Cinema Reviews

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21117, 19 March 1934, Page 7

Cinema Reviews

or Gordon Harker. He instils a colour of mad criminality into his part—his crazy laughter when the man whom he has determined to kill turns up the ace of spades in the poker game is unforgettable—but with a subtlety that adds rather than detaches from its effect. Hardwicke and Harker, on the other hand, lay their effects on with a trowel and consequently do not live in their parts, becoming book characters—amusing but lifeless. With the exception of Donald Calthrop the rest of the characters, though they are necessary to the story and take their places in the extraordinary series of adventures which befall the occupants of the Paris-Rome express, are colourless. The producing is a compromise between English and American methods • —good when the producer, Anthony Asquith. employs his native way of thought, bad when he borrows from Hollywood. A trick typical of Hollywood is used to introduce the characters and succeeds badly, so that a good deal of hard thinking is necessary in the first half dozen scenes to decide what er.rh character is supposed to be doing. The story is ingenious, in places dramatic, and there is not too much talk —even the necessary happy endings are effectively arranged. On the whole the picture makes excellent entertainment and is as well worth seeing as anything which has appeared in Christchurch for some months, but as England's answer to Hollywood—No! The supporting programme includes q further instalment of "What the Stars Foretell," a scenic of Stonehenge and the surrounding country, and an Ideal News Cinemagazine, "Beauty and the Bust." PLAZA THEATRE •<<;.\i.LA.vr i.apy" There is much in the .screen version of -'Gallant Lady."' the Clive Brook —Ann Harding play, which began a season at the Plaza Theatre on Saturday, to support the contention that the Americans have learned and profited from the revival of the British film industry. The Americans used to lack subtlety; their directors did not seem to understand anything but the preparation cf spectacles and the emphasising of cheap sentiment. But the advent of "the better British film" showed them what could be done by the exercise of a little thought, a little understanding, and much more attention to the liner points of acting. Now the best American directors, by tackling the job from the beginning, have fcund relief from the ever-growing problem of making each picture more stupendous and more staggering than the last. "Gallant Lady." though handicapped to some extent by a plot rooted in the lavountc old theme of mother love, reflects these salutary tendencies in its direction, in its dialogue, and in its delicate handling oi delicate situations. At last we have American actors talking flippantly in danger and in embarrassment, making love by contradictions, and laughing at themselves when they are most serious. At last they seem to have learned the wisdom of rei'raining from driving home the obvious, emphasising th-j pathetic until it becomes absurd, and' decorating the "high-spot.i" until they weary. In "Gallant l.ai'y." ;::m!i of this rcnsibil.'tv of treatment must be attributed'to the iiiflu-nce of Clive Brook, who. though cast in a strangely negn-

tive part, supplies a solid background to the more enlivened acting of Ann Harding. Brook play* the par; of a broken-down dooior. well suited to his natural cynicism and quiet self-assur-ance. Ann Harding tiuds good opportunities for polished nnd expressive acting as a mother separated from her child by the cruel necessities of convention and respectability. The child is played by Dickie Moore, a talented and most precocious youngster. The self-sacrificing determination of the mother to make the boy's welfare her first object in life, is the main theme of a somewhat involved plot. Mario, an Italian ccunt. played by Tullio Carminati. contributes some really diverting coined-' and some pleasing Neapolitan songs, and Janet Bccchcr, as a vivacious antiauc dealer, is an excellent foil for the principals. The supporting programme includes an amusiii'T and educative bridge film, "Murder at 'the Bridge- Tpble." with Mr Ely Culberison as the ciiief villain, and an ingenious Mickey Mouse cartoon. The whole programme is most enjoyable and well-balanced. ST. JAMES' THEATRE "THE GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933" As the title suggests. "The Gold Diggers of i 933" is about that particular type of woman, generally connected with the theatre, which is alleged to exist on the gifts made to her by men on whom she successfully practises her blandishments. The plot, as may easily be guessed, is about several young women, of the poor but honest parent o-dcr. who cither for love or for gam spend the length of the film in artistic angling in the direction of a complement of wealthy men. The plot is thin, but the audience that saw the picture at the St. James' Theatre on Saluiday was viry satisfied with it. because the plot really did r.ot matter. Things never really looked black tor any ot the characters, and one instinctively knew that the lovely but lowly heroine would be welcomed to the bosom of the aristocratic Boston banking lamily of her lover, that romance may cuily be served ana that the democratic spirit may emerge lrem one more test triumphant. "The Gold Diggers" needs no plot except as a means of cohering in some degree the Vkjvv many good thmgs that the tilm contains.

