Variety (Nov 1927)

VARIETY FILM REVIEWS THE GAUCHO (ContlnMd from paire 18) iiOTelty and worth whflo. Then there are scenes of troops In large numbers yoins through a mountain pass whieh Is a sonrsous sight. The big punch is a stampede of cat- tle to cave the day for the Gaucho. A 'tlP«m«iidottS hsrd iweeps the town, driving everything and every- body befors it. with ths Qau.cho apd kls tofiilBc in and taklB« poa- " ' m tlia Aiiatfc A pip of a v ■' > i ■ - '4- Vm pletura opsns in technicolor with a littlo girl falling from a ladge into a canyon and lying pros- IMM. It looks llko doath. But tliore comes a halo from a rock, showing there is life in her body. The na- thraa eomo forth, wateh the miraele and join In prayer with the girl. Word spreads about the miracle, paoplo como from all around, the girl prays for the healing of a few and soon they call the town Miracle City. Then begins tho action tn hlaok and white. The town grows up, a shrine is built and gold pours in. Rnis, the. Usurper, hears about it and sends his aide (Michael Va- Titch) to take it. Then the Gaucho la flashed. He and his outfit are in tho mountains. A reward of 10,000 pasos is on his head. He starts for a town, tells his men he will iro alone and that they should ride in the long way over the pass. Doug starts his hop>sklp-and-jump stuff. Rashes the natives and. of course, holds sway. The little girl, played hy Lupez. seems to be the only one unafraid. She Just makes for him. haats up another dame who tries to cut in and sticlcs fast to the Gaucho. He decides to head for tho lliracia City. The kid wants to go along. She ia aattng her supper. So he has his men tie ropes to tho base of the building and 100 horses pull the house while he and the girl are in- side. On the outskirts he learns that the men of the Usurper are in possession. So the Gaucho decides to take the army single-handed, telling the men to follow In when their flag is hoisted. Of course he is recognized, and chase after chase follow. Finally he comers the head of the army and forces him to go on the balcony and announce that the Gaucho has been taken prisonor. orders the latter's fla« hoisted and then tells his men to stack their arms. With tho trtck over, tho Gaucho's gang eoBMt Into town un- opposed. Deciding to have peace all around, tho Gaucho puts on a big feast and then orders that prisoners put in Jail by the Usurper's men be brought forth. Thoy are turned loose, with the exception of a leper. Doug sentences him to do away with htansolf. saying if he were in the same plight that is what he would do. The leper, however. stIOka around. Doug goes to the room of a beautiful girl he saw when coming into town. She holds him off and finally the mountain grlrl comes in. She runs at the other girL Doug tosses her around and is cut by a dagger, but gets rid of the girl. Reclining against a window sill the leper grabs his hand. A struggle follows, with the leper tell- ing him to do what he said he would under the circumstances. Doug goes to put the gun to head, but is followed by the girl, who tells him of the miracle shrine. All he need dp is pray. Both pray. He puts his hand Into tho spring and, of course. is healed. Meaawhllo. Hull hoaftt «< the Gaucho being in possession and sets forth for ths town to take him. Gaucho'a llautonant donblo-croosos him and has the followers withdraw to another town. Tho mountain girl tells that Doug la In tho ahrino with the other girl, becomes remorseful, but too late, and he ia captured with tho padra and th* miracle miss. They are to be hanged, but the heroine does a Paul ilevere to his followora. Doug haa figured a way out of the I^UBtile and meets his troops on the outskirts of tho town. Ho doTteoa tho way to