Judge — June 27, 1931 — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

JIUDGWE THM RE-WRITE man who knows, and A should have done better, took the recent New York City vice investigations and fashioned therefrom a venal and preposterous story called “The Vice Squad.” An ace reporter, and a former “World” prima donna, O. H. P. Garrett, must have t are of conditions at Jefferson M ket long before the Republicans de- cided purity was the better part of valor, and started to put Tammany in minor difficulties. And if he ever at- tended night court he must have seen things that made “The Vice Squad” pretty shameful work for him. In this pretty little picture of black- mailing plainclothesmen we have a so- ciety man reduced to the status of a stool-pigeon because the police have something on him. He falls sick, and is nursed to health by a Village an embryonic author. Of course the girl is framed by the police and the stool- pigeon confesses in order to save her. They live happily ever afterwards, and I hope Mr. Garrett is made an alderman for his good work, because not even the Honorable Jam Walker has painted such a pretty pic- ture of vice and graft in the big city. n xX this point I can do one of three things: resign; tell funny stories; or discuss four of the cheapest, shod- diest, most amateur and _ill-begotten movies I have seen since the days of and “Une proms C I don't feel like letting you of entire ly, so you will have to sit through it or else turn to another page. “Lover Come Back"? may not be the worst of the lot, but it should rank with the week's winners. There isn’t any story, to begin with. A general manager who has been intimate with his em- ployer’s secretary marries a presum- ably sweet girl. The employer strikes up a friendship with the wife and 7 ceeds to send the husband to Boston, Chicago, and points West. The hus- band dashes home, discovers his wife and his employer up the river to- gether and proceeds to he with the loyal secretary member, there is a basis for this story in one of the folk tales of the country; it has to do with a sea captain who rings the front doorbell and then rushes around back. the director made no attempt to em- JUDGE By PARE LORENTZ As I bellish the primitive myth and the te Hing of the supposed characters. “Tue Lavy Wno Daren,” t, is even worse than “Lov- billed as looking a great dares nothing to forced to hide in the bathroom whi her husband raids the place. daring of a kind but even in the movies heroines take more chances than this. The whole story has the appearance of an old silent k.” In this one th The New Billie Dove a smuggle apartment and scenario lamely revived—if at all. has to do with a vice-consul who does- n't give his wife her due, a kind-heart- cd smuggler who saves the wife from n of blackmailers, and a secret service agent. In this one, too, the director must have dozed off during shooting because frequently no- body, including the members of the a te the | | | | ad for Reno Unfortunately the us mediocre actors gathered for tale seemed to lack even a vague idea of their lines or on second 1 like the old one) 1 but a secret visit This is and funnier Recommended “City Lights"—Chaplin good until the fourth time. “City Streets"—The best acting of the year from Miss Sylvia Sydney “The Front Page*—Almost too good to be true “Le Miltion"—A satirical musical comedy by the only Frenchman who knows how to make pictures. “The Public Enemy”—The toughest and neatest gang picture of the lot “The Smiling Lieutenant"—M. Che- valier, two-good actresses, one Strauss waltz, and a good director. audience, scemed to know or ¢: was going on. what poy Loxa Leas" would have been good ten yes rs ago, and was, in fact. The present movie version fol lows faithfully the plot of the Jean very lege by a big sissy wh “Daddy Long I is just about perfect as the wistful child who learns about life through corresponding with her mysterious benefactor and the other m the cast roll over and play p with sufficient skill to send you out of the theater with a nauseous taste in your mouth, I imagine this one was rushed into production so it could be released by graduation time and_ it does have the distinction of being the only picture in town this week with a graduation scene, but as long as they were doing it they might have let the girl graduate Magna Cum Laude and not just Magna Laude. Nt Ane the most profes- sional movie in town but it | a humorless and absurd story and Miss Nancy Carroll makes herself ridiculous by treating her part. with all the abandon of a Harlem chorus girl doing Lady Macbeth. The audi- ence I sat with gave it a perfect criticism by whooping and ming with laughter. The story is a hum- drum melodrama scenario, but Diree- tor Goulding set it in Prague BI called his people such things as Yule and Biezl, in the vain hope we would n't notice the court room scene or the night club raid. Briefly, the story con cerns ¢ young but moral prosecutor who raids a cabaret and fails in love with the daughter of the proprietress. He kills Biezl, “the strongest man in the world” with a nail file (one of the funniest scenes since the last Laurel and Hardy comedy), but the little cabaret lies on the witness stand and saves his life. He is acquitted and they, too, live happily ever after. comicbooks.com