Life — November 9, 1928 — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

THE MOVIES Enthusiasm Explained b AN enormous number of m y readers (two, to be ea R. E. have written to ask me why Sherwood 1 have been so enthusiastic about the possibilities of the talking movies. “It is not like you to be so kind to anything so obviously awful,” is the consensus of opinion. My replies to these protests are as fol- lows: 1. I believe that talkies will develop (and rapidly) into a medium of expres- sion far more interesting and of far greater scope than the old silent films. 2. I would be in favor of the talkies if oaly because they have raised such a ruckus in Hollywood, and because all the hams in that celebrated community have lately been deploring the vocal films and dismissing them as “inartistic.” Anything, in my estimation, that knocks some of the sublime conceit out of Southern California is to be encour- aged. (Note: The preceding sentence was inserted merely to stimulate letter writers; you can imagine what an opportunity there will be for correspondents to start off with, “Now I’m going to knock some lof the sublime conceit out of yor.’) Our Gangsters Tue two world events that have done most for the movies have been the Great War and the Crime Wave. If it hadn't been for these calamities, the scenario writers would have been forced to go on writing ‘Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” and “Sergt. O'Malley of the Mounted” “But, dear, where are we going to put the coal?” over and over again. (Of course, th te doing that anyway, but not to such a great extent.) So the Great War and the Crime Wave, inconvenient as they may have seemed at the time, were not fought in vain. They have been responsible for many rough, sturdy, vigorous pictures, “Waite tHe City Steers” and “Me, Gangster” are a pair of recent additions to the large collection of bull-gat-yege melodramas, and both of them are good. In “While the City Sleeps,” Lon Chaney is called upon to disentangle him- self and play straight as an old detective who falls in love with a technically virtu- ous moll, but finally has to give her up to the gunman whom she really loves, The picture ends with a marvelous batle on the roof-tops, with tear bombs and other instruments of modern warfare. Jack Conway directed this in the best Tod Browning manner. The hero of “Me, Gangster” is its director, Raoul Walsh, who has adorned the patently moral story with many original and telling touches. Mr. Walsh always manages to charge his productions with an indisputable vitality, but he has had a hard time putting this element of life into “Me, Gangster,” which suffers acutely from what our Mr. Benchley once referred to as “‘fatty regeneration of the heart.” A Confidential Guide to current movies will be found on page 28, Football Talk of the Future (If Traveling Continues to Be Popular) “How’s the schedule this season?” “Plenty tough. We can’t hope to go through undefeated.” “You were foolish to add Paris U. this fall. Those birds are good. Did you se what they did to Stockholm last week?” “Yeah, and they come right after we play Moscow too. It does look bad, but I'm carrying eight full teams this year.” “Too bad the faculty cut out the student trip to London.” “Sure thing; the undergraduates de- serve to see their team in action at least once.” “How about All-World men? Gonna have any?” “I don’t think so. We've never gone 19 for individual stars. Team play is our secret.” , “Well, you're sure working up an ternational reputation.” le “Yeah, we've scheduled the University of Jerusalem for next season. I'll simply have to find a clever Jewish player some where.” W. H. Layne. comicbooks.com