The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 55

TIIE KANSAS CITY STAR SUNDAY NOVEMBER 20 mil TWO OF THE FINFST HE WASN'T IN THE HOPE CHEST but It comes to Kansas City under a stiff handicap with "The Champ" playing down the street For 'The Champ" is a tear Jerker too but a much more adroit one In both pic tures pathos is laid on with a trowel But in one the characters are believable in the other they are the stock characters of "The Old Homestead" and the sentimental poesy of tn MiB MaaMMim'iiMMir "1 iff 4 me 'UU3 the man everything Their living depends on the fighter finding whatever pork-and-bean matches will supply them with coffee and cakes This becomes increasingly difficult as the old fighter fights the booze in matches that are more and more frequent is the boy who shames him and leads him home who puts him to bed and who spits on his father's small coins that they may bring him good luck at the dice tables Sometimes the old man is in luck If the dice roll right he is a momentary big shot In one moment of affluence he buys the boy a cheap race horse A great heart struggle occurs when the wealthy mother of the boy endeavors to reclaim him AH that is mean spirited and shiftless in the father's character battles with all that is good Finally he gives his life in order to measure up to the boy ideas of a champion I Tne story deals with a mother a motner so unoeuevabiy saintly that it is difficult to believe an apprccia tive Providence' could have refrained from sending cherubim and seraphim down to saw the wood and turn the wringer for her She labors all day Idiots would aet out to chase a power-ful monster without taking a firearm along Even the police who participate in the chase are believers In disarmament Now for the only really serious criticism The story of "Franken-teln" had only one basic idea That was the thought that a man wno aspires to create too much will be destroyed by the thing he created This thought added a word to the language For about a hundred years the world has been calling anything that destroyed its creator a "frank-enstein" When an idea is this old and this well established it can be lost only by an expert Fortunately the man who handles these matters for Universal Richard Schayer scenario editor was more than equal to the occasion He has Frankenstein escape the monster and marry the girl although the John Boles character has been carried through the entire proceedings for no other purpose than to be a spare bridegroom Mr Schayefs explanation is that the picture needed a happy ending which makes us wonder if Mr Schayer's conceptions of happiness are not as unusual as his ideas about literature Marriage to a man whose sanity had leen under serious doubt whose recreation had been grave-robbing and whose companions had been a halfwit hunchback and a savage monster might spell happiness to a Schayer 84 '-'bit and far into the night for her little flock she supports a shiftless husband uncomplainingly she undergoes astounding hardships at the hands of stony-hearted offspring Always she remains the lovely old darling with a cheery word for everyone and reproaches for none lb me pnamp" is not a particularly There are two types of audiences that will cry over all this and those who will laugh at it Both will have to admit the picture is well acted Mae Marsh performs un li 1 I Wl I 17 V7 "5 EM 1' I nHH1 believable feats of acting In making Honey picture it contains stuff gauged for audience appeal but it Is the art of the theater to appeal to audiences Plenty of persons who aren't sentimentalists will find tears in their eyes at the Midland this week Plenty of persons who aren't morons will laugh at the ingenious humor of "The Champ" In his directing King Vidor atones for "Billy the Kid" which is a lot of atonement Frances Marlon Hollywood's highest paid and most capable scenarist wrote this story which depicts life at Tia liii ll II vm mi Hi 1 1 I I iBl II Mi 11 I I' Am- WitifMM 171 1 IV II II III 1 but it would not be considered a good risk by a Moffitt What wife could welcome the type of people Franken stein would be dragging home to din 1 1 ii fiiiMiiiH mini HTuiiTii nwDiuva i 1 ri 1 iw 1 gi 11 1 1 in 1 in ner? Duval a magician who has done his bit for the Japanese silkworms marches at the head of the vaudeville parade With the assistance of two helpers and a couple of empty tubes he fills the stage at the end of his offering with enough colored silk handkerchiefs to take care of every one's Christmas Mr Duval would make a good husband He could pick a new kimono right out of the coffee pot The second ten minutes are turned over to Birnes and Kaye a coupje of wisecracking youngsters Miss Kaye plays the part of the dumb maiden while her partner cracks you sympathize with her In scenes that are the most unblushing hokum Those two engaging youngsters who wrung your hearts and exalted your souls in "Bad Girl" Sally Eilers and Jimmie Dunn will make you like them in "Over the Hill" although you will wish two such real actors could portray nothing except real persons