Judge — March 14, 1931 — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

jon the first and, let us all hope, Fi time, the entire score of “Pagliacci” has been canned and preserved for audience I have no statistics, but I cas think of no other piece of music that has been so earnestly employed by the movies, and the libretto h basic formula by scenario writers in at least forty percent of thousands of films produced since 1912. Audio- Cinema, who produced this first movie- opera deserve consideration. in they have filmed Leoncavello’s ra without constraining the former San Carlo opera singers fro1 ing in the usual didoes of opera s: By such liberality Audio-Cinema has served civilization in two way given movie goers more of than the one aria they have been hear- ing all these years; it has shown the public that not even a bunch of movie extras, show girls plus Lionel Atwill and Walter Hampden, ever could con- duct themselves on a stage with the asinine self-satisfaction of any group of opera singers—and I do not except the highly paid stars performing in Otto Kahn's music hall. Opera casting directors have an un- written law that no man who rs more than an eighth grade diplon and no lady whose girth is under fifty inches shall ever get beyond the chor us, and opera patrons long greed to support this policy by w smoked glasses and preserving a frigid, unsmiling devotion to the greatest of all the arts. Gone stupid movie producers several months ago defied all opera eti- quette by employing Grace Moore and Laurence Tibbett to sing for them. Miss Moore is a right comely young lady. and Mr. Tibbett not only is a personable young fellow but actually conducts himself on the though he had once performed before discriminating people and not opera Of course, art patrons alw have looked askance at the eccentrici- movie s been used as a some JUDGE By PARE LORENTZ ties of such people as Miss Moore and Mr. Tibbett, and the fact that those horrible movie executives em- ployed these freakish singers proved that, despite their unquestioned abil- ity to sing, there is something radi- cally wrong with the Tibbett-Moore tea and as a acceptable to all oers. The music is + the libretto “Pagliacci” is a rare treat picture should t snuine ope thin and sentimen' mawkish and absurd, and the cast per- forms like a bunch of boiler giving a Maypole dance. As long ago as 1915 Carl Van Vech- ten pre-spoke me and half a hun- dred other fellows by outlining the possibilities of sereen pantomime and music. Since then King Vidor's “I lelujah,” Ernst Lubitsch's “Mon lo,” and, particularly, ReneC Sous Les Toits de Pari used music in pictures without freezing it into concert form. 1 hope none of th producers will be frightened by the imposing list of critics who gave “Pagliacc and—if they do, and ever produce operas in the style of the Metropolitan J am afraid they are Recommended “The Bachelor Father"—A light and y farce with the capable Miss Davies the chief comic “The Blue Angel"—You will find Mr Jannings trudging through the snow again, but it ts worth a trip, & y Rocket to the Moon" tography and direction dur- the picture “Cimarron”. tization of Edna Ferber's scenario. Able and exciting drama “Cit: of Charl ights”—The latest production Chaplin “Laughter"—The gayest and best di rected picture of the season. pus Les Tolts de Paris"—Charming and musical French-piece “Trader Morn — Stupid dial gue against exciting animal pictures, “Zwel Herzen Im % Takt"If you like beer and Bretrelce 7 JUVGING TH MOV’ IS in for hard times. If the movi ever saw Jeritza swoon down trembling arms of Gigli I am con vinced they'd think it was Laurel and Hardy and they wrong. [725.27 academic week. Mr. Lasky wrote a great inany open letters to the public about a picture called “Rango,’ »b which he termed mild ly as the greatest production he ever offered to the public. I am sorry | n't shake Mr. Lasky by the hand nd thank him, or even agree with him. I don't know where Mr. Lasky could have been when his boys wer offering things to the public, but “Rango” is just about as uninspiring a job as the public has been given this ear. OF course, if you're ¢ about Orang-Outans, then you'll like this “Rango.” After a lot of baby-talk in a prologue such ay “pap: Orang-Outans in Africa but there are no tigers you can see, makes all the movie com panies now in Africa look pretty silly), we are told that Sumatra is the home of both tigers and Orang Outans, and the show is on. are there S, sonny, (which This show consists of close-ups of what are supposedly a father and son Orang-Outan running up and down a vacant lot while a property man pulls 1 string to give you lion roots. monkey conversation, ete. Oc ly the property man makes and informs down, that the monke that baby Orang-Ou papa’s hand when he goes for a walk in the dangerous old jungle. — It’s enough to make your hair stand on end. . spe s we learned in Mr. Lasky’s Zool £® ogy lecture, there are no tigers in Africa. However, M-G-M found « good-sized zoo down there and ably photographed a whole herd of littl: (Continued on page 29) wouldn't be far | a comicbooks.com