Judge — May 2, 1931 — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

UDGWGE TEM po not know whether Buster Kea- ton lost money producing his own motion pictures or whether he tired of the job, but his present own- ers have diminished both his tainment and his commercial value. For no reason at all they first broke down the famous character developed by the little acrobat and made him break a silence enjoyed by two hemi- enter- spheres. For a man who produced his own pictures in the silent days with painstaking care, “Parlor, Bedroom and Bath” must have be rather uninspiring work. Here is w. dy farce that, with or without dia le nnot begin to compare with the solemn, hilarious comedy of “Bat- tling Butler,” “Go West” and the best Keaton movies. It has moments of com- edy, but Charlotte Greenwood and all members of the cast, with the excep- tion of Joan Peers, engage in all the profound overacting inva em- ployed by third-rate actors whenever they are told they are working in a farce. n arduous and Kestes as an inhibited sign tacker, indulges in a few pratt falls, and somewhere he picked up an extra who has the most delightful precision with a rake handle I have seen in a long time. However, these moments are few and far between, and for the most part you are asked to tear loose your floating kidney over lines that could not have been very funny the many years ago they first were presented to the public. Keaton is supposed to be az internationally famous roue and he is hired by an eager young man to marry an intractable society girl. A chance for fair comedy is completely muffed in the scenes during which the girl is supposed to discover the s tacker’s shocking — celib Later, locked in a hotel room with another man’s wife, Keaton falls on his cal- loused backside with sufficient don to amuse me. I always regarded Mr. Keaton as a master of this form of art, but throughout the show words and words more are JUDGE By ground out of the camera, and I fear you will find few of them amusing. I AM not going to suddenly discover Mr. Keaton, but I am sorry that his talking movies are far inferior in every deparinent to the shows he once puton. Keaton 1 have forgotten it in Hollywood, but he was a part of the national vu > and was identi- fied with our gr ization as com- pletely as soda water, the D. AL R. and Calvin Coolic And, dismissing that, on the grounds of sound busi- ness it did not make sense for Keaton to take elocution and lower himself to the ranks of ordinary act- ots. If he had remained the one comedian in the movies who kept his mouth shut by now he would be worth three times as much at the box-office —lI am willing to bet on it. Of course, people might have gone around say- ing he had a cleft palate or that he talked with a Finnish accent, but by now Hollywood should be insensitive to criticism; Lord knows the members of the colony should be used to it. But either because of such a + or because the boys wanted to show peo- ple he could do it, the frozen-faced comedian is no more, and I am sorry. May he rest in peace. Recommended Overlong and over-act h seeing for its real if unin tentional satire Dishonored”—A mixture of u le trash and exciting movie with the added attraction of a new pas sion flower “The Front Excellent direc: plendid and the hawdiest s that eve ‘the Hays gaunt “Sous Les Toits De Paris”—If you have a chance, see it by all means. Fragile and almost spectacular because of its direction “Trader Morn’ lines ever penned, pictures Some of the silliest but exciting animal ~ J OVIEs’ rts no more or sophisticated as time goes on, and by now it is not startlin the homespun columnist assur to ser ng coy modesty, but the man has a charm underneath it all that makes all his work pleasant. “A Connecticut Yan kee” might been much better than it is a natural for rs. It is a careful production. ain the producers hired William Farnum and some coy young lad to play with the and they manage to be just about as pontifical and unfunny with their Pal estine Arthurian dialect a ay nel Atwill impersonating Napoleon or Herbert Hoover singing Pagliacci. Some ingenuity was shown in the introduction and epilogue to the show and no money was stinted for sets. Rogers has a few political wisecracks. but for the most part he really tries to do a good job. The show is long and in spots it may bore you, but I don't think you ever could be annoyed or completely bored with the amiabk Mr. Rogers. have is because it here reat philosopher I Have seen “Tabu” three times and I may be restless with the return of the robins, but I think it is so re- markably lovely, so tenuous and un erringly directed that only after long. sober thought can you really appreci ate what a job it is. If not for its direction, then for its photography: and if the idyllic classic portraits of the South Seas do not please you, cer tainly the sheer beauty of the two act ors mining. And when ered these things con sider “Cracked Nuts,” “Illicit few of the movies of the d. then you will begin to something of the charm of * abu" makes no doubt the you have cons' mone, producers will rush out a series of na tive pictures, but if they merely em ployed a great director they leave these shores ange sights. All we need is a director te find them. comicbooks.com