take the town by a cattle stampede and, of course, saves the girl and priest who aro about to bo ozaeutod. Outside of the performance of Fairbanks and tho girl, the other players aro Juat In tho cast, al- though Sve Southern stands out as the miracle girL Picture well UUed and photographed and win gat ovor with all of Doug's fans. In some spoU thoy nmy bo a Uttle skeptical about tho lopor ooauonco, but It is so deftly handled that tboro alMMild be no averaion to it. With a Fairbaalni pletura not having boon on the market in more than a yaar. It looka aa though this ono Win got an oknr aU around. I7iif. 1/ Marjorio Beobe and Norman Peck aro boing co-foatured in a picture for Fox whloii WaUaoo Ma oP o n » U1 is directing. Those in the cast of Norma Shearer's next for M-G-M, as yet untitled, Sam Wood directing, are Ralph Forbes, William Bakewell, Bert Roach, Dora Davldapn, Tenen Holts. Story ii M ovIglaMl %r A. P. I4ELP over for a second WEl^ PANTAGES, SAN FRANOSCO AT MY BEST CIRL Mary PtcJiford nvodiioUa^ United AlMols nkaw. Htory by Vsifcltss Wenli. Dl- r»ct«d hr Bam Tartar, gatasrte hf Bnte Lorlns. Cumemmui, CiTurl— Boohar. ItVB- nlDs tliB«^ M mlns. At lUalto, N«v Terk. for run, commendns Not. fw Ifatri* Johnaon Mary Plckford JtHt Gra/it Oiarlaa Rogers lla Johnson Sunshine Hart Fa Johnaon LiOclen LJttlafleld LAx Johnson CaxBaUta Ueraffhty Mr. Merrillaa•••• sBobart Boawortli Mra. Merrill • KTelyn HaII Mililceot Rofen. Avonne Taylor Jim1s#. ......................... .Maok Swain : "The Kansas Wonder Girl" GENE DENNIS li^ost Astounding of AU Mental Wonders R^ieating Her Pictpre House Triumphs on This Her Initial Vaudeville Engagement Question and Answer Tieup with San Francisco ''Examiner^ and K. G. O. Radio Station Brought Ten Thousand Lettors in Two Days» Which is Biggest Tieup Return of Any Paper in the West Permanent Addreaa: VARIETY, 1221 LOEWS STATE BLDG., LOS ANGELES Plenty oi holce in this latest Mary Plckford. It's the old tear-behlnd- tho-smile, dean, wholesome, family tsrpo of fun. No crocodiles in this one. May be lesa art, but nu>re box office. **My Boat QirT ia for aaythina up to a wook, but win hardly bohold for longer periods except where U. A. has its own house or a part- nenAilp. "Girl" is a typical ICary Plckford formula. Mary is the brains and character of aa Incompetent, ahift- lees but well-meaning family. The father is a mail carrier, a creature of habit and pressure. The mother, like certain women charactora In Dickens, has a penchant for funer- als—anybody's and all funerals. The other sister is a hotsy-totsy, and keopa oompany witk a ahady ffont. Mary is a stock girl In the flve- and-ten. She falla In love with a now olork, not knowiaff ho ia tho son of the owner. The boy is be- trothed to a society miss, but the father insists he makes some sort of a showing in the store baCMo the engrafrement is announced. That's the plot It has been well cushioned In the eonventional cor- ners with gagrs from the oombined- mentalities of Allen McNeil, Tim Whelan, Hope liOrlng. Clarence Honne^ and Bam Taylor, the ox- ragman, who megaphoned the job. Kathleen Norris authored fhia yam to Miss Plckford*s meaauro. The cast Is g-ood. Charles Holders overcomes his erood looka with a display of naturalistio humannoss. In this Instance he is more the old type of screen hero. Miss Plckford is her usual sweet and likable self, seeming very much flesh and blood despite being the only white sheep In a tribe of black ones. The entire production la high class. romaatle atery of the little Bnglisli girl who waited ^Xor her lo\er to return from the wars, faithful to a hope rather than a pledge. The group of character types that made for "Quality Btroet" as much of its charm as did the sorrows