Variety (Dec 1928)

14 VARIETY FILM REVIEWS Wednesday, December 12, 1938 Talking Shorts FOX MOVIETONE NEWS Vol. 2—No. 10, Issue Dec. 8 32 Mips.; 3 Reels (A-B-C) Projection Room, Nevy York . Fox jfoviotphc sound news bunch has ,Ijcon. anil is now turnin/; out throe rocls a week lettered A, B,' and C idea is to !>ive opposition wired ■ houses usinp the service a choice of subjects .to avoid confliction. In February these three weekly reels will become four, and by Sep- tember it is expected that the Tone trucks will be turninfi in enough st\iff for the desk men to put to- eethfr seven reejs 52 times a year. AVhen this . happens Movietone ■ will go to two issues ,a veck, similar to the policy the silent news services follow. At least, that'sounds more plausible than the reported inten- tion of issuinpr daily, a tremendous undertaking. FOX, incidentally; now has one truck/circling the world for special and ''library*' matter. This current threcrreel release .totals 17 clips. ... ■' . . The A and E reels each run 11 jhinutes; O, 10 minutes. None con- taihs a punch subject, but there .are two of three comedy spasms. Reel A leads off, showingr, the opening of the 70th session of Congress; going Inside for ■. the first time for the reading df the President's message. Head executive- is later pictured tfap shooting in Virginia, during •which. Mrs,. Cdolidge takes a few Shots of her husband with a 16m. cariiera. Not a bad plug for ■ the CinerKodak (liastman) machine, although no name is mentioned. Holiday spirit has its turn in a Berlin shot of youngsters flattening their noses to peer at toys. Quite si niechanical display in figures doing all sorts of balancing on bicycles, even imlb a rope walker. Ingenious devices and a surefire bit for Santa Glaus disciples. The Swedish .prince who married Bstelle Man- yille has a few complimentary ■Vi'ords to say about this country and his fiancee, but no flash of the bride. The bridegroom's cousl/i, who wlU act as best man, also speaks briefly with his appearance against him due to an effect a razor might have • eliminated. Groom looks and speaks well,' so the Annies and flaps may- he Interested. ConcUidlng shot on this reel Is a 'mammoth bonfire put together by the freshmen of Oregon ■ State. Second reel (B) opens up on the President arriving in Virginia and then attending a football game Foreign clip on this spool is the ■Warsaw celebration of Poland' lOth anniversary. Plenty oi people the police starting to hose the crowd to drive them hack, . Mo^t of th scenes are of troops passing in re view, always to the same march by tho band. Three snicker passages'; first be- ing the world's biggest boy—an American youth—10 years old, who stands six feet nine inches, weighs 220 and wears a 25 double-A shoo.. Boy talks at the finish for. a punch liiio. . .Phone exchange in 'Frisco's • Chi.nalown is tlie. second laugh, Willi the Chinoso girls at the boards plus cross shuts of two, .male Qri- entals giblteri'ng in their nanvo tongue. Third tickle is in .lane and Kathcrinc Lee Uhe Lee kids) ex- hibiting tholr baby chimpan7,oo. preceding this is Gertrude Ijjiwronce showrihg a pet dog, Final shot Is the running of the Kentucky Stakes at (.'hurchill I')6wns. • Third: 1,000 feet brings Bossy Gillis, Ncwburyport's .sailor ^layor, as ho emerges from jail. Parts of Gilli.s' original appearance before the .sound camera never got outside the projection room for audible rea- sons. More or less of a gag clip, Gillis, looking hot unlike Jimmy Durante. More Xmas spirit In a costume parade on upper Broadway, New York, and a flash of peculiar Ger- man millinery as Avorn by country maidens to attend church. Tone's Version of "what's wrong with this picture?" is in the person of Mrs. -.Prjac_(JEinjay-)_..EP.stt^,lltlM-.^^^^^^ authority on etiquet. Mrs. Post in- Btructs as to the proper manner of Introducing people-; how a hostess should greet her guests, and when and how to sliake hands. May draw a giggle or two, but those who road those ads figure to listen as well. Climax Is a cavalry troop at Fort Sam Houston charging into tlie camera with drawn sabers. Shots of the Stanford-Army tame are only being flont to the Coast and were not Included on any e£ these reels. i>i<i BENNY RUBIN "Seven Minutes of Your Time" V(TAPHONE NO. 2539. 