, It is primarily a variety jliuw, tilled ; v.-Hi tur.eiut music, with dancing, and j enough humour of the sophisticated 1 tori associated witn modern American light stage productions. In this department the Americans excel, and "The Gold Diggers" is a very good example of what can be done. The | production is on a most lavish scale. I with settings which are novel in the ; c-;;trcme and always artistic, a tribute at once to the person responsible for ( the ballets, and the person responsible ; for the photography. Some* of tlv: ! scenes are done in a manner new to th-j screen, and will doubtless provoke him directors to copy therh in thJuinre. Lighting effect-.- have been used with great subtlety to produce scenes vvhich eommand admiration not only ier their beauty but also for their ingenuity. Much o; the music of the aim is already known, such songs, a:.-, "Trie Forgotten I\*-_»n.~ "Pcttin' in the Park," and "We're m the Money ' which were written for it having already appeared on gramophone records and as dance r.uinbers, but <V 'reis much more music in the show :nan the main songs, and all of it is good. There is a strong cast, of which Dick Powell in the rather unenviable role of sentimental hero is outstanding. GRAND THEATRE "Red Dust," starring Jean Harlow and Clark Gable, opened its season at the Grand Theatre on Saturday.

THEATRE ROYAL j "THE KENNEL MURDER CASE"! The mystery which Philo Vance sets i himself to unravel in ''The Kennel Murder Case" is perhaps the most bewildering and intricate of his whole career. Murder is never more difficult to trace than when the murdered man is a friendly man surrounded by friends, or a hated man surrounded by enemies. Archer Coe, in this case, was the most hated man in his neighbourhood; at least seven people had openly declared their desire to see him dead. And when he was found murdered, he had been not only clubbed on the head and stabbed in the back, but shot through the brain as well. To make matters worse for Vance and his associates, a second murder is committed in hardly less amazing circumstances. Although the detective is able to carry his investigations to a point where he can reconstruct the circumstances in which both men were murdered, he has to confess his failure to bring home the crimes to any one of the suspects, and it is left to a dog finally to point the criminal. "The Kennel Murder Case" is not the best of S. S. Van Dinc's detective stories, but uie producers of the film version, which was shown for the first time at the Theatre Royal on Saturday, have for their own purposes improved on the original, smoothing out the over-complication of clues and reducing the number of red herrings so that the unravelling of the crime may reasonably be followed by an audience. The clues are presented! fairly and the suspected murderers and their motives are well defined. Deliberately, of course, some arc surrounded with a special air of mystery: but if an audience finds it difficult to discover the criminal it will have the satisfaction of knowing at i least that its difficulty is shared by the detective himself. Several aris- j tocratic dogs do important work in i the film. It opens, for instance, with a I kennel club parade at Long Island I which should delight dog-lovers here. William Powell again takes the part of i the fastidious Vance, Van Dine's amateur detective who applies to the task of solving murder problems the \ methods of an art expert who is called upon to decide the authorship of a painting. Eugene Pallette is also presented as the dim-witted Sergeant Heath, a very suitable foil for Vance's detective brilliance. Mary Astor and Paul Cavanagh play the romantic leads. Their romance, fortunately, is kept well in the background where it cannot spoil the main movement of the film. The supporting programme com- j prises a Paramount gazette, "Little : Miss Mischief," a diverting novelty ,' showing a few odd minutes in the life j of a baby girl. "Samoan Memories." a ! travelogue, and a song-and-dance num- i bcr. "Double Crossing the Columbus." ! LIBERTY THEATRE j NATL'KK TRIUMPHANT IN > "s.O.S. ICEBERG" ' Nature is frequently a better actor than man. and intelligent photographs can give natural wonders dramatic a, well as scente interest. "S.O.S. Iceberg." at the Liberty Theatre thi.weck. is the latent of many interesting. German-inspired (if not Germaumadei films set m scenes of snow and ico, and though it has a definite plot the thread t>f the story is unimportant because of the dominance of the setting. Tlio:t who remember "The White Hell of Pit/. Palu"- probably the line:! of these German films -will find in "S.O.S. Iceberg'" a similar' appeal, and similar technical excellence. Pro-; cluccd on the west coast of Greenland. ' it reveals with startling effect. the, terror and grandeur ef the birth-place 1 of icebergs, thousands of. tons of ice fall off the terminal faces of pinnacled i glaciers in to the frozen sea. huge ■ marscs split off, plunge and roll and j float away as icebergs, and these in ; their turn split and crumble as the, thaw advances. The story concerns | a:i expedition < its purpose is never, clear), the members of which try to cross .'