Judge — May 1935 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

“Hurray, | got my first case. suing me.” My tailor THE MOVIE By PARE LORENTZ ROM his record of the past t Dyke seems unable t » years director Van go wrong. Starting with “The Prize Fighter and the Lady then the “Thin Man,” and now, ughty Mariett he has turned out three pic- tures in which, having so-so actors, fair scenario: and equal chances of being good or bad, he has put bo flavor, and a really lusty atmosphere. He is not a particularly imaginative fellow; he has no great studio or camera technique, but, an old location director, used to working with limited equipment and fighting against physical as well as movie difficulties, he gets his pictures going g at a great pace and keeps them entertaining because of the general good feeling he seems to get from his players CTUALLY, “Naughty Marietta” had a fairly good libretto for movies, even if it was a quarter of a century old. And Van Dyke does, thank the Lord, take his camera out of doors once in a while. His embarka- tion scene with an old schooner sailing away in brilliant sunlight was a very fine thing, music or no music. And even the interior shots were bright, gay, and pleas- ant to see. The music itself could stand plenty of sing: ing. Fortunately, and here again Van Dyke showed his good judgment, we do not get half a dozen reprises and dozens of close-up, crooning, personality songs, in the picture. 18 There was some silly monkey business with “Sweet Mystery of Life,” a hammy torch song at best, but he spared us chorus numbers, and off-beat croonings, even with this song. Frank Morgan was brought in to play again his Duke of Milan from the irebrand,.” a characterization as funny as it is old, and Charles Laughton’s wife, Elsa Lar chester, put on a brief skit as a shrewish wife, which would have been better if the scenario writers had re- alized that she is a great deal subtler an artist than the But probably, above everything else, the most enj« able virtue in “Naughty Marietta” was the the score by Herbert Stothart. The tempo is not dam- I—there are no coloratura n Jeanette MacDonald or N singing is fir Furtherm ndling age keyshines allowed on Eddy, and the ¢ orus re, you get just enough singing to want more, which is quite a feat in a musical picture. E are in for another series of war pictures, which, from the looks of those we have had recently, are going to be rather a departure from the accepted Holly- wood war plot This new war story the boys have adopted follows the general outline of “West Point Of The Air.” A cocky ns up and vy es the rules to the de- tir of a pal, brother or, as in this one, father, who is an old army man. young soldier j relessness up ina and then the sub- to army regu- Old Glory as An accident occurs because of the youth's ca (in this one he causes his best friend to plane and lose a leg as a cons: juence) dued youngster realizes there after all, a eing bugled down for retreat. ymeth alutiy nd we see him “First my wife, then my pals, and now the government turns against me!” comicbooks.com eee