7 Mins.; Loew's 83d St., Nevy York.. CorkUi.g comedy ■ short, ' Certain for laiigh.s any^yhere, so can play anywhere. ; . ' . Benny Rubin's individual Hebe dialect ha.s beeii recorded perfectly, lie opens with talU and sticks to it for the m.ajor part of the time, offer- ing orie of his. stock story-gags and a comical cToscription Of a football game In tho gab section. His state- ment that there are no Jewish foot- ball players because the ball Is made of pigskin .was a lO^secpnd laugh here. Eccentric, semi-comedy tap dance finish. Ono brief shot, excellently done, if his feet only. At the 83d St; Rubin followed a:n- other short of comedy classification (Freda and Palace) and made them LEO BEERS M.G-M MOVIETONE 8 Min«.; Piano and Songs Colony, New York. Leo Beers la getting older and 30 are his songa. Problematical which, but probably Bongs have an edge. To his own piano accompani- ment, Beers Is singing "Arabella" and "In the Usual Way." Both, perhaps, will be new to kids, but both, as well, carry slight slgnifi- ,cance for youngsters. Neither good entertainment nor bad. T'hat makes It a filler. It won't do^ny harm If used as such. Bige. laugh .all over again Bige. JIMMY CLEMONS in "Dream Gafe" VITAPHONE NO. 2242 9 Mins.; Dances and Sbngs Clinton, New York Jimmy Clenttons makes a some- whit mild start -With a dry monolog but redeems himself at the finish with an unusual eccentric drunk dance. However, this short Is tp be not^ for carrying one of the few hoofers, to ever register on a disk In that capacity. In sound films hoofers have plenty of trouble. Tet, the girl in this act, lilrst appearing with Cleihons, is surefire on applause. She flashes a team of as nifty trim and flnely-tutored stems as ever hit the boards Demoristratingf the fallacy of .screening dancers for talking pic tures Is another girl, toe dancingi who does' not register at all, al JOHN lyilLJAN and Co. (20) "HIS NIGHT OUT" VITAPHONE NO. 2263 9 Mins.; Comedy Sketch ' Lexington, New York . Many people, many scenes, many flash-backs make this sort of thing among the acts le;ast adaptable to 1 ^J^pyg^ evidently average or better the talking screen, _ for the stage. John Miljan does httle in this ciemohs opens In dre$s clothes, Murray Roth aoithored and Bryan Kjgjj^gpjjjg himself of a chatter to Foy-directcd short, but gets sole Lj^^ gj^ect that he is celebratlne the billing although there ar-e a score or ^^^Yit before his wedding. Setting more in the skit. Mildly amusing Lg ^^rop showing a cafe. Merely short, suitable for-the newly wired L ^jj^g: .j^j. the girls to follo.w with neighborhood houses."; dancing. Piano and full orchestra Opening is In the Stapletonis' accompaniment home with wife wondering if hus-| Moderately entertaining and GENE MORGAN and BAND (11) VITAPHONE NO. 2266 9 Mins.; Songs, Talk, Dancina Central, New York Gene Morgan is of that species Which signs hotel registers with m. c. after their name. He's introduced many an act to West Coast audi- ences and probably more audi- ences to acts. For Vitaphone, Mor- gan talks a bit, directs his band,, sings and shuffles through that step Bert. Williams first made famous, ./^.s sound-screen band acts go, this one has more value than the others because of Morgan being able to mix it up. . . Morgan . Is a clown. That Is, he affects an eccentrically shaped cha- pea;u and you can visualize him scampering all over the stage. He can't scamper much here without going out of bounds so he locates near the piano and says, ."No mat- ter how thin you slice it"—and ebes through on the haloney finish. Which is something of a. tip .that those who would crack on the Coast better make it smart enough to still be funny six months later, In Dubuque. That, or leave sayings of the day alone. Sings three songs more or less kiddingly. But Morgan has turned put an acceptable short, especially as . a program openfer. It was so used here. Dance at the finish is the strong .point for which the musi- cians brown a melody on both sides. Set is pretty close to the same scene Vitaphone has used for other turns of this nature. Sid. THE BARKER band (Miljan) remembers his lOth wedding anniversary. Husband phones to pull the pflice business and gets away with