James Kirkwood makes you think he is a real man even when he is floundering in an obviously artificial snowstorm To Henry King must go the credit for doing remarkably well with a bad Job Wherever he can plant directorial shadings into the picture he does it He glosses over villainies and tries to make them seem human bits of thoughtlessness He has Miss Eilers halt the wearing out of 'the villain's trousers by pointing out It is a childish vengeance which will afford only anguish for the mother and amusement for the villagers Wherever he can he excuses the skinflint brother's baseness sometimes almost succeeding In making him look like a real person He Is most successful in his shadings in the prologue where he has directed a group of children with astonishing skill The work of Marilyn Harris as a prissy village miss and of Joe Hachey as a hypocritical adolescent who memorizes the Ten Commandments in order to win a prize shows Mr King's direction at its best But even here the childhood represented is not the childhood of ourselves but the back-porch washbasin "readin' writin' 'rithmatic" childhood ot our fathers The boys of this period did not grow up to be James Dunns They grew up to be James Kirk woods or Theodore Rob-ertses That is "Over the Hill" It was not a good story when it first was made But it was cast in the mold of the generation Today it seems hope- nifties Star honors are divided between if V1 v- I I -I 1 I I mi Karyl Norman a female impersona tor and Harry Burns an Italian comedian It has been some five years since Mr Norman appeared in Kan sas City His absence has given him plenty of time to go through his wardrobe and get up some very dainty The lady is the bride but the gentleman isn't the best man by any means We don't need to tell you he didn't jump right out of a band- Karloff as the monster la "Frankenstein" about to yell "Boo!" at Ma Clark The picture a jolly tale ot graveyards and stranglings is the Juana with great thoroughness and which proves a popular picture need not be a bad one The idea of a society woman marrying a champion should not be unfamiliar to readers of the newspapers and the thought that a pug should remain a pug is not so unbelievable as that he should become a member of the governor's staff a caller on Bernard Shaw and a walking companion of Thornton Wilder And even that has happened There is not too much straining for victory The boy's horse does not win the race and although the Champ wins the fight it is at the cost of his life In this picture Wallace Beery does the mast impressive work of his long and impressive career and Irene Rich turns in a performance that is wealthy in fine shadings But to us this boy Jackie Cooper is the 9-day acting marvel of all times Playing long dialogue scenes with Mr Beery and Miss Rich he displays a degree of appreciation and skill that is inexplicable In a scene with Miss Rich he fjnds his way through a most intricate series of business and a bewildering array of lines preserving his mood flawlessly never missing a cue and holding the Interest and the tempo of the scene every second Most extraordinary of all he is a perfect stage listener Although he has lived only eight years he has all the skill and more direct sincerity and conviction than such masters as George Arliss Alfred Lunt and Eleanora Duse have acquired in a lifetime of struggle as Robert Sherwood recently pointed out Why didn't this boy get the award of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the best masculine performance of the year? Everyone in Hollywood believed he would get it because Hollywood where the ins and outs of acting are the common knowledge of an industry knew this child's performance in "Skippy" was one of those rare ex creations box or a hope chest He is Boris week's feature at the Mainstreet Mr Burns us pidgin English is good for many healthy laughs With four or five helpers he presents a fast lessly outmoded If you stop to think act that deserves to be a headliner It's great asset is that its rich production its capable cast and its fine direction may keep you from and women are trying to be true to their own lives and not be false to their elders Many a lonely old man and woman Is undergoing the su preme of sportsmanship by trying to be a self -effective and considerate In a youthful household that is not at all to their liking In Western Europe they are pondering old age pensions In Russia they are experimenting with compulsory old persons' homes It's a real and lasting problem of every human being In One wonders why the movies wander through years of hokum formulas and remain blind to life In the "The Champ" The Champ Wallace Brery 'Dink Jackie Cooner Sponge RoKcoe Ate Tim Edward BroDhv Tony Hale Hamilton Jonah Jesse Scctt Mary Lou Marcia Mae Jones One of the finest pictures of the year with entertainment value running up to 5000 per cent Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper in a comedy drama that presents these two of the screen's greatest at their best world today In Kansas City there are thousands of