Variety (Apr 1929)

VARIETY FILM HOUSE REVIEWS Wednesday, April 17. 1929 ROXY (Wired) ' Now York, AprU 13. When koxy lets a single per- former use up eight minutes or so all alone on the cathedral stage there must be an explanation. Sub rosa, the answer Is that the single l3 Joe KIrkwood, trick golf shot, and Roxy, In person, Is full of the golf poison. He fcrobably saw all Ave shows himself Saturday, and will spend the week backstage. KIrkwood, In a country club and golf fairway set. Is the climax of the presentation, dividing promi- nence in billing and on the stage with a spring style show, novel in tluit the costumes on display are all of silk and all for sports. Seasonal idea and neatly carried out through the entire stage show. Standing out of the atmosphere of cheer and gaiety, Roxy delivers a wullop of graphic tragedy In a pow- erful setting for Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C Sharp Minor as a background for the vocal ensemble, Back of tlie stage is In solid mid- night blue, spangled with stars. Silhouetted against this dim light is a bleak, rocky i>athway, and In the middle a wind-torn and blasted tree that fairly speaks desolation. Ghostly figures with waving arms, distorted bodies and draperies shroud-llke In suggestion move In procession. Effect I0 somberly tragic and worthy of the agonized chords of the music. Into, the opposite mood for a dainty, French ballet. Spread fan occupies the stage and behind a transparency eight girls lii hoop- skirts of court dames and . silk breeches of courtiers do a graceful minuet. Patricia Bowman, solos here. Roxyettes on for a typical precision dance number, brief cos- tumes and girls brolcen Into four eights of white, yellow and black and sliver, with appropriate waving feathered headdresses. ' Fox Movietone news cUpa include Mussolini, Glenna Coltett and Vir- ginia Van Wle, national women cham'ps, on Flnehurst golf courses. Views of a flock of ahee^ grazing on what looks to be quiet country- side until Its revealed setting Is ' Prospect Park, In the heart of ur- ban Brooklyn. ComeOy clip of "Spring Fevers" (house cleaning agonies, etc.). Plctnresauer native views in far oft Ceylon. Both be- .< cause the Chinese suggests the silk ' show and because the clip Is charm- ing on Its own account, the views of the Chinese girls In fashion talk are chosen, a sequel 'to the views of last week. Then Into the 'National Sports Silk Week" show, opening with a ttaUet novelty, the 32 girls wearing ragged feather hats and made Into an unbroken line by having each girl place her hand on shoulder of girl In front, the Interval covered by a sort of draped cape. I|i this form they resemble a gigantic silk worm, the evolutions being deslgrned to heighten the Illusion. Drop Ip one is dark background with an enor- mous twig of leaves worked upon it In relief. Japanese screen drop serves for a display of native kimonos, chorus all In that flowing dress and other girls parading In rainbow colors of like gowns and coolie coats. Patrl cla Bowman solos before vocal en semble in appropriate Oriental number. Then to the country club set Douglas Stanbury does an IntroduC' tory number, followed by the Roxy ettes wielding golf stlcKS and rou fining in legmanla. All dressed In bright colored sport dresses. Also 09 Introductory to the KIrkwood bit is further parading of sport attire, heavy on beach pajamas In cata- leptic color combinations, riding - clothes, bathing suits, etc. A pro gram note says the Spun Silk Re search Committee co-operated in the design and creation of the coS' tumes. "Thru Different Eyes" (Fox) the feature. Overture flta Into the gen era! scheme, being medley of selec tlons from "Madame Butterfly." Rush, CAPITOL ("Crystals"—Unit) (Wired) New Tork, April 13. Slow-moving show made slower by the NVA pickup which the house Is giving nine minutes at the end of the stage presentation. Plus Bert Lyt^ll's three or four-minute trailer for the drive closing the newsreel, asam again or still here. Singing come- dienne Is running ' short of songs and, despite the novelty build-up from the pit this week; she ought to be inore particular on Choice of numbers. They get fed iup easily around this. town. Current meslody and lyrio Is Just a dud and em- phatically clflssined as such by the lack of applause. Amounts to a comedy skit between the girl and Schooler, Miss V^llson coming up on a pit elevator holding a miniature dressing-room set. Idea is she's stuck In Jamaica and can't make the show. Schooler doing a comedy phone gag, then riding to mid-stage In a prop auto. Nothing the matter with the idea except the song, and too bad to waste the effort. Miss Wilson continues to look good and pleases, but another such straw Is apt to break things. Set carries Schooler's small piano, which the m.c. plays as Miss