it. Next scene has hubby and his stenog on the loose in a night club with a school room setting and the m. c. doing the teacher. Guests and entertainers dressed like school kids Program is being broadcast over radio with the wife at home listen- ing in Stapleton is Introduced to the guests and unseen iradio audience and faux pas; "this is my lOth an- niversary and I'm here to forget it" with the mike picking it up and carrying it home to the frau. Wife, burning, busts into the night club in tim6 to get mixed up in a; dry raid, Avhile husband makes getaway In court he appears to bawl out the wife and urges the judge to give her the limit. One of the dry agents steps in, clears the wife and accuses Stapleton as the one who gave him the slip and brands him as a cheater. Fined $50 Stapleton says, "That's easy, I've got the money here in my back pocket." But is led off pro- testing when the court snaps, "and 50 days. Sec if you've got that in your pocket." strong enough to fill. Mori. BROWNE and LaVELLE VITAPHONE NO. 2589 8 Mins.; Talk and Songs Greeley 8q, New Yoric Frank Browne and Kay LaVelle, With years of vaude back of them, have a neat talking short turn that rates-early spotting anywhere now. , :a - Browne Is a clean cut slender chap, in tuxedo. He plays the xylo- phone and straights for Miss La- Velle, smart comedienne of the buxoni type. Opening In a music room set, man plays pop tune interrupted by the woman doing a comedy drunk; Nifty patter good for appreciable laughs. Short unusually well spaced for gags to get across effectively.. With Browne off. Miss LiVelle vocalizes a song titled, "Why Is a Popular Song," - followed by more comedy crossfire with the phrase "don't handle the goods"- used for good lafC returns. Talk and song sound like special material, expertly handled by the team. Finish has pair doubling on the xylophones for excellent returns. (Dialog) ' iflrst ■ >fatl6nal production and release -Foaturlng MlUon Sills ,ancl . l^orothy Mackaill. Adapted from l^enyon Nichol- son's play- of same name. . Directed toy George Fltzmaurlce. with dlaWe crPdlted to Joe Jacki,nn. Titlea J- M*"^ wlcz; scored by Louie. Silvers. Photo- ernphed by Loe Garmes. ..^""iT*!' New York, twice dally, run Btartln^ Dec. C. Hunning tlrte, 30 mins. Disk (W. E.) recording. .Mlltoh Sills .iDoTOthy Mackaill Betty Compsbn Douglas Fairbanks, . Jr. . ....Sylvia Ashton George Cooper .. ■ ....S. 3. Simon the reason for Lou falling prey to her own game: All voices record well wltli Si.lls trouping as called for when ho linda his boy slipping from him. His "barking" outside the tent is very much cut and dried in script, There seems to be some voice doubling as the camera pans a:cross the lot and the voice of the barker is distantly heard. Sills, himself a former and excellently rated logit actor, hns no worries on the sound thing. .Climax shot of the picture has him bark- ing again after leaving the troupe on a, drunk following his son'.s mar- The four talking sequences run about three, nine, 11 and 15 mimites, respectively, close to :the final 1,500 feet being all dialog,. and strong. Opening is also verbal to plant the story quickly of the father wanting to make his boy a lawyer and keep him away from the lot. The action highlight is the battle in a mill town, which ypiihg Chris starts when a mill hand gets fresh with . . Lou. Resu^ltant cries of "Hey, Rube" heing passed down the line (a tradi- tion with which the public is fairly familiar) and the carnival boys turning out for the struggle carries a thrill and some natural comedy which Fltzmaurlce has ispoiled- by Inserting the heaving of a. pie. In- terior of the carnival train stuff is . new and. novel, regardless of how authentic. Mankiewicz has got at, least one corking laugh tltlie in the running and Garmes' camera work is first grade. However, the main laughs in the picture revolve airound Tom Du- . gan, who stepsin for.Nifty and tries to bark despite his stuttering. A. cinch piece of business that builds and builds until it's almost a yell every time the house hears his voice, even though the camera may be trained on something else. This is Dugan's second . stuttering role. George Cooper also has a few com- edv moments which count. ■irechnicallv this feature is .very good in unfolding v.arious degrees of volume in the voices as desired. Some of it seems unusually intricate. Louis Silver's score has no theme song and is a nice.fit. There's nothing the matter with "The Barker." It runs 86 minuted and there'll be no ; objections. _ Sin.' Nifty Miller •TjOU ............ Carrie. • Chris Miller..., Ma Benson.... Hap Spissel.... Colonel Gowdy. REVENGE HARRIS and HOWE VITAPHONE NO. 2757 8"MihB7T~Corhedy Sketch - Central, Nevy York Identically^ the siime :vaude act Val Harris did in .'23. Putting it in a can eith(!r means that Harris has a new act or is crazy. It's sans the song stage finish but retains the Ipinning .of the blue ribbon on the girl's skirt for tiie best calves after a stocking display. ' Harris, doing his old rube, has Just come from a live stock show, hence the ribbon Inference and channel for the Conversation, the femme chasing her fare to New York. Result is cro.ss-flre dialog, some of which Is going to be frown- ed upon by the pastors. Especially the "blue print" gag. Harris does a good bewhiskered rube and Miss Howe screens ex- ceptionally well. Chatter Is a cinch for eight minutes. Has its double entendre most of the way but hot suffiolent---tOialarnv.^out3lde^of=^that specified Instance. One of Harris' cracks, about masters of ceremon- ies. Is strictly for the show bunch and funny. Maybe the .first Inside crack to come through on a talker. Strong comedy, short having ap pearanco and a good straight In the girl and a comedian Who knows his values. Slightly tinged with blue but okay and a laugh procurer. Where Harris will ever be able to pl.ay this act again in person Ifl something else. HENRI LE BEL ORGAN WITH VITAPHONE 8 Mins.; Elevated Organ Oakland, Oakland, Cal. Henri Le Bel, featured organist, Tnaijgurateff.a^ up slides ia,nd a Vitaphone record iii conjunction with, his organ. Ampli- fication is secured through use of the house loud speakers. Slides made from the original stills on "Street Angel" are project- ed' on screen. Vitaphone reoordlng of . Tito Schlpa, singing "Angela Mia," theme song for "Angel," is used, with Le Bel accompanying unseen singer on organ. Experiment seemed to work out satisfactory, Le Bel dcmoRgtrating accurate accompaniment to the Ital- ian tenor, perfectly synchronized. Colored slides made .an. attractive screen picture as used. Idea prob- ably will be introduced In other theatres of circuit. Edwards. Sid. Myra Hampton added to "Mary Dugan," M, ,G. M. Walter" Pidgeon arid Montague Love=.added,.to_.4^aai^_Miraxle,:L^T^ Par renewed option on Paul Lukas, actor, for another year. Eugenie Besserer added "Bridge of San Luis Rey" (M-G-M). Warner Baxter opposite Mary Duncan In "Through Different Eyes" by Milton Cropper, John G, Bly- stone to direct (Fox). Frank Lee added to "Montmartre Rose." Burton King directing for Excellent. Agostino Borgato added "The Comedy of Life" (FN). Ben Hall signed for short reel serlciB by Educational, Excellent picture and a good talker. . . For program purposes it will waltz home to a merry jingle and ought to slice Itself a fair- sized chunk of weeks at the .Central. Optimistic outlook is because the story Is basically there. Ca.stpla.ys It well, Fitzmaurice's direction doesn't let it slow up, arid the four dialog sequences carry \yieight in- stead of beina: but added starters. Paralleling it with the play, the picture unfolds a wider scope In that It flashes the Inside of a car- nival train and a free-for-all battl-i on the lot. Opposing this Is^the stage's concentrated action, Ken- yon's powerful writing and the per- formnnccs.of Walter Hor-ston aind Claudette Colbert. Enough to give the staige version an edge, but that doesn't mean that this isn't plenty of plctui-e. The hanging sword of state cen- sorship has considerably toned down the language of the lot to the point where Sills continuously turns on the mob and his woman with the one expletive, "Rat," until it loses its force. Yet, the restrictions may be said to h.ave been offset in that scene where Sills plunges raging into the tent yelling "Carrie" after finding that she has staked Lou to vamp.hls boy ajid that the kid has rriarried 'the outfit's mcrst careless dariie. A script deletion is that L«pU Is Col. Gowdv's