Judge — December 1934 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

Judge DO NOT list them in the or- der of their importance nor dates, but I ask you to note the following pictures of the “Cleopatra”; “The Belle of Nineties” ; ne Scarlet Em “What Every Woman “Treasure — Island”; Lady ‘The Age of “The Affairs of Cellini; an Bondage’ Little Miss “Anne of Green Gables”; More Rive: “Madame Du “One Night of Love"; “The The Barretts of Wim- y of a Bachelor he Count of Drummond year “Outcast Innocence”; “Of H Marker “One Barry Girl”; ys Monte Cristo”; “B g rikes Back.” Lumped together, these twenty pic- tures represent the ranking talent of the movie industry; directors, actors, writ- ers, and technical men. The produc- tions cost, all told, something in the neighborhood of ten million dollars to produce and send to the publi With one or two exceptions, you will find the only amusing and entertaining tions of the year in this group. THE MOVIES By PARE LORENTZ You will find proficient actors, able writers, and fine technical men con- cerned with most of them Yet examine each production, Do you find an original scenario? Do you find a director conceiving an original tech- nical idea? Do you find a great actor or actress developed in Hollywood? Can you find a story that might not have been written twenty years ago, a play that is any fresher than stage produc- tions of twenty years ago? You find Cecil De Mille imitating himself, and not too well at that. You find Helen Hayes giving a performance certainly no better than the one she gave in her most distinguished rdle on Broadway eight years ago. You find two stage successes of last year beautifully reproduced. But you do not find one sign of lusty originality, one scene, one direc- torial idea that give you any feel- ing of movies, Furthermore, these productions have no date. We are closing the year of our Lord 1934, in a fine flurry of strikes, war agitation, famine, and economic sleight of hand, Glance at any newspaper head- line, and return to these twenty pictures Do they stand for any decade, even, do they represent any social, moral, dra- matic period in American life? Do they write large any significant national chang Any one of them might just as well have been made in 1924, 1928, or 1936, for any rooted con on with the country in which they were made. As mechanical exhibits, as smooth, professional motion picture they are unequaled by any productions made anywhere in the world, As for the subject matter, it is completely bor- rowed: from the theatre, from grand- father’s library, from repertory panies of the 1890's, (Page 24, please) they have com- “Well, if we got this scene back to Hollywood—they’d probably censor it anyway!” 18 comicbooks.com