and joys of its romantic hero and hero- ine haTO been exquisitely recreated. Helen Jerome EMdy as the timid but loving alator of tho hapless heroine gets a world of fragrant and channlngr sentiment into th« build- ing of the fluttering Susan, while the trio M village gooaips. played by Flora Finch, Margraret Seddon gad Marcelle Corday. are a delight To tiie title writers alao la due a tribute. Some of the lines have aa much atmosphere in them as tho sceneo they illuminate, all written la the quaint stiltednesa that marked the language of the day. For it waa the "pnmaa and prtmtut* M, and the little comedy pokes fun at the social customs as well aa the speech of the opoe^ in a dtoty, ahnoat tender, way that only Barrle ooilld oommand. Probably picture tradition would have justified the building up of action passages, such, perhaps, as the hero's adventurta In the wars, but instead this picture holds to the Barrie play in all Ita color and shading. And. what is more Impor- tant makes it interesting in its high comedy and sentimental appeaL Beauty of the settinf^s alone are an enormous asset There ia one passage devoted to tho bomoeomlng of the hero in a stago ooach that ia built up Into a bright oplaode. The dashing: horses, swaying eoach and the misted landscape, the bustle as It diangea horaea in a tavern stop, haa all the dtarm-aad beauty of a fine old print vitalized into motion. The possibilities of a box-office •naaii are probatbly remote. Tho picture Is not designed to that end by ita very nature, but it will con- tribute aaw M OUaly to tho preatigo of tbo «(ar and of tt* producer. QUALITY STREET Wetro-Ooldwyn-Mayer production, directed t>3r bidney Franklin. Marlon Davles sUurred. Ada.ptatk)n from the J. M. Bania play. .Scen&rio by Albert L«wls and Hans Kraly. nuad by Marlon Alnale* and Ruth Cum- ininca. Hag&p SsrtoT, phot«cn«h«r. At Vkm Enr>baA8y, Htm TeHc, fST S IWl. SiSlttaC Nov. a Pho«b«' TilroMel .....Ifarion DaTlea Dr. Valentine BroWB..4.....Conrad MsmI Suaaa Throaael .yslia Jerome Mdy Mary Willouirhby Flora Plnoh Nancy WUlouKhby Marsaret geMoa gipnecta TerabeU - ~ ^ Patty*.... * 4... t>« • •. A costume play of quaint charm, beautifully produced, "Quality Street" provides a graceful, senti- mental role for Marlon Davics. It reoalls the same actress' a«rreeable i^tonoMM in "Uttle Old New What makes the new picture not- able is that the producer has man- aged to acrejRi a worthy transcrip- tion of the Barrie comedy, which does not lend Itself naturaUy to picture treatmeilL flomething of the elusive quality of Barrle's senti- mental humor is hers somehow caught snd conveyed. Aiid f^t alone marks the effort as worth while, because Barrie is a diffloalt subject to eatok aad te in aereen terms. Contributing toward this achieve- m-ent is some of the best and sin- cerest acting Miss Davles has ever done in a part that ideally fits her type of blonde beauty and that aup- pliea a temperamentally happy me- ,dluiii for thia actress's comedy ^talent. The production ia a marvel of pic- torial beauty, the men with their brave boots and Jaunty cockaded hats, ths women with the sweeping but discreet frodce of the empire and the period rooms that to this dsy are the despair of interior dec- orators. All have beeu oraated in a delightfully real background for the COWNGtoQUCAGO witb ''GOOD NEWS" MMWNiO CHWniMS TIME ABE LYMA14 aiid His Brunswick Reoording p. S.—J. L. will tmU you QBTTINQ MORE POPULAR EVERY DAY FRANK JENKS The Playboy and Hit Band NOW—ORANADA. SAN FKANCI8CO—ITOVBTH BIO MOKTH ROSE VALYDA COMING EAST SOON After t gwelth* Teevs tm West Oeesi Thsettes rKRSOlfAL DIMBCnOK VAMCVOir 4MD MASCO DANCING MILLARDS SPANISH APACHE PLAYING WEST COAST THEATRES Meny Thanks to FANCHON end MARCO