TEN "BEST SCENES"

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21257, 31 August 1934, Page 7

TEN "BEST SCENES"

j AMERICAN CRITIC'S VIEWS i | LAST YEAR'S FILMS ! | July is the month when the New York critics carry on desultory squabbles about the 10 beet plays of the season, when statisticians compute the 10 shapeliest legs in the world, when languid photographers pick out the 10 cutest girls in Hollywood, writes the film critic of the San Francisco "Chronicle." In keeping with this spirit, he enumerates the 10 most outstanding scenes from pictures which have appeared within a year's memory. If the truth came out, it would probably be discovered that when we say we remember a picture well, we are actually not remembering it at all, but are recalling it only from one or two brief but revealing scenes which somehow have crystallised it in our memories and j stuck there, he points out. An effective flash of landscape, a vivid closeup, a short stretch of witty dialogue—these constitute the food on which our movies thrive. Here, then, is the list of 10, with reasons: — 1. The last shot in "Queen Christina" Of Garbo, as a Viking princess, standing alone at the prow of her ship, because it captured the very essence of the Garbo myth. 2. Clark Gable instructing Claudette Colbert in the fine art of "hitchhiking" in "It Happened One Night," because this was comedy at its hilarious best, and well-acted at that. 3. Leslie Howard's entrance into the : eighteenth century in "Berkeley I Square," because it had an eerie qual* lty which the movies do not often sue* ceed in conveying. 4. The glimpse of the aeroplane shooting through the clouds into the icy South American waters in "Night Flight." because it was the most exciting of a series of exciting aeroplane scenes, in spite o£ the fact that thfiy

dwarfed the efforts of the human actors 5. Elisabeth Bergner in "Catherine the Great" in the scene when she sat at the ioot of the Emperor's table, because by the use of her eyes and an immobile face she was able to express the whole tragedy of a hop«less situation. 6. The wily conversation between Henry VIII. and Anne of Cleves on their wedding night, because it was I the most ludicrous episode in the much-married monarch's private life. 7. Katherine Hepburn dancing a jig by herself in the hallway, in "Little Women," because it revealed the unfathomed comic abilities of the premier star of the New Deal. 8. The operation scene in "Men in White," not because of the spurious dramatic situation which introduced Itself here unnecessarily, but because of the superlative quality of the photography. 9. The mock wedding procession of the children in "Poil de Carotte," a fine French picture which stopped at the Filmarte for a short visit fome time ago, because of its imaginatively conceived direction. 10. The wolf-exterminating scene in Disney's "Big Bad Wolf." No explanations needed. No one is expected to agree with the above selections, which are not issued ex cathedra. There is no such thing as a world-wide consensus. But surely some of our readers will agree to some of them. And if nobody does agree, what are we going to do about it? Noah Berry, noted character actor, is enacting the role of a Hungarian innkeeper in "Caravan," Erik Charcll's gigantic musical lilm now in production at the Fox Film studio. Lionel Belmore has uiso been added to the cast. To Nils Astlier goes the lead opposite j Lilian Harvey in "Serenade," considered by Fox Film officials to be one of the best and most important parts of the year. Asther will play the role of Franz Schubert, an incident of whose life forms the back ground for Ihe musical romance which Paul Martin will direct. Many of Schubert's : universally loved compositions will bt> included in the picture.