FILM SOCIETY'S COLUMN

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 39, 15 February 1930, Page 5 (Supplement)

FILM SOCIETY'S COLUMN

THE ACTING AND THE TALKIES

A PERSONAL VIEW*

(By JOHN" STORM.)

The talkies have given us many surprises, the chief of which is that real acting can be done for the screen. Though it is true that the drama of moods must be left to the stage the screen can, and does already, attempt the psychological drama. Several films in which the acting has been a notable feature have been shown m the last few weeks. In "Cradle Snatchers, 1 a hilarious comedy, the performances of 12 principals were almost uniformly excellent, of course, good directorship helped, but the acting was the mam thing —the man who played the part ot the "stupidest" husband did it with genius. In "The Lady Lies" and "Charming Sinners" new ground is broken. In the first of these two Walter Hutson—we are told he is a favourite of the New York stage—gives a study of a modern father, in the true sense ."jealously guarding" the freedom of a pair of growing children, and endeavouring at the same time to guard his ov/n freedom. One is interested to discover, from the point of view of tiie writer of tlie story, a man with sufficient character, insight, wisdom, and charity to treat his growing children as human beings (if not also as individual souls) and' yet allow his thoughts to run furiously in the channel cut for him by custom with regard to the woman in the story. This, however, is not Walter Ilutsons affairs; as the said father "his but to do or die." As often happens }n life he must make his decisions in the face of a pack of relatives. His acting is fine and so natural as to make us forget there is any screen. In person, he reminds us a little of another American, George Bancroft; but, of course, this part is more fraught with difficulties than any in which the genial George has appeared. The other characters are all good. I think the best study is that of the heroine's friend. She is a woman who treads the path of thorns with an untrammelled mind. Incidentally, she gives the two children some words of counsel it would be good for the late Victorians to hear. Before passing to the next play I would < like to mention the part of "Mother Fay," the delightful old lady in "Illusion." This small part adds distinction to a film in which the clever little Nancy Carroll ably seconds the ollorts of Charles Rogers. "Charming Sinners" is the best allround comedy-drama I have seen in films. Ruth Chatterton appears again with Clive Brook in his first talkie. If Ruth Chatterton could be better than she was before, then she is. Her speech and her personality have a wine-like richness and colour. She, plays in eeiuicomedy the part of a wife, happy and young, with a "threatened" home. Of course, after the manner of women, 6he deals with the "othar woman" by cunning and stealth. With the man .she is as quaintly truthful as a modern woman may now begin to hope to be. Clive Brook as the simply conventional, devoted, though temporarily errant, husband fills the bill and his speaking voice supports him admirably. William Powell makes a finer foil to the husband than one might have thought possible. He has been forced so long into the shape of a detective we forgot he could be a man. The rest of the cast is mostly good, particularly the small part of tho mother.

"Charming Sinners" sliowa admirable distribution of light and shade, and follows on the lines of the modern psychological drama. Now a word' for a robust melodrama of the Far North, and we have done the rounds. "Frozen Justice" is well cast, well spoken, and generally well acted, with notes of distinction —a tragic ending, novel and vivid settings (an Eskimo village and the Arctic ice, and Nome in the Klondyke days), and two sensational climaxes —a ship shattered by icebergs, and the rescue of the heroine from a crevasse which engulfs and crushes the villain of the piece.