway Derek Bluje Francis Ford Matt Campbell.. i..3, Anthony HUghes Paul WlUem. ..Ferris Taylor Plet Bloem ,.Lionel Belmore Trdvers Hugh Sotbem Baron La Rocque.... l.Sigfrled Amo Kohler. Dewey Robinson (WITH SONGS) RKO-Radlo releti^e of Bert Gllroy pro- duction. Stars George O'Brien, features Virginia Vale, Harry Woods, Leroy Mason. Directed by David Howard. Story, Arnold Belgard, Jack Roberts; screenplay, Arthur ]>. jones. Morton Grunt; c.imeni, J. . uoy Hunt; eUltov, FreaeriQ Knudt.son.^ Reviewed at Colonial, Lincoln.. Sept. UD, MO; Ituiv- nlng time. «5 MI>'S-. „ , Brad. ,. .Goorpe O'Brien Unm.. , . ■:: -VtrBlnla ^ nlo Reeves.,............... •. •.. .ll:irrj' ^Vood.-i Mnry..: . I'oPKy Shannon Gregory.. • • ■ • • • • • Leroy Ma.tnn Cleary...............I'aul Fix Wiley.. ...i... Glenn Strange, P.ayson..,..:..,..... •. .Malisolm McXaggact .The Lindeinun Slaters. • A Hollywood legend is the one about the script writers . who had trouble adapting 'Lives of a Bengal Lancer' until one of them remarked that the novel was just a western that takes place in India. For a couple of scenario veterans, the rest was easy. A modern version of the incident might have one of the scripters suggesting 'Say, let's do a story about the South African dia-. mond rush.' 'Yeah,' says his partner, ■we can just do a western with a South African locale.' 'That's right,' the first enthuses, 'but give it a new twist. Have a 'Devil's Island' anglie; then we can have the hero escape through the jungle.' 'Sure, sure,' his . partner picks it up, 'and we can use —library shots of wild animals, and a. couple of chases by the natives.' And CO on. Of course, all the foregoing is purely fiction, and any similarities to a picture called '•Diamond Fron- tier,' or to the. work of certain script writers named.Edinund L. Hartmahn and Stanley Rubin, are purely "coin- cidental, So coincidentialt in fact, that the casual spectator might easily make the mistake of thinking the boys actually bre^yed up the 'Dia- mond Frontier' screenplay just like that.;. ..- • Whatever the brewing recipe, the result isn't so tasty. 'Diamond Fron- tier' seems an improbable yarn, with only occasional excitement, little sust pehse and a set of obvious charac- ters. A tipoff is that nearly aU the men have beards. An average west- ern fan who had also seen any of the various 'DeviFs Island' pictures could predict the Iplot of this one in advance. And as any stoi'y-confer- ence participant knows, that's not good. Well, the photography isn't half bad. The direction is: fair enough arid the editing is genuinely expert. Victor McLaglen. is his familiar self as the ruthless brigand of the dia- mond country, which is to say he's stereotype and at the same time, Elausible, John Loder, obscured be,-' ind a luxuriant crop of whiskers, is a passable hero, while Anne Nagel (not to" be confused with better- known Anna Neagle, the English star) is direct and believable as the tremulous heroine, who sighs and suf-. fers through. the years until Jier . sweetie returns. Of the supporting; players, Cecil Kellaway stands out as a. philosoph- ical jungle hermit who knows when to .grab passing good fortune, and Sigfried Arno ^ives vivid life to a bit part of a likable penal colonyite. Despite its few assets, though, 'Dia- mond Frontier' is a disaippointer tiiait's only good enough for bottom dualing. Hohe. Slated for maintenance of . the usual caliber of biz for. the series, George O'Brien's adventure.' in 'Triple Justice' is no slouch for west- erns which have- been many and abused ' during the season just passed, 'justice' is iri the A-bracket for the open-spacers produced on relatively small budiget, and ranks among the cream for the action places, just as the star-sti^dded co- lossals go with deluxers. O'Brien came down out of Wyom- ingj according to the script,' just, in time to find the wedding he planned to be best man for, was be- ing^ used as a means of leaving the ,towri occupied so a bank robbery could be pulled. Because, he, not knowing the .nature of his company, rode in . with the bandits, he . was classified by the unknowing townsr people as a .member of the gang. His buddy,- the sheriff (Leroy Ma- son), having been shot, there was no- body, to identify him. Three, looters were Paul Fix, Glenn Strange and Malcolm McTag-r gart whose operations were directed by the depiuty