! fiord on floating masses of ice. j and who arc eventually marooned on : a berg. In the earlier stages of their-cross-country .journey to the fiord i some good ski-ing scenes are shown j and dogs and equipment are lost in j crevasses. Later, on the berg, their I members dwindle, as one goes mad rnd pushes another into the sea, a third is killed by a polar bear, and another is lost when the berg breaks up Eventuallv a search is made by aeroplane, and the heroine. Lent ; Riefenstahl, who pilots one of the ma- ; chines, damages it and is left with the; marooned party. Eventually rescue is i brought bv Ernst Udct. whose flymg among cliffs of ice is a revelation of, daring and skill. The acting in the j film is unimportant. Rod La Roequc j as the expedition leader is not im-1 pressivc; Gibson Gowland, as the fear- j crazed promoter, gives a good charac-1 ter study, and the work of the Ger- ■ mans is straightforward. But in: photography the film is memorable for , several shots—a sudden view of miles; of crumbling ice-face, upturned won- ; dcring faces in an Eskimo camp, and the lift and swing of Udet's aeroplane. I That so good a film should appear: at the Liberty is a reminder that those ! in search of "living cinema should not, overlook this theatre. The second film | is "Dangerous Crossing," a normal j Hollywood melodrama. | I

REGENT THEATRE

u\ WAS A SPY" ■•I Was a Spy,"' the Gaumont«Ssh film which was first screened the Recent Theatre on Saturday, 1 producer, Victor Saville. had a !<-•< of fact to work on: but it is fine penetrating, constructive Xtfination tha: is to be credited •ih the success of the drama built * it. The story is full of thrills. always more than a thriller. °l e {rightfulness of war is clearly ex•bited without crowding the film episodes to illustrate it. It •ould have been easy to make a too fantastic, elaborate business of the ' ,-inP- casv to make the trial scene, vhere a woman is sentenced to be (he climax of a melodrama of defenceless angel and murdering j, r y te V But Mr Saville nowhere cheapens his story or narrows his new of patriotism, justice, and hu- '- n itv. Madeleine Carroll plays sensitively the part of a Belgian girl. Marthe Cnockaert. whose pity leads her to accept service in the German military hospital at Roulers. But she is a patriot first, and easily persuaded by her aunt to share in the [ask of passing on military messages. Soon she is more deeply involved, arranging the escape of British solriier" helping to blow up a German Ptrmuniticn dump, and acting as spy herself She is a patriot above all and" to the end: for her purpose outlaws the horror of seeing a huge concentration of German troops at open--ir church parade, helpless under the ram of bombs from the British aeroplanes which her message has brought across- And when an unlucky chance betravs and convicts her, her defence and confession before the court-mar-t-al are uttered together, in the same proud, steadfast words. Mr Howard Marshall, who likes supple, brisk carts best, perhaps, has appeared tc better advantage than as Stefan, the Alsatian hospital orderly, Marthe's confederate and her lover, who gives his own life to save her from the firing squad; but Conrad Veidt, as the town commandant, and Sir Gerald du Maurier, as the hospital doctor, achieve the highest possible success, Veidt in a part most various in its demands. au. Maurier in one more level but perfectly defined and maintained. Mr Edmund Gwenn as the Belgian burgomaster gives one of those minor performances in which every word and every look have exactly the right emphasis. It ought to be added that the setting Is extraordinarily good, in realistic effect, and that the camera has been used with excellent judgment of pictorial value. There arc three good supporting 'ictures. including an amusing cartoon. Box plans are at the D.I.C.

