Democrat and Chronicle du lieu suivant : Rochester, New York • Page 86

Reviews of the New Films ae wwe, The Garden of Allah' Dietrich in color; an overwhelming display of photographic beauty. Recommended. Selznick Interna tional. The most beautiful color film to date, "The Garden of Allah," has been previewed and Hollywood is as full of "ohs" and "aha" as a girls' boarding school entertaining a football team. Hollywood has been waiting for this picture for weeks, not only because it is a color picture, but because it was produced by David O.

Selznick Copperneld," "Little Lord nd because it stars Marlene Dietrich. I nd apparently the town is not dis-' pointed. The picture is like a great gallery filed with strikingly lovely paintings. Dased on a psychological story, it is little happens; in the sense that "Charge of the Light Brigade" or "Come ond Get It" are motion pictures, this is no motion picture at all. But it is beautiful.

Dietrich surpasses the dreams of all the romantic poets since poetry began. She has been beautiful and glamorous in dull tones of gray. But here she has red lips, warm-tinted flesh, blond hair with a tinge of copper. And her clothes every woman who saw the preview envied her one brown costume. She is so alluring that she makes the story unbelievable; it is hard to think Under Your Spell' Lawrence Tibbett.

Acceptable. Twentieth Century-Fox. "Under Your Spell" follows tho formula which Hollywood has evolved for pictures containing great singers. The tar sings considerably ond acts a little, and the story is carried by a decorative young woman and a cast of capable comedians. In this case the great singer Is Lawrence Tibbett, the decorative young woman is Wendy Barrie and the capable comedians are Gregory Ratoft and Arthur Treacher.

The combination gives very acceptable entertainment. Tibbett Is cast as a young singer whose life is run by a manager and a stop-watch. He can't smoke, he can't drink, ho can't sleep with a window open and when he isn't singing he is posing for advertising photographs. Finaly he rebels and flees to a ranch in New Mexico, but he can't escape. There comes a girl, a spoiled, wealthy girl who has bet that she can get him to sing at a party.

If she loses the bet he must marry an ardent nobleman. There follow several amusing scenes, ending in court, in which the singer refuses to help her. But she does not marry the nobleman. This is by no means the most pretentious of the Tibbett pictures, but it is one of the most entertaining. Given excellent direction by Otto Ludwig Pre-minger, Tibbett handles his acting job capably.

Ratoff, playing much the lame part he had in "Sing, Baby, Sing," and Treacher are consistently amusing. 'Wanted: Jane Turner' Lee Tracy In a cops and robbers story based on the activities of the United States Pos toff ice Inspectors. RKO-Radio. "Wanted: Jane Turner" is noteworthy only for a performance by Lee Tracy In the role of a Government agent. Tracy is still one of the screen's most capable actors, and in his specialty he is tops.

The picture combines the "Grand Hotel" formula, aa applied to a postal general delivery window, with the routine cops and robbers routine. Tho result is divided interest which breaks the picture's back; most of the window sequences have nothing to do with the story. Tracy, however, is interesting as a fast-talking but soft-hearted G-man, and Gloria Stuart is lovely to look at and competent as his secretary; or maybe he should be called a G-woman. Others in the cast are Paul Guilfoyle as a gangster, Judith Blake (formerly Shain-del Kalish, then Ann Preston) and John McGuire as a young couple innocently involved in the gangster hunt, Barbara Pepper as a "moll," Frank Thomas, Irene Franklin, Patricia Wilder and Wlllard Robertson. that any man could leave her to go back to a monastery.

I 1 mi For entertainment the picture has some romance, line performances by Charles Boyer, Basil Rathbone and C. Aubrey Smith and an amazing, voluptu ous dance by Tillie Losch. But the chief element of the picture is color, beauty photographed and hung in a frame. The story, as I said, is psychological. Dietrich, a restless, dis- I contented woman, meets Boyer, who has fled from a Trappist monastery.

They fall In love and marry. After an idyllic honeymoon, she learns that he has brok-I en his monk's vows. She sends him back to the monastery. This simple story Is photographed against a background of northern irica, in colorful bazars and on the Charles Boyer and Marlene Dietrich in the recommended color film, "The Garden of Allah." iesert. There are sunrises, sunsets, caravans against the sky, tents on the sand.

Everything is color and beauty. In Hollywood, observers and experts are saying: "You've got to educate the people to color. Right now all you can do is use a story which will provide beauty; you can't have a fast-moving script and expect the public to keep up with it." In this case, it is unlikely that "The Garden of Allah" will be surpassed for a long time, until this education process has been completed. Credit for the picture belongs to Richard Boleslawski, director; Lansing Holdcn, color director, and Sturges Carne, art director. These three together created the moods and the beauty which appears on the screen.

But Nature should also get a lot of credit. She made the desert and Dietrich. Theodora Goes Wild The brightest comedy since "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town." Recommended. Columbia.