Wilson sings. Chester Hales did their part unto an overly long semi-ballet prelude to a high-kick waltz by Nayan Pearce, who includes the familiar femme backovers, and who couldn't get off stage because of the final grouping before the applause quit. Otherwise the platoon pranced mer- rily as well as nicely. Bob, Bob and Bobble, from vaude, are two male Jugglers and a dog. Fair enoUgh, but no excitement. Kids liked the dog, and may be okay as a presen- tation opener If not given too much time, the fault In this case. Schooler went Into a heavy piano concerto for his personal bit to score. Could have Jollied himself into an encore, although lading off due to time and the heavy overture ahead of him from the pit. Staff might have cut somewhere else to let Schooler prolong, as even at 31 minutes the stage end Impressed as padded because nothing much was happening. Plus the NVA thing, it totaled 40 mInutes.score. Newsreel went 12 minutes, count- ing the Lytell addition, no real news creeping In on the two Fox sound clips. Paramount and M-G drew two ' silent splices apiece. "Scenes Napolitalnes" caught atten- tion as tlie seven-minute overture, which went overboard, as M^ndoza tacked on a symphonic arrangement of a pofK Wasn't bad, but the edge wasi off because of the preceding selection and the house was settled to see sometliing. Arthur Knorr gets credit for the stage production, which got ap- plause on Its Initial flash, thereby outdistancing the general compos! tlon of talent involved. Sid, COLONY (Wired) New Tork, April 13. Getting more and more to be the Saturday and Sunday resting place of the Broadway overflow and get- ting more euid more to deserve no better fata. This week's show Is a pretty low spectacle for Broadway. Feature la "The Charlatan" (U), a mystery melodrama dating back 10 years In style. Last quarter of footage dialog. On top of taat they have the most inept presentation, poorly assembled and staged, with no more showman.- shlp than would go into a high school entertainment. Material con sists of Gordon Kebber and his 12 Pennsylvanlans, jazz unit which is just that and not much else. They are surrounded by a setting th'at is the ultimate In slipshod background. Straight hanging drapes of vivid yellow flap dismally baick and sides, while the band Is ranged In straight line across the, far back, all behind music stands draped In the same yelow and looking like school room desks. Reason for shoving the stage band Into the middle distance Is to make room for gilded steps the width of the stage and rising back of the flrst groove to leave the apron clear. They need the stage space for noth- ing more Important than a group of 12 tap' dancers, half boys and half girls, and the steps are there to allow them to do a tap finale on the wide and terraced spaces. Band and dancers, latter called Twelve Sensational Dancers, furnish the entire show lasting 26 minutes. Sensations work six together. Then there's a band selection, slow Jazz. Then two boys do a buck and wing routine. Band also goes Into fast dance number, two members coming down to vocalize indifferently. Two girls are on for an acrobatic waltz and the ^and goes to bat It demonstrates full co-operation by this house on the annual coin round-up. House didn't appear tu mind either Interruption, Lytell speaking well, with the 82 Chester Hale girls passing the baskets downstairs while Dave Schooler, . m.c, and Evelyn Wilson entertained I by doing flU-ln bits. Picture is "the Duke Steps Out" (M-G) and busi- ness was solid Saturday afternoon. "PryHtalq," thfj .gtag9_ ghpw,^ had ja brilliant-looking set to fit fhe tlUe, but carried no wallop until Nick Long, Jr., featured specialist for the week, who Insisted on mention of about all the legit musicals in which he's danced. Long is only doing one number, but It's good—and how they need It this week! He was next to closing, with Joe. Hart, ' billed, not appearing. Bvelyn Wilson is either back More band, this time' in straight syncopation of a pop and Into the dance finish of the stair- way tap. In all Justice It should be recorded that the two dancing boys can hoot and the two giria are remarkably energetic and nice looking besides. But It doesn't mak6 six bits of entertainment, especially around the comer from the Roxy and the Capitol.. Kebber Is Just a band leader and doesn't pretend anything else. A Ij'rusque rntrbductlon^'oflha'daneSfS' was his sole venture Into m. c'lhg. Outside of that there was a Pathe sound ^lewsreel, an Oswald animated cartoon with no more than a chem- ical tracd of sound (a sleeping be'ar snores twice), and a good deal of (>ntertfllTiIng International silent newsreel. Silent news was prob "'•>'v the most Interesting Item In the bill. Rush. PARAMOUNT (Wired) ("Pearls o> Bagdad"—Unit) New York. April 18. Plenty show- this