Variety (Jun 1930)

36 VARIETY FILM REVIEWS Wednesday, June 4, 1930 BACK PAY (Continued from paee 25) back liome with such nice blue eyes is oommented on often by the gal. She .still loves him, but those eyes are blinded when the boy goes to war. It's done in a battle .scene which won't luirt the otliers. Forcod sontimont all the way. Miss Griffith r^vr-r rates sympathy. Kven ilie blinded boy, who dies in the end, is a sap for not asking- ciuestion.s. When the doc says the boy won't live more thai a couple' of weeks, the gal's proflteer-lover lets lier marry the,boy. After the latter dies she sends her profiteer away, seeming decided to go straight, But who can tell except Miss. Hurst who. didn't. She wrote this one for the five-and-ten counter girls. The producers attempted to expand the territorj-, but the story held them back. So let the Wool- worths worry. Miss Griffith's clothes will best please the women. Even a strip scene, with Miss Griffith the partial stripper, is mild. In this sequence Louis Carver, as a Swedish masseur, makes a stab at comedy, the only laugh attempt,,jn the picture, and that too is a bust. Bige. One Romantic Night (All Dialog) United ArtlstB production - and release. Directed by Paul L, Stein .\dapteJ from Fercnc MColnar's play, "The Swan," by Melville Baker. Starring Lillian GIsh. At RIvoll beginning May 31 on grind. Run- ning time 73 minutea. Alexandra .Lillian Glsh Prince Albert Rod LaRoque Dr. Haller r..Conrad Nagel Princess Beatrice Marie Drealer Father Benedict O. P. Hetrle Count Lutzen Albert Contl Col. Wunderllch Edgar Norton Synphorosa Blllle Bennett George , PhUllppe De Lacy Arsene '. Byron Sage MItzl Barbara Leonard The angle that thla Is Lillian Glsh's first talker may get "One Romantic Night" by for a week's run in the key cities. The little star, Marie-Dressier'and one or two others are okay, but the rest give as stiff and as artificial a perform- ance as the Molnar play, itself, has been brought to the screen. Rod LaRoque adds to the conceit of Prince Albert, a personal over- bearance that at times becomes as inaulTerable as the recltational. voice - conscious, always - studied part Conrad Nagel makes of Dr. Haller. Quite possibly it's the work of these two, more than direction or any of the other technical de- tails, that makes "One Romantic NMght' project with considerable of the haltiness, etc., less conspicuous in predecessors, thematically, ground out by several independent pro- ducers. From Hollywood word comes that there Is a reason, and that there- fore the production may be con- sidered surprisingly good — under the circumstances. While Paul Stein gets screen credit for the di- rection the coast report is that George Fltzmaurice is responsible for whatever merit the picture pos- sesses. Fltzmaurice was called in and practically remade the produc- tion, it is said, after Harry D'Arrast got through. Fltzmaurice didn't want screen credit and doesn't get any. Where Slein fits in isn't men- tioned in the Hollywood dope. There is nothing warm, less heated, about the "love scenes." Mi.ss Gibh kisses Dr. Haller, tutor ir. the castle, out nf sympathy and because of her first drink, while the Prince cops a single kiss. Neither. Haller nor the. Prince Inspires an audience with their emotional pro- clivities. Both are like sticks. The fan reaction Is according, so It makes little dlflterence who wins. Miss Glsh's naturalness and sim- plicity are of little avail under suoh circumstances. She would have been better in a monolog were It not for occasional conversations and advices when she, Miss Dressier and O. P. Heggle, who plays tht monk role, are alone. The film- actor stuff is too much In evidence when the others are around—and they miss but few feet. None of the Molnar subtlety in this screen version. Everything is stupidly blunt except the whimsical close-ups of Miss Glsh, which seem out of place. The adaptation goes through a one-two routine. Even the technical advisers were nap- ping to allow the tutor to leave the castle in a carriage with liveried gents of another century while the Prince and others were rolling around in '29 mechanical models. Waly. Frank McHugh, Laura Lee, Johnny Arthur, May Boley and Sammy Cantor, "Going Wild," FN. Richard Thorp to direct "The Last Race," Tiff. Lowell Sherman directing dialog, "Lawful Larceny," Radio. Warners has borrowed Charles Blckford from Metro for the male lead In "River's End," Matthew Betz, "F r a n k i e and Johnnie," Pathe. Roberta Gale, "Lawful Larceny," Radio. Edgar Norton, Donald Novis, Eric Bye and David Perry, "Monte Carlo," Par. MIDNIGHT MYSTERY (All-Dialog) Radio production and release. Directed by George B. Scltz. Adapted by Beula .Marie DIx trom the stage play, "Hawk l.sland," by Howard Irving Young, which had a brief run In New Yurk last autumn. I'hiitography by Joseph Walker, with Inci- dental i-ffpcts credited to Lloyd Knctchel. Running time 03 minutes. At Globe, New Yolk, wci-k ilay 30. Sally Betty Compaon Gregory Hugh Trevor Tim rxiwell Sherman, Mailolelnc Rita LeRoy .MIscha Ivan Lcbecieft I'aul Raymond Haiton r.ouise ..June Clyde Barker Sidney D'AIbrook Roger William Bart From the names that appear In the cast, Radio ^pictures seems to have expected something from this effort. It disappoints. As a stage play the story had~its points, but they have been diluted in the trans- lation to the screen. All that the picture has is one episode of fair tension, and that's pretty light ground for a screen success. Whole business weighs in as no better than fair program. It was a better stage play than it Is a picture. Even the play enjoyed but modest success on Broadway last fall. Stage version depended in large measure on extre.nely skillful manipulation of a trick situation, while the screen edition seems to have largely Ignored its chances in that respect, the adapter working principally to make 'he material over into film for a woman star, in this case Betty Compson. It doesn't work out