Judge — July 12, 1930 — page 23: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ue Hirai Roan,” a British play y with an imported ca peared in New York two sea- sons ago. It was a brittle, vulgar, and inept drawing-room comedy by in author who has shown better skill and taste. It either was manuf. tured for Americans who take th ideas of England from the comic strips or else it was merely a nasty outburst by author Lonsdale. Fortunately it had the services of a personable young lady, in fact a most personable young lady named Edna Best, and it had one genuine >, so that it was almost toler- love se able. I have no doubt but that the movie producers meant to make a handsome gesture when they awarded this play to Ruth Chatterton and surrounded her with most of the members of the original stage cast. However, despite the fact that not one line of the play is changed, “The Lady of Scandal” (as the play is now called) is a miser- able piece of work. The lighting is lad, Miss Chatterton is miserably miscast; the direction is so poor you can neither sce nor hear the ch ; ters half the time, and the pla is not suited to the movies. There is a peculiar snide quality pout this Lonsdale work that makes it rather nauseating, even though you cannot hear all the lines in the movie version. Miss Chatterton, at least a decade too old for the part she at- tempts with her usual polish (and I'm sorry I have to mention it), is sup- posed to be a young actress engaged to the son of a titled family. The 1s of the family conduct themselves like so many Indiana Ku Kluxers cross-examining a candidate. The villain is one of the most thor- oughly swinish characters that ever walked across a stag While the only idea I have of British aristoc- racy is more or less vaguely con- ‘ted with the clerks at Abercrombie itself various hea ne and Fitch, I resent the fact that Lons- dale waves the ancient Hollywood banner and flaunts the principle so JUDGE G\N' is THE MID ICS PARE LORENTZ writers and sena- tors, the general principle being that a man who doesn’t know how to feed and manicure a cow is, after all, open Such pap is delivered r to syndicate to. suspicion. aywright who has shown merit. didn’t have to stoop quite so near the literary gutte conversation seems even more pointless when 4 can hardly , the plot works around to the point where the caddish nobility has been won to the If you have beer or in this column), big climax in which the makes her lover go back to the woman he was waiting for (I won't explain as waiting for her and you'll just have to guess at that—it really turns to the stage, the pli goes to India and that, I think is the Recommended “AM Quiet on the Western Front” hook you will want to movie with the “The Devil's Ho “Journey's End” By all means see it and New"—You'll This is his latest “The Social Lion’ Jack Oakie in a “Shadow of the Law” few good prison movies ever made. “So This is London" which should be Will Rogers— plain that after writing a set of foul acters into an artificial environ ment, Lonsdale then ends his play with a silly bit of heroics. I think Miss Chatterton is a splendid actress, and this play was financed by New York's so-called smart set, so I am sure the producers felt they were giv- ing her a magnificent opportunity. I am sorry for Miss Chatterton and her followers. However, as I should have explained in the first place, I thought the play a rotten job when I saw it two years ago, and [ am grateful that the movie owners at last gave me an opportunity to sa I shouldn't have used all this space, but the edi- tor is away and I have to work fast in order to get all these pent-up in- dignations cleared away before he returns. but “s an hour a have mentioned it before, » This Is London” is worth y hot night. The story is a flimsy thing, based on an old play, but Will Rogers conducts himself with his usual indifference, and the plot just scuttles out of the way when he steps on the set. Our Mr. Rogers manages to mix sagacity and good taste in his sugar-coated, high-priced pills, and as he is the only one of the legion of syndicated homespun phi- losophers who does, that alone gives him major distinction. I like him be- cause he is a superior mimic and be- cause whenever he appears on a stage or before a camera he seems to lend geniality and ease to everybody around him. You've probably heard of Mr. Rogers before, so I'll close the lecture. Soctat Lion” is a_ light- earted piece with a heart of cast pout a Lardnerian garage me- chanie who wins fights and polo games despite the inert contents of his skull. There is one of those dog-in-the- manger scenes at the country club that only a scenario writer’ could manufacture in which the man of the (Continued on page 29) comicbooks.com