week. Feature is "The HQle In the Wall," 100 per cent talker; presentation 13 Frank Cambria's Fubllx unit, "Pearls of Bagdad," which Is of' operetta pro- portions in its sartorial aiid scenic magnlflcence; a good Christie-Par- amount talking short, featuring the Jlmmle Gleasons: In ''Meet the Missus," a swell vehicle by Kenyon Nicholson, plus Dave Rublnoft, the Jesse Crawfords, et al., round out a generous money's worth. A short trailer heralds Rudy Val- ise's advent April 27 with a prop '"mike" and Vallee's megaphone as the sole photographic likenesses, with the radio fav warbling "Sweet- heart of AM My Dreams." Same number, a Vallce-pppularized ditty, was repeated again In the Gleasons' talking short where In "Tony's (as faithful a replica of a Times square oasis' as could be desired), the sing- ing waiter gives out the same ditty.' On the matter of trailers. Par's apparently making the ensiilnig week's feature a regular event for sandwiching Into the news reel with excerpts (In sound) of the Incoming attraction. Richard Dlx's "Nothing but the Truth," solely on the strength of the few shots of ' the bur-up-poo-pooplng Helen Kane In the' cabaret scenea, portends opti- mistically for . that comedienne. Dlx's voice also registers well in the trailer shots. Paramount Isn't missing a bet on its revenue possibilities. A special trailer now also plugs the lobby sheet music counter, where all songs played in the show are obtainable, plus disks and a Grosset & Dunlap 76-cent edition of "The Letter" novelized. Show starts with RublnoS re- peating his "Variety Drag" idea with "I Wanna Be Loved by You' played this week In contrasting, or- chestrated arrangements,. starting with American Jazz, Japanese. Spahlsh, Palestine and Chicago. As in the previous idea, the Chi ver slon, very "lieated," wound up with pistol shots, police whistles, etc., for a riotous laugh finish. Instrumen tally, the Palestinian arrangement permitted for some swell orchestral effects, and It distinguished the scoring until the hokuin finale. Ru binoff, an expert showman and a unique personality for a symphonic orchestral maestro, made his open ing spot a highlight. Newa reel, all silent, sav6 for the Dlz sound trailer. A bit extra wide screen was used for the Valleo trailer short and the Crawfords, Mister and Mlsiaus, used the full stage-width mammoth screen for their decorative slides. Crawford Introduced his own composition, Roses in the Bain," stating that for two and one-half years he had been playing others' songs, now' he would offer one of his own. Smart showmen that they are, with the theatre's welfare primarily in mind, the other two organ selections were linked up wlth-lnoomlng attractions, ''Do Something" Is Helen Kane's novelty in the Dlx feature and the closer, "Honey," Is heralded as Rudy Vallee's latest hit, thus agrain co- operating In the general good-will plugfest By the time all this had come to pass, there was no mistak- ing lots of things, and many peo- ple's minds were made up concern- ing -both Dlz, Hiss Kane, Valee, days and dates. Jacques Cartler, a peer of Inter, nretatlve dancing, around New York In productions before, clicked as the feature of Frank Cambria's "Pearls of Bagdad." Walzer and Dyer with their clown stepping-were, the com edy highlights, Idrena'a contortive exhibition was as showmanly as it was difficult, cleverly getting by any negative effects with her physical pretzel-Uelng. Arch Cannon and Gladys St. John led the vocal num- bers, while Carl Bltterl headed the Publlx Singing Ensemble. A Per- sian ballet, credited to Anatole Bourman for the dance creations, completes the program and person- nel. Cambria's production Is lavish artistic, yet sufilclently punctuated with personality highlights to im. press generally. The production Is splendiferous,, easily exceeding the average unit biidget. and put oh In Cambria's best style. Seemingly they told him to slip In a real flash and he clicked. No m. c. provided In this unit, the orchestra merely- serving as atmospheric background in their Oriental trappings. Abel, then, should it have a slow stage show with a finale In church set- ting? ^e bulk of this theatre's customers are young and frivolous,' and such a unit for them could no more be commended as a novelty than could .thb Idea of Frestpn Sel- lers turning his community singing organ solo into a repertory of hymns. And, to. malce it fatal,- the only real act oh the .bill was Zelaya, a South American pianist, who tells his audience, with all show of au- thority, that Jazz Is a terribly mo- ronic thing. He used Vic Young and the best Jazz orchestra in the' city to demonstrate his point. Zelaya la a fine act, but an awful choice for the house that Jazz built. No chance for. Osterman to help much In "Wedding Bells." He was as much out of place as everybody