The World of Motion Pictures

Southland Times, Issue 22042, 15 June 1933, Page 12

The World of Motion Pictures

THE REGENT Now Showing: “The Expert” (Warners —Chic Sale, Lois Wilson, Dickie Moore, Earle Foxe). Saturday: “The Penguin Pool Murder” (R.K.O. —Edna May Oliver, Robert Armstrong, James Gleason, Mae Clarke). Coming Attractions: “Salomy Jane” (Fox—Charles Farrell, Joan Bennett, Ralph Bellamy); “For the Love of Mike” (B.l.P.—Bobby Howes, Constance Shotter, Jimmy Godden, Arthur Riscoe). “The Big Broadcast” (Stuart Erwin, Leila Hyams, Bing Crosby, Sharon Lynn, and other Broadcasting Stars). * * * * Edna Ferber’s charming story, “Old Man Minick” comes to The Regent today with Chic Sale, a very popular Old Man of Broadway, in the title role. The photoplay is called “The Expert,” and Archie Mayo directed it for Warner Brothers as a special feature for the introduction of Sale to motion picture audiences. Lois Wilson, Earle Foxe, Ralf Harolde and Adrienne Dore are in the supporting cast.

“What a really fine actress this Edna May Oliver is” writes a reviewer of “The Penguin Pool Murder,” a R.K.O. mystery comedy which comes to The Regent on Saturday, “An actress and a comedienne if you care to differentiate. Her name on a picture always stamps it sterling. And once again the guarantee, as always, is exceeded. ‘The Penguin Pool Murder,’ produced by R.K.O. Radio Pictures, is serious drama, a brillantly conceived mystery plot and a laugh-packed comedy in one unit. The story concerns a husband murdered in the New York Aquarium, where he has discovered his wife and lover, and his body deposited in the penguin tank. The superintendent of the aquarium becomes involved as a suspect, as does a pickpocket present at the crime. The intriguing mystery is finally solved by a spinster school teacher, -played by Miss Oliver, who by sheer force of will and reasoning, compels James Gleason of the New York Homicide Squad to accept her as a working partner. Gleason, as Inspector Piper, is a perfect foil for. Miss Oliver’s brilliant humour. Robert Armstrong gives a splendid performance as a lawyer. Donald Cook, as the lover, is as con-

vincing as he always is in such roles, and Mae Clarke celebrates her screen return following an illness by contributing a fine performance as the wife. Also prominent in the cast is Clarence H. Wilson, as the aquarium superintendent (whose role of sheriff in ‘The Front Page’ remains unforgettable to moviegoers).” “The Penguin Pool Murder” was directed by George Archainbaud from the story of Stuart Palmer, and a screen play by Willis Goldbeck. A motion picture based on Paul Armstrong’s dramatization of Bret Harte’s famous story, “Salomy Jane’s Kiss,” comes to the Regent next week, with Joan Bennett in the title role of “Salomy Jane,” and Charles Farrell and Ralph Ballamy in support. This promises to be a particularly beautiful film, coming as it does from the Fox Studios, which excel in photography, especially in outdoor work—and “Salomy Jane” was filmed amid the world’s oldest living things, the giant trees of the Sequoia Redwood Forest in California, many of which are three and four thousand years old, Raoul Walsh (who made that other beautiful outdoor film for Fox, “In Old Arizona”) directed, from a screen play prepared by Doris Anderson and Edwin Justus Mayer. Others in the cast are Eugene Pallette, Irving Pichel, Minna Gombell, Sarah Padden, Willard Robertson, James Durkin, and a great many others—so that it would be'very surprising if “Salomy Jane” did not live up to expectations. “Murder of the Circus Lady” has gone into production under the direction of Irving Cummings, for Columbia Pictures. This is the second of the series of the Anthony Abbot mystery stories. The screen version was written by Milton Raison and Lou Breslow. In filming “Loyalties,” at Ealing Basil Dean is out to achieve something particularly fine in the screen version of the fine Galsworthy play. Galsworthy, who refused drastic alterations which American studios sought to make (such as turning the essential Jew character into a Gentile) gave his approval to the script shortly before his death. Vilma Banky returns to the screen (opposite Luis Trenker) in a new Alpine picture, “The Rebel” and Rod La Rocque, her husband, is coming back as the hero of the English version of the Greenland story, “S. O.S. Iceberg,” In this are also T«ni Riefenstahl (of “The Blue Light”), Ernest Udet, the German flying ace, and that tough and rugged old-timer, Gibson Gowland. Viola Dana, the screen’s biggest star in the early days of the industry—and very charming she was, too —will make a “come-back” in a two-reel comedy titled “The Strange Case of Poison Ivy,” a burlesque of life in the gay nineties. Miss Dana made her debut for Edison in “Christmas Carol.” Other successes of those days in which she was starred were “The Stoning,” “•Cossack Whip” and “The Chorus Giri’s Romance.”