sheriff, Harry Woods. They're very active throughout most of the story. Virginia Vale. is the sister of McTaggart, who is swayed to believe O'Brien, . although the cards are stacked for him, and Peggy Shannon is in for barely a bit. The Lindemah Sisters, non-Spanish look- ers, are thrown into south-of-borr der characterizations anyway, and do a couple of tunes. There's a lot of action In this story,: considerable hard riding, and the photography, in the chases, etc., is nicely handled. Instead of allow- ing the horses to run directly at the rear of the camera car and be smothered in its dust, as is usual with the westerns, the nags are. made to run at the side which gives a more legit appearance. Art. Frontier Vengeance Republic' release at George Sherman pro- duction. . Stars Donald.' 'Red' Barry: Directed by Nate Watt. Screenplay, Ben- nett Cohen , and Barry Shlpmah;. original, Cohen; camera. Reggie Lannlng; . editor, Edward Mann; musical director, Cy Feuer. Reviewed In Projection Room. N. T., Oct. 4. '40. Running time, 51 MINS. Jim Sanders. , .Don 'Red' Barry Ruth Hunter ,...; .\ Betty Moran Clay Blackburn....., .George Offerman, Jr. Frank Blackburn, Ivan Miller Rocky. ,.,Obed 'Dad' Plckard Dancer. Cindy Walker SlacOi Kenneth. . MacDonald Joel . Hunter....... ...... Griff Barnette Zack ,, .Yakima Oanutt Moyer., ....Jack' Lawrence Pinto. .Matty Roubert Showflake Fred 'Snowflake* Toones was undoubtedly the scale by which he liked or didn't like rThunder.' Now, after laying in a vault In New Jersey for seven years, the maiss of celluloid has again been combed, with the resiilt that 56 minutes of it has been pieced together. Editors this time are Paul, Burnford and Marie, Seton, said to be an English newspiaiperwomari who claims to have obtained from Eisenstein hi)rn- self an, outline of what he wanted in the picture. Result, commercially, is dead duck. It's in the familiar docuinentary pat- tern and, with the assist of Eisen- stein's name, should do okay in the arty houses, Beyohd that, however; nothing can be expected of it. Pho- tography by E. Tisse is magnificent, but then Tisse had nothing else to do but take be^utifiil pictures. - He didn't have to make a story of it, he didn't have: to compress the in- tent of a scenario into iah allotted number of feet/ "that makes a, lot of difference, . although there's , no denying rieither Tisse's, skill nor im- aginativeness. There Will be much denying, how- ever, of the lack of story and mean- ing. Perhaps it is there, as the pro- gram notes by Herman , Weinberg would have you believe, in Eisen- stein's effort to get beyond a travelog and instill motivation in the actions of the Mexican Indians and peasants 'whom he pictures. But it's all so vague, and the dreamy commentary does so little to clear the fog, that it takes exclusive- ly that breed of super-intellectual who patronizes the arty cinema reg- ularly to find satisfaction in it. With the excellent camera Tyork, Miss Setoh,' who's credited as p»roducer, might have done well, in fact, to have stepped down from the pedestal Of art and added to the film; some- thing resembling a travelog commen- tary. It might have niiadje it intier- esting and palatable to a much larger group. But it wouWn't be art. Herb, mane* himself on which parental ob jections are overcome by the real father of the lad for an ending which again finds the vagabond AOing off to tramp the countryside. There is nothing very believable about the irtory and some of the plot as well as Tts handling is highly inconsistent. . The farmer, a Simon Le^ree type, la. played by Lurville. His actions are thoroughly unnatural. Cbmedy consists mainly in throwing, some eggs and other silly horse-play. Victor Francen plays the tramp, a somewhat unsympathetic character because of the stupid things he does. The girl is Tania Fedora while the man she niarries and gives a name to her iliegitirhate child is George Colin. Neither impresses. The boy is played by Eymont and also isn't much. ■ G/uir. MOZART ' (MUSICAli) L -E.'Lopcrt release of Associated British produi(>tlon. Features Stephen Haggard, Victoria Hopper. Directed by Bdsil Dcah. Original by Margaret Kennedy; settings, Andre Andr^lev; ■ costumes, .Ernst Stern:- camera, Jan Stallch. London PhUhnrmonlo Orchestra conducted by: Sir Thomas Beechani. At Little. Carnegie, N. T.. week Oct. 3, '40. Running, time: 78 MIN8, Moxart ..... ,........ Stephen Haggard C<Jnstanz«................. .Vlctdrlo. Hopper Prlno?' LopkowitBv;. . . . ..'.... Johii Loder Aloyala ......... .........: . .LInne Hald PrauiMozart.. ..'.............. ,.Tean Cadell Leopold MoMrt. .Hubert Harben The Emperor...> .... i Frederick Leister The Empress . Marie Lohr Arrhbishnp of Sjilxliiirg;. .Lawrence Hanray Child Antoinette.... i.......... .'Dlcdre Gale Mozart as boy...., .;...Pat Fltzpatrlck Schlokaneder.. .Norman Walker HERE IS IRELAND (COLOB) ■ .Irish American Film Corp. release of Pat Stanton production.. Travelog In color nar- rated and photographed by Pat Stanton. At Belmont. N. T., week Oct, 2, '40. Running time. 120 MINS. This. is one of Republics poorer westerns. Direction, casting and general production values are lack- ing, with the main fault lying in a script that's been screened many times before with but slight varia- tions. It's for the duals only. Donald 'Red' Barry, new Republic ■wesfefh star, still ■ shows a certain restraint in his thespic chores, and the rest of the cast is but little bet- ter. In this one Barry is framed for the murder of his best friend,' with whom he'd had a falling-out, and in- tertwined are the competition be- tween two -stagecoach lines , and the roniance involving . Barry and the driver of one of them (Betty Moran). The climax of the yarn deals with the stagecoach race, all the usual dirty dealing incliiiied, the victor getting the transportation contract. Miss Moran, a newcomer, is fairly comiely as weistern heroines go, but has little to show in the way of act- ing. George Offerman, Ji-., as Barry's friend, who is reconciled to the lat- ter in his last moments, contributes a istandard performance^ • . Ivan Miller, as the crooked stagecoach owner-rival, and father of the slain youth, gives the best performance. TIME IN THE SUN (MEXICAN AIiU>E): ■WoTld release of Marie Seton production; Directed by Sergei M. filsenstein. Docu- mentary, prcpftred from excerpts of Un- finished film, 'Que Viva Mexico,', by Elsen- stein. Camera, E. Tisse; editor, Miss Seton ond .Paul Burnford. At the Fifth Ave. playhouse,. N. Y., st.artlng Sept. .30. Run- ning time, 56 MIN.S. ,. An elongated travelog, -'Here Is Ireland' is nevertheless an interest- ing piece of work. Its length, apr proximately two hours of various as- pects of modern life in Erin, is just too much of .that type of film to take at one. sitting. But the opportunities for cutting.and tightening are plenti- ful.. Filmed in color throughout, it is supposed to have been three years in the making. Advertising on the Pat Stanton production aims at an angle that lui- doubtedly will account for some part of the film's returns. Iti advises to 'see the improvements In yom; to'wn and country.' At this catching sev- eral members of the audience seemed very familiar with scenes of Kerry, the Lakes of Killarney, etc. Stanton also did camera work and narration. . Of the three phases he handled the narration best,. accom- panying the film 'with soft-spoken explanations that are never too wordy and never Interfere in any way with eye reception. Photography hasn't the same quality. It's too dark in most sequences, but the scenes and coloring captured in some shots are brilliant examples of subject selec- tion. There are a few that, except for, movement, could easily pass for projected picture post cards. Sound is not up to-American stand- ards. Stanton's voice itself is often not reproduced proper^yr, and the short interludes of background mtisic suffer the. same treatment. It's not, however, noticeable enough to be a serioiis drawback. Wood. Sergei M. Eisenstein, Russian di- rector, back in 193i ;!weht to Mexico to film what he thought might be- come an epic study of the Mexi- can people. Picture was to be. titled 'Que Viva Mexico,'. For one reason or. another, after shooting well over 100,000 feet he returned to Russia, Film was never cut and Edited. In 1933, Upton Sinclair and others culled the footage and. released 'Thunder Over Mexico.' Picture caused a load of dispute, many of Eisenstein's devotees claiming the editing had completely changed it from what the director had In mind. Degree of the spectator's pinkness 'Mozart* is the least Interesting of several foreign-made -vehicles cout cerning European composers. It de- picts the triumphs and failures of the brilliant. Austrian composer; but the portrayal of this great musician won't impress music lovers, nor will; the actors who surround him. Never- theless, the pictui*e carries consider- able appeal: for arty cinemas beicausei of the London Philharmonic's play- ing of Mozart's immortal works, out- standing, of course, being The Magic Flute,' which brings the film to a fluttering climax. 