else.. At the start he acts as a dress-shop proprietor who discovers his girl buying a trousseau to marry another guy, and he doesn't really siep in again until he sings tho finale ballad while his ex-neck parades up to the altar with the rival. Sadness and monotony, reach- ing Its depth In that turtle-like parade that ends the ordeal. Its change for Impresslveness was lost before the girls were half way to the stage. Only two acts, beside Zelaya, and neither of them accomplishing any- thing under handicap of the rou- tining. Buddy Raymond, a 12-year- old song and dance boy, is hurting himself with sophisticated ballads that come out of his mouth with the insincerity of Mabel WlUebrandt blessing Texas Gulnan. Buddy's a kid actor, and his songs should .be typical of him.' Other act waa Bob Carter and Aalbu Sisters, who clicked as a combination Instru- mental and dance turn, but flopped when Carter tried to tell stories and gags. Feature," "Speakeasy" (Fox), la a natural booking for this house and may help some. Phil Baker on Vita- phone was well received, and Pathe sound neWs of two clips also held Interest The screen Is carrying all the en- tertainment at the Oriental this we6k, which is neither normal nor desirable. Business off Saturday. Hing. ORIENTAL (Wired) Chicago, April 1>. When a. man can peddle hia stuff with equ^ success In 34.40 produc- tions and as the stock drawing-card In sIx-bIt picture house presenta- tions, he may be considered set Jack Dsternian as a revue name, a vaudeville headllner and a picture house m.c has put himself over In those three fields. And by reason of Ills pasrexperTence'He Is^among'fhe' few who may be rated as bona fide entertainment in the m^o. racket Picture houses need him. Oriental unit this week is "Wed- ding Bells." Produced by Lou Mc- Dermott It Is, of course, attractive to the eye, but Is, nevertheless, not a good show. And for these reasons; This house Is known and exploited as the house that Jazi built Why,, CHICAGO (Wired) Chicago, April 12. A glorified production flash, blend ing In rich and colorful design, but shy of entertaining Ingredients, Is the major portion of the Chicago stage show this week. "Sleeping Beauty" la both title and theme, un- folding In part the fantastic legend in quiet dignity and optical opulence. Boris Petroff and H. Leopold Spit- alny have turned out a nifty eyO' filling presentation, but compara. ttvely inexpensive. PJus any sort of outstanding talent particularly com- edy relief, it would be 100 per cent. As Is, the production is Almost sol- idly sight Considering it as a de- parture from the usual array of spe- cialty acts, it may prove something different, but still not enough to sufficiently satisfy a class audience. B&K production department may have another slant on the subject, probably figuring it In dollars and cents. Since flrst starting this type of stage shows with Frank Cambria the cost has been 'cut to about half the original budget It Is by that comparison that the efforts of Petroff must be judged. 'Where Cambria's shows cost $10,000 or $12,000, Petroff and Spltalny €u-e doing It on $6,000 or $6;000. It does make a differ, ence. One solid set, Intelligently de signed by Leo Stahr, carries this production all the way. It Is of an- cient Grecian style, well mounted and effectively arranged. Opening is a fanfare of color and costume with 16 ballet girls doing a classic routine around the slumbering beauty. Display of several arts, in-' eluding song, dance and Instrumen- tal, fails to awake the maid. Ultl mately it Is love that revives her. Specialties weave In and out In con tinulty and harmony keeping In tune with the Idea throughout George Nelldoff, robust baritone of good quality. Is heard only briefly and that near the finale. Most of the work falls upon the ballet a lieatly trained group by Anatole Bourman. About the only lively specialty was the mandolin strum- ming and Incfdental foot work of Charles 'Brugge. This boy Is a clever performer and would shine If spotted in front of a band. Seven Trump- eters, all men, fitted appropriately In the Idea, scoring hahdIUr with two selections. Vocal offerings were shared by Doris Morelle and Luella Felertag, sopranos. Mixed singing ensemble Increased the weight of the production -with blending voices. - "In Burgundy" was the orchestral production created by Spltalny, with Petroff staging the scenlo back- ground. Nelldoff and Miss Morell^ carried the solo honors here against a picturesque chorus of male'and female voices. Spltalny's baton paced the symphony orchestra through embellished strides, bring- ing our Hanz'JIIieiSZW'trfiifsrvloUn.- This boy la a big fav and Is some- tlmea featured on the stage. Screen feature, "Nothing But the Truth" (Par.), talker; flrst for Rich ard Dlx. Shorts Included Screen Songs' subject, "Yankee Doodle," and eight silent clips front Inter' national Newsreel. Biz near capacity at the flrst per' formanc« Friday, Loop, LOEWS STATE (Wired) . ' Los Angeleo, April 11. A male cast and band unit Is the latest ot'ithe Fanchon & Marco units to take the trair east' They call lt>the Heldt Californlans and it con- sists of IE versatile musicians head< ed by' lIorace Heldt The aggrega- tion is .composed of University of California graduates and was as- sembled at Berkeley, the home of their alma mater. They played in the college band and also In the- atricals at the college. Then Heldt who prior to that had musical quartet, rounded them up at the request of Arch Bowles and took them to the Campus the- atre, Berkeley, where they were an institution for several years. There they were rounded Into entertain- ment form,*taken to other theatres and are now headed for the east to show their wares. . Thoy are a typical collegiate group in looks, diress and action. Plenty of youth and lots of It good to look at. The boys have ability to enter- tain and are destined to get some- where In the theatrical fleld as an aggregation. In addition to the '"Idea," a reg- ular house show headed by Rube Wolf running for 16 minutes was given. It>ivas a divided bill. Wolf started off -with his 16 house men In the pit and did the ^overture. Poet and Peasant." Sisems as though folks like this sort of tune for It brought a tumult' of applause at the capacity flrst matinee. Next 'Wolf worked in si double song ntimber with Chic Maxine Dovle that terminated in a tap and acrobatic dance routine with the dozen house girls. To add color to this endeavor Stella Hewett put over one of the classiest and smart- est acrobatic dance solos seen here in many a day. Heldt, after brotherly Introduc- tion by Wolf, went into a medley number that gave the boys oppor- tunity to show solo work. After that there were secies of specialties by the various boys, ensemble band numbers augmented by song and dance animation. Heldt himself is an all-around worker. Besides lead- ing, he plays one of the. two pianos in the band, chants, dances and mimics. Not much more could be asked of an entertainer who Is also good to look at so far as the femmes are concerned. There Is a glee club assemblage of a dozen of the boys who do col- lege and pop singing, always sure of a reception. Then seven of the boys' tap dance as well as any sep- tet specializing In that -work. He has as a solo chanter Lee Likens, tenor, who does recording for Vic- tor and who also' ties up the fracas with his endeavor. Another spe- cialist Is his drummo" Lee Fleming, who does a skating dance solo, pos- sibly one ot the best of Ita kind, ending with hurdling a chair In rhythm and flnlshing up with twists and turns one sees the 'fancy Ice skaters do. Also they have a dog they call Lo-Bo, German police pup that shows more Intelligence than most of the so-called Atar movie dogs.' He Is worked by Clarence Moore, saxophonist, and will tie up the show. With beautltal scenlo and llghtaembelllshment and a rou- tine of stuff that can run for a full two hour entertainment if neces- sary, Heldt Jias a turn which should prove heavy box office over the For West Coast and eastern routes. Show opened with Fox >Iovleton« News, then an N. V. A. collection with the Bert Lytell talker, a few minutes of song by vaude actors and finished with r'Tlde ot Empire" sUent (M-O-M). Hearst publicity tieup, which smacks close to $!!8,000 on the week. Uiv- BRANFORD jCWired) Newark, N. J., April 18. A college man would grade this show B. It scales no heights and draps no depths. It will drive no one wild either way. Calling -It "Bermudiana," Harry Ciiill has run the show alon^ musical comedy llnea with hia uanal surprise scenlo effects. A i^etty opening reveals a solid fleld of Easter lilies, while across a scrim white birds fly. The band Is on a terrace behind which stretches a blue tiay and a distant shore. Troplcial landscape adds to the colorful effect The Branford favorite, 'Uadelyn Kllleen, appears for the steenth time. Give this girl material and she Tan hold a Branford crowd In- definitely. She serves as leading lady, singing and gaggliig with the male principals and dancing with the chorus, 12 Ada Kaufman girls who sing as well aa dance. Healy and Cross are featured, do- ing 13 minutes straight In songs to fine reception, while Healy also plays as a lead. An amusing bit presents the girls each In a different -costume- awhile' 'Healy-leams ■ Ironr each how she Intends to bring her liquor In. Appearing, too, are Clay- ton and Leonard for two comedy bits and well received on the sec- ond. Jean Carroll pleaseis with a Finale brings Madelyn and mob ot men In naval officers'' white uni- form, while girls Iii sailors' togs do sailors' dance. Back drop shows