CRYSTAL PALACE ENGLISH FARCE IN "THE LUCKY NUMBER" The best film comedy is always extravagant, end while "Thr Lucky .'"umber" at the 'Cryrial I J a!->ce begins Liberly enough it develops rapidly into En amusing farce. You arc a proJe;sioii?.l footballer suspended from tie game; you go i; tto RU hotel.have a think, find that your pocket has bee;: picked, and persuade the landlord to accept a ticket in a French luUci-y. Naturally enough, then, you disjever that the tieKet is the winning one and it any cost must be regained. Perhaps naturally enough, again, you lind n; the end that the manager of the lotcry has absconded with the cash ana you than return cheerfully to football. There, with the addition of a very pretty girl, a baa-tempcrcd bu" kindjtearted landlord, and a generous Jew pawnbroker, is th-s; story of "TTI2 Luclcy Number." Cliiiord .Vlollison is the footballer, Joan Wyndham the pretty girl. Gordon Ilarher the landlord, and Frank Pcitingcll the pawnbroker. "The Lucky Number" is an English film and has been highly praised by English critics. It avoids most of those stretches of dullness and errors in production which have marred some English pictur2s, and is an example of producing equal to any average Hollywood film. If it has not the strenuous, sometimes forced, gaietv of incident piled on incident which American comedy has made peculiarly its own, it has instead a more typically English humour—the humour of English life, of English character, and of the English way of thinking. From the moment when Percy Gibbs •Clifford Mollison) discovers that the lottery ticket he has persuaded the landlord (Gordon Harker) to accept in payment for a drink has won the first prize of 1,000,000 francs his ingenious efforts, aided by Joan Wyndham, to get it back lead the story into scenes of varied London life. Eventually the three of them, with Mr McDonald, the pawnbroker (Frank Pettmgelb go to Paris to claim the prize, and there, with much ceremony. Percy is ushered into a room in which heexpects to be given the money. Instead, he is unanimously elected chairman of the association of "lucky prize dinners," who explain to him that the money has taken wings. He goes back to his football, marries the girl, and exclaims "Gor blimey:" as the last fsdeout occurs. There is a mixed supporting programme, some of it very good. "Industrial Britain" is one of the best photographed and most interesting films sho-.ving the industrial strength of Great Britain that has been exhibited here for some time. Bold impressionistic methods of photography are used to suggest the power and scope of Britain's industrial organisation. A scenic containing views of Cambridge is interesting- and there is an amusing Ideal Sound Cmemag^ir.c.

CIVIC THEATRE GOOD ENTERTAINMENT IN "ROME EXPRESS" A pie with a delicious crust to cover it End half a dozen different meats, some of them less good than others, in the bottom of the dish, would not be Unlike "Rome Express," at the Civic Theatre, which has been -described as England's answer to Hollywood. It is nothing of the sort, of course, since jnost of the bad points in it are plainly °ue to the attempt to accept America's challenge, while most of the good ones are good because they arc typically English and the undistorted products °* the producer's English mind. A pie with too much meat in it is Difficult to cook properly. In the same v ''ay a picture with too many charac{f« is difficult to produce. In "Rome Express" there are eight principal characters and not more than four of them ever succeed in casting their navour on the palate. To continue the homely metaphor, a few savoury meats so flavour the whole pie that the rest M its contents become mere filling. Conrad Veidt unavoidably takes the Principal place and his acting is in i wteresting contrast to the character ] Performances of Sir Cedric Hardwicke