'Mozart' looks as" though It had been produced three or four years ago •«vith plenty of revamping sub- sequently to prepare it for American audiences. Mouthing of words and broken continuity suggest this. If released three years back in this country, it doubtlessly would have stacked up commendably with Brit- ish-miade fare. But as it stands to- day picture sags woefully on the technical and acting branches. No particular sympathy is aroused over the mishaps in Mozart's life. Nor are some of them very clearly unfolded. The auditors suddenly learn that the composer has fled his Sce^ejs of triumph in Paris, but the reasons are vaguely obscured by a hurried fadeout sequence. The fact that Victoria Hopper, as his wife, proves an annoying charac- ter Is partly responsible for this at}- sence of synipathy. She muddles her way through, with little rhyme or reason. Stephen Haggard, In the title role. Is a negative character, with evident traces of stage tech- nique marring his performance! John Loder will hardly be recognizable to American audiences, cast as Prince LopkowitZi Supporting cast, outside of Liane Haid, who is miscast as Mozart's first love, is equally stilted. The London Philharmonic under Sir Thomas Beiecham's baton is su- perb throughout. Picture is hand- somely and expensively mounted, but the direction and acting hardly '"maitch. • Wear. Shirley Temple .Continued from page 3. THE. OPEN ROAD ('Le Cheminealu') (FRENCH-MADE) ■Robert Mlntz release of Fernand Rivers production. Directed by Rivers. Stars Vic- tor Frrtncen; features'Tanla Fcdor, Georkes C'olljlv Lurville,- Eymont. From . the ploy .by Jean Rlchepln; photography; Mundvil- ler; editor, Datlowe. English titles, Ralph Rooder. At B5th St. Playhouse; N. T., week Oct 4, '40, Ruhhlng time. 86 MINS. The Vagabond ..>;•.....,...; .Victor Francen Tolnette. •..,;.;. „,.,... .. .Tanla Fedor Francois.,.;............,..,.. ,Georgei Colin Master Pierre..^... ,.,, ,Lurvllle Martin. v...........,-,....... -Morton 1 nomas.,........ . .Rivers Cadet Toi.net. Eymont Catherine...,.;. ..........Jeanne Marken Aline. , tI ... .'.Lucy Leger (In French; ivith English Titles).: Lengthy and tiresome, 'The Open ROad' is a French import of lower- case importance. In the small mar^ ket which exists for foreign-mades in this country it will have tough sledding. It's not a recent French production, being one of those dug up to fill the Crallic void.. • The ;stor.y Is provocative but also sappy and the English titles of Ralph Roeder are not sufficiently inspiring to overshadow the. mediocrity which generally exists in production, di- rection, acting, etCi A hobo aroynd .whom an aura of romance is synthetically produced goes to work on a farm long enough to have an affair with one of the wheatfield gals, then tramps the. roads for 20 yearff before returhing. By now his son has become a young man, grown up to believe that an- other who married his mother is the father. The boy Is involved in a ro- ELI ELI (WITH SONGS) Cinema ■ Service production and relea.<ie. Stars Esther Field.. Directed by Josef Sel- den. Screenplay, I.Mdor Frankel;. mufiloril direction, .Sholom Secunrta. Reviewed at Clinton, N. Y., Sept. 27, '40. Running time, 88 >IINS. ' Cast: .Esther. Field, L.n.iiar Freed, .Irving ^acobspn',. Mae Schoehfpld. Muni 'Serebforf, Tlose. Greenfield, Max Badin, Paiila Lubel- ska, ICUrtlo Frledlander; Isldoi- FranUel, Herman Rosen, . cent period and as she develops into a player able to take Increasingly mature parts. 