ghl. but Fltzmaurlce has made the Nifty-Carrie associa- tion vivid by having Sills remove a nightgown arid other trinkets from his sleeper when young Chris, his son, drops in from school.to spend his vacation. . .., ,„.,, Picture is well supplied with It In Dorothy Mackaill and Betty Compson, who flash plenty of hosiery arid are occasionally. In various stages of undress. It is also obvious that some of this stuff has already been cut. Pennsylvania and a few other states yet to be heard from. For honors between these two women there is no choice. If the studios featured players on merit Miss Compson's name would be on the same line as those of SlUs and Miss Mackaill. In the early reels ."ihe runs ahead of her co- worker both on playing and appear- ance. Miss Mackaill staging a half- \vay^and late rally in building the novensTdry: (SOUND) Edwin CarcwiB- production. released throuKh friltPd Arti.sts. Directed by Caj rewe from Finis Fox's adaptation oC Konrad- Bercovlcl's "'ndar Tamer's Daughter. Dolores Del Rio starred. . Orchostral ayn- rhronlzatlon and occasional sound via Western Electric process. Photograpny by Tlobert Kurrle- and' Al Green. At BlyoU, New York, week Dec. 8. Running time, 72 minutes. , • , _ , nnsf-ha ........Dolores Del Rio r^sta ; •. .James Mar/?u8 mnka.......... -..... ..Scphla Orllga jorga I.eroy. Mason Tina ... .Rlla Cn^e^^•e AtSfnn .J-jr-* Cresp" .Taneu • S;»ni Apnel T.eana..., . •.: • • •.. -Miirta Go^rfen T.t. Do Jorg.-x'..... Jc.x.se Cavln Sills dominates and Is not only seconded but ably abetted by young Fairbanks turning in one of the best things this youngster has done. Fairbanks obtains much from the guilelosH hoy who wants to know about things and finds out from Ix)U. Scones, silent and in dialog, between the two men are uniformly good, although the convcr.sation stiffens to become unnatural now and then. Fairbanks makes neither a silly or h.irdbolled kid of his Chris, catch- ing and registering the character to convince and make understandable . Were it not for the excellent pho- tography, colorful sets and parch- ment mounted titles which valiantly but vainly attempt to bolster ..up a suspense -not there, "Revenge," also excludins its star's name, could pass , for a foreign importation of the average sort. The title and star will save it from mediocrity at th© box omce for the first, few days of a booking. Just fair is its best ratin.g. - -i While excuses can be made for il- logical happenings in fairy tale screen themes, few cm bo ' offorod when they a.ro not needed. "Re- venge" is so written around its. star and the title is so often used use- lessly in the explan,'i.tory lettering that the ronotion is little more th.an that Dolores was a .spoiled child who likod hor own way, got it and didn't want it. ■ Flashing - a ' Avhlp and- ^ making bears and humans cringe is the frail .star's delight in her gypsy role as. daughter of the' animal tamer, a bloated but mild sort of character. But when they are tamed; she doesn't lilto' them and so:. Nearly half the footage has to be taken up by. ix bewildered iaudience wondering when the eoriqueririg m.alel will appear. And then comes a laugh, for, without chahging his sweet foreign expression, after the titles vividly announce he is coming to kill her father for stabbing his old man (out of camera range), the c. h. takes a whipping. It is not until she weakens herself with the. brawny Whip and resorts to the. milder sport of face slapping that he suddenly waxes irate and cuts off her braids. This hold bandit, as the titles de- scribe him, later sets his gang to harboring the heads of. gyp dames who have given their haughty con- temporary the long stare and ridi- cule for losing her own. The shear- Ing takes place at what th^ letter- ing says is a-wild gypsy revoiryr but the action is nothing more than a lot of costwmes and respectable tilting of bottles or tapping of kegs. After that the bandit amuses him- self by sleeping in thc^ bed of the shorn Rascha, while she is out mountaineering to knife him. i" fact, after the cutting, the title.'; make her gloat over a hopod-K'i anti-climax in,that she now has an aim In life—revenge. As for th© sound end, tho wnip snaps out in tho theatre lou<l <-ni.uKii (Continued on page 2S)