Judge — November 7, 1931 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

———— —————————EES—— nn al oe amen enema mepeenenrem He most seasonal picture of the week turned out to be the most entertaining, although I would have bet a week's pay and a peck of potatoes that it was going to be some- thing appalling to. behold. “The Spirit of Notre Dame’ is a good foot- ball picture, and even though there is a prologue in which we hear the late Knute Rockne haranguing his men, and even though the movie has been advertised as a tribute to the late football coach, it is a better than aver- age picture simply because we never have had a good football picture. We have not had one for several reasons. Either the producers and directors knew absolutely nothing about the game or else they went on the theory that the several million people who attend football each sea- son know nothing about the funda- mentals of the sport. They never went beyond the plot in which the hero scores a touchdown in the last minute of play and takes the girl from the villain, In “The ‘otre Dame” the hero comes into the game in the second half, but he runs interference for his pal, who wins the game. And there isn’t any girl rushing up on the field to embrace her hero, Imagine such a thing! Sou of the shots seem to have been filmed on the famous South Bend campus, but, wherever it was filmed, “The Spirit of Notre Dame” is a pleasing show because it is full of youngsters and has an honest, en- ging sp The Four Horsemen, arideo and several former Notre Dame football players wander in and out of the show, but the most impor- tant and surprising character is J. Farrell MacDonald, who imperson- ates Knute Rockne. He looks amaz- ingly like Rockne; he also acts and talks like an intelligent football rh; he treats his men as a coach is © would, and if the director of this pic- ture d been anything but utterly stupid and unente finale—the Army- rising the big Satre Dame game JUDGE ISG G THe MOV By PARE LORENTZ —would have been an excitin Ay it is, we get nothing but a newsreel shots and some lame action pictures snapped in Hollywood that seem almost slow motion, they are ran off so slowly. Lew Ayres looks more like an actor than a halfback, but he doesn’t try to act, which makes him bearable, Andy Devin ets in the game, gives an honest and some- times almost emotional performani In fact, everything but the dirce of “The Spirit of Notre Dame” gives the mov of young sters, whether of Notre Dame or Ore- as the sub who finall gon State Normal, and I'll testify that you » to the movie without fearing 1, a mawkish senti- 1 piece of exploitation. ue Germans are back in the labor- atory, and this time the i a hospital in “The Song of L photographed a C on that may make you just jumpy. It is not, however, a gruesome § nd although I think it misses entir its objective, in that it was supposed to get us excited over the eycle of life, it is an ambitious and interesting picture. There is entirely too mach camera work in “The Song of Life’ just as there was in “Karamazov” and sev- eral other Tobis movies we have had recently, Yet I think these pictures are important. They always are carefully produced. —'They usually have nd type actors, rather than name stars, and they use them like the Recommended “Bad Girt" — S put effective matizat Devotion’ rior group of he a tlimsy Bri unts in a light comedy» written, , and “Monkey Busine: show Marx Brothers ha “Palmy Days"—Fast S$ ed Russians, ay symbolical rather than personal characters. “The Song of Life” is supposed to mark a great advance in movie tech- nique, although we have had offstage singing to movie pantomime produced in this country by Murnau, Menzies and several other men, Even so, it is a good and a real movie form, but until the Germans hire another direc- tor like Rene Clair, who has, thank God, a sense of humor, they might as well fire their good camera men. In “The Song of Life’ Director Gra- nowsky at one point shows a young couple making love and then proceeds to show us elephants and even wale ruses enjoying the same simple plea: sures of I Any man who could rly picture a charming boy and girl making love and then flash imme diately to a bewhiskered walrus going through arduous love scene doesn't deserve to be given a megaphone, The music is scored well, but it is inconsequential and boring most of the time. With the exception of the camera work, which grows monoto- is, and the operating scene, which 3 more interesting than) dramatic, “The Song of Life’ is little but an- other camera experiment. “Mir Beroveo Bacurtor™ is the story of a sculptor who falls in love with ward, but remains igno- rant of the fact that she, little imp, is in love with him until she practically seduces him. It is of no impor spt that it shows a high calibre of ination on the part of the dirce tor, who kept a picture going for ex- actly fifty minutes without any plot. “ omicipe Sguan” is just what it sounds like, another gangst picture. Here we have the pol gaged in a bitter war with the sters, and the head gangster is a lo ple murderer and cut-throat. Leo Carillo is a decent actor, but he has been employed two years late for this kind of work. He is capable of better or at least more timely goods, comicbooks.com