'Also being taken into cohsideratidh are hier parents' wi.'jhes for a more normal girlhood for Shir- ley, who's been active in pictures since she appeared in 'Red Haired Alibi' for Capital (indie) at the age of three. Various angles of the Temple deal are being worked ov»t in New York and on the Coast Eastern end, which cohcerhs financial arraiige- mehts, is being handled by. Frank Orsattii the kid starts agent, who re- turned from the Coast last week, and Nick Schenck, prez ,of . Metro, . Or- satti's brother, Vic,' is working out the production angles with studio toppers on the Cdast. Metro execs are so confident that Shirley will become one of Leo's legion they have assigned- Agnes Christine. Johnson to screenplay Kay Van Ripper's: original, .'Kathleen,' for the moppet. Musical \ by Arthur Freed is also being contemplated lor her. On Air for Lux Oct. 14 Hollywood, Oct, 8; Shirley Temple does her first com- mercial broadcast Oct. 14 for Lux, reenacting 'The Littlest Rebel' With other members of the picture' cast. During her heyday as the top b.o.. dra'W, moppet's reps turned down as high as.$15,000 for one air shot. Ceil- ing on Lux program is $5,000, ■ Only previous air appearances by youngster have been on charity shows. In. the 'Rebel* broadcast she will have the support' of Claude Rains, BUI Robinson and Preston Foster, ■ {In Yiddish; with English Titles) .. Sipce Josef Seideft . has been a pioneer in the making of Yiddish tear-jerkers, 'Eli Eli' emerges as ainother competent ^fforf by the di- rector-producer, though, of course, its excellence can only,be measured according, to the standards of Yid- dish, films. • Starring Esther Field,. Who has long since , become known to Yiddish show biz as.'the Yiddish-Mama,' 'Eli Eli' has the behefit of its Hebraically significant title for boxoffice values at this tifhe of the year, with the ar- rival of. the devoutly- orthodox Yld- 'dish holidays, ;' ^^ 'Eli Eli' deals with ari old theme in the: Yiddish theatre and on the screen, forsaken parents. Miss Field is. the mother in this case and Lazar Freed plays the" father, both of whom are knocked about by their adult children.: Each carries out the characterization Well. Support is also okay. : Sholom Secunda's score Is In keen- ing with the tragic theme, TITLE CHANGES ^ . , Hollywood, Oct, 8. RKO switched fronT 'Let's Find a Song' to -'Let^s Make Music' for Bob Crosby's film debut. 'Her Husband Said NO' became 'She Stayed Kissed' at Warners. Scouts* Behefit Continued from page i , at the. old Lexington Opera House), but to this day, says Berlin, he doesn't know whateves-happened to the profits. He presumes it , went into some general mess fund. The original idea of the show was to build barracks at Yaphanlt for the wives and sweethearts of the »ol- diers. That never came to pass, as the Armistice ended all that. Memorial to Major General Bell Berlin, who enlisted at Camp Up- ton as a private and wound up a sergeant, adds that as and when the 'Yaphank' revival comes to pass as a Broadway entry—apart from its cantonment recruiting work—he'd- drop everything and personally as- sist In re-staging it as a memorial to Major General Bell, who really was the one who Inspired 'Yip Yip.' As regards -the Scouts' show and 'God Bless America'-^which song. Incidentally, again bounced back to No. 1 bestseller last week, and now has realized some $60,000 for the nxovement—Metro was the fir.st to want -to buy the song -a.s a_procIiic- tion number.- Berlin felt it mi(4ht make a good patriotic film and net perhaps $150,000 more for the Scouts, ;until the Culver City officials, con- vinced him that It might not pan out commercially. Accordingly, Berlin s okayed the usage of his song , finale for the motion picture jjidustry'.s film cavalcade at the N; Y: World's Fair, which is, titled 'Land of Liberty,' and which is due to go out as.a patriotic release (physically distributed via Metro) directly after the N. Y. Fair folds. 'God Bless: Ameri cai' may be- come a subtitle to the 'Land of Lib- erty' film. . ;. Lanchesier Continued from page 1_ They Wanted' at the Radio- City Music Hall, so Miss Lanchester will probably give a. definite answer on the nitery Idea after conferring with hirn. Actress is known - to be dissatis- fied with the ki^d of parts siie has been given in Hollywood. She fig- ures that If she. does the kind of satirical character comedy" at which she made a rep in London, it may. , get her a chance to do that kind, of tiling In pictures. Instead, of the super-serious parts she's been given. However, she's also eager to resume cafe performing on its own account She has no ifilm commitments. Laughton will remain a. few days in New York after the preem" of 'Wanted* and will then leave on a brief tour of personals in other cities the ^itture Is playing.