There has been a superstition in Hollywood that the amazing rise of Co Lombard, ZaSu Pitts and (not or) Patsy Kelly. She has a drunk scene which is just as amusing as William Powell's scene in "My Man Godfrey." With Miss Dunne are Melvyn Douglas, giving a fine performance as an irrepressible young man; Thomas Mitchell, Thurston Hall, Elisabeth Risdon, Margaret McWade (one of the pixilated sisters of "Mr. Spring Bying-ton. Nana Bryant, Henry Kolker, Leona Maricle, Robert Greig and Frederick Burton. Miss Dunne is the daughter of a small town's most respectable family.

She plays the church organ, teaches Sunday school and helps her two maiden aunts preserve the family dignity. But also she secretly writes certain torrid literature which at the beginning of the picture has the local literary society up in arms. Miss Byington leads the literary society. Miss Dunne meets Douglas in her publisher's office in the city, and in hilarious sequences tries to convince him that she is not the sweet and proper girl she appears to be, but the woman of the world her writings would indicate. She fails, but the meeting results in, of course, Love, in the small town's discovery that the proper young lady is the author of juicy novels and in the girl's discovery that the young man is just as repressed as she ever was.

His father, a lieutenant governor, won't let him divorce an unwanted wife because it would be bad politics. In the last half of the picture the girl turns the tables. She becomes the most publicized woman of the day and drags the young man into publicity until he has no cause for being circumspect. "Theodora Goes Wild," like "Mr. Deeds," "My Man Godfrey" and "Libeled Lady," ia pure amusement.

And with these pictures it goes to make up the beat acreaii entertainment of the year. 'Go West, Young Man' Mae West in a screen adaptation of the stage comedy "Personal Ap pearance." Acceptable. Major Productions. A theatergoer always knows where he stands on a Mae West picture. Barring certain details of costume and setting, he knows what he is going to see before the picture begins.

And he knows that if he liked her last picture, he will like the next one. "Go West, Young Man" Is no exception. In its original form it was the stage play "Personal Appearance," but it would not have mattered if it had started as "Little Lord Fauntleroy" it would come out the same. Its main elements are the Westian swivel-gaited walk, the Westian husky voice and the Westian wisecracks. It differs from other West pictures in that it is modern; during production Miss West told me that it was a relief not to wear corsets.

The story is of a movie actress on a personal appearance tour. Because she is a lady of susceptible emotions, her employer has sent along a press agent to keep her out of matrimony. He successfully disposes of a young politician iLyle Talbot) and a handsome young inventor (Randolph Scott), but fails to take into account the fact that he Is falling in love with the actress himself. The picture is full of laughs (mostly the result of dialog, which is credited to Miss West) and the action is carried by an able cast. Warren William Is the press agent, and there are Alice Brady, with little to do; Elizabeth Patterson, Isabel Jewell as a movie-struck country girl; Etienne Girardot and others.

Miss West sings two songs. The picture, first of the new company organized by Emanuel Cohen, was directed by Henry Hathaway. Recommended Films Recent pictures which have been reviewed and recommended in Screen at Radio Weekly are as follows: "Romeo nd Juliet" (M-G-M); "Anthony Adverse" (Warner Brothers); "Mary of Scotland" (RKO-Radio); "Girls' Dormitory" (Twen-tieth Century-Fox); "Swing Time" (RKO-Radio); "The Gorgeous Hussy" (M-G-M) "Old Hutch" (M-G-M) "The General Died at Dawn" (Paramount); "Wives Never Know" (Paramount); "The Devil Is a Sissy" (M-G-M) "Dodsworth" (Gold-wyn-Unlted Artists); "Ramona" (Twen. tieth Century-Fox); "Craig's Wife" (Columbia); "The Longest Night" (M-G-M); Valiant Is the Word for Carrie" (Paramount); "The Gay Desperado" (Pickford-Lasky); "Libeled Lady" (M-G-M); "The Big Broadcast of 1937" (Paramount); "Three Men on a Horse" (Warner Brothers); "Charge of the Light Brigade" (Warner Brothers); "Pigskin Parade" (Twentieth Century-Fox); "Come and Get It" (Goldwyn-Unlted Artists); "A Woman Rebels" (RKO-Radio) i "Tarzan Escapee" (M-G-M). lumbia from iilmdom's Poverty Row has depended almost entirely on the genius iof one director and one writer Frank jCapra and Robert Riskin.

i The superstition is understandable, 'since these two did "It Happened One Night," "Broadway Bill" and several 1 other boxoftice hits, but apparently it is still a superstition. For Columbia has i turned out a picture which is a worthy i successor to these pictures and the more lecent "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town." The director was Richard Boleslawski and the screen play was written by Sidney Buchman. "Theodora Goes Wild" present Irene Dunne in a rollicking comedy. Miss Dunne has never done anything quite like thia before, and the only retort to that observation is that it is too bad.

She la. In her new character, one the most refreshing personalities on the acraao. And she ia a funny as Carol.