successfully, although Radio has given the picture a pains- taking and often striking technical production. The play had a certain compelling tension which arose from the fol- lowing situation: Host of a house party on a lonely island off the New- England coast -is bored to distrac- tion by the chatter of his guests who are thrill story fans. To get their minds on something else he con- spires with hiB friend to pretend an atrocious murder. The hoax is car- ried out and the hero confesses he killed the other man. Subsequently the supposed dead man returns, but meets nobody In the house except the man with whose wife he is guiltily Involved. The husband, sure that the hero's jesting "confession" Will protect him, kills the wife's lover In earnest. In the play that was the second-act curtain. A suspenseful last act was made out of the gradual building up of a case against the really guilty man out of small clues. It was the watching of this dramatically clever manipulation that gave the play Its grip. In the picture is no detailed build- up to the denouement. Instead It is all worked up in one crude sequence. The audience doesn't get the alter- nate progress toward a climax and the retreat In the other direction that builds up the thrill. It's all so obviously worked to a mechanical effect In the Interest of the heroine that the punch is lost. Picture does not build up charac- ter. People are all like puppets working to the ends of the director, and the whole thing discloses the studio technique of going to a dra- matic effect in the shortest possible way, careless of those Incidental subtleties that go so much to build up effect in the more leisurely meth- ods of the two-and-a-half-houi" stage play. ' Camera effects for which Lloyd Knetchel is.credited consist in novel shots to emphasize the lovely aspect of the remote Island and the storm, raging in the surrounding ocean. They are clever atmosphere views such as sight and sound of a rocking bell-buoy and views of the island mansion misted in flying spray. But they lose their kicks because the treatment of the story contradicts such atmosphere In its light comedy handling. The fact is that tlie thrills do not deliver punch in the fllm-fan sense; the comedy doesn't inspire laughs, and It's a disappointment all around. Material never should have been picked for screen purposes in the first place. Typical suave acting of Lowell Sherman doesn't help. Miss Compson overdoes the sweet hero- ine, and Raymond Hatton never gets a chance to do anything significant. Rush. Mystery at the Villa Rose (All Dialog) (BRITISH MAD^ Harold Auten. American distributor (or British production of Julius Hagen and Henry Edwards. Recorded by RCA. Di- rected by licslie Hlscott. Cameraman. Sid- ney Biythe. Story by A. B. W. Mason. At Cameo. New York, week May 80. Running time, 78 mins. Hanaud Austin Trevor Ricardo. Richard Cooper Weathermlll Francis Lister Starling John Hamilton Mrs. Starling Amy Brandon-Ttaomae Helen Violet Farebrother Celia Harland Nora Baring Mme. D'Auvray ...Barbara Gott Once it gets under way this Brit- ish mystery unreels interestingly a murder yarn of considerably more than average intelligence and plau- sibility. While its lack of names will deny it admittance to many theatr.es on this side it can, as intrinsic entertainment, compare favorably with several recent Hol- lywood murder films wliich gotten into the deluxes. For the independent theatre or spots where names are not vitaL "Villa Rose" can qualify as reason- ably engrossing narrative plus pro- ductlon.of some technical Ui.ster If it Is occasionally fiannol-ttm^'ued* in dialog passages this Is not In- surmountable. RCA recording, cam- era work, acting and direction have a nominal professional competence Story by A, E. W. Mason shows' a commendable fidelity to at least the outward appearance of logic English writers of mui-der fiction while perhaps less wholesale in their bloodiness, have a keener re- gard for readers than American scribes and try to work thoir story out to some sort of a satisfactory explanation. Austin Trevor, possibly a rela- tive to Norman Trevor, to wliom there is more than an imajiinary resemblance fadlally, Is the French detective, Hanaud. He's worthy of a look over by American studio scouts. Strong personality of a type never numerous but always useful, Francis Lister playing a semi-sappy English Johnnie might al.<?o be con- sidered tentatively as a Hoi'vwood POSSiblll*'-. Tn-,,,], The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrova (GERMAN MADE) (Silent) Produced by Erich Pommer and released through UFA. Directed by Hans Srhwarz. Carl HolTmann, cameraman. Xo story jredits. At Mth St. week May 3). Run- ning time about 80 minutes. Nina Petrova Brlgitic Helm The General Warwick Waril The Lieutenant Fianz I.ederer This bit of fiction has to do with the Russl&n army at peace, particu- I.jly the card game between a lieu- tenant and his general, with a blond mistresd at !.take. Although things can't happen the way they do in this, "Tiie Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrova" will hold the Interest of sure-seater audiences a little above the average and should do the same in all unwlred houses. It's a silent, Nina, kittenish and runabout type of girlie as interpreted by Brisritte Helm, who more than once makes a despd'ate extension for Garbo classification, gives up the General's villa and Jewels for the Lieutenant's potatoes and flat. This happens im- mediately after the commander comes home and finds his_subordl- nate'" has been hanging 'round. But the Geneiral is unlike.any ever seen on the screen. He doesn't boot (Continued on page 37) WILLIAM PERLBERG extends heartiest personal CONGRATULATIONS to SID GRAUMAN on the most glorious prologue ever staged for any production and predicts a record-breaking engagement for HELL'S ANGELS William Perlberg Agency, Ltd. 622-623 Taft Building, Hollywood, California HEmpstead 4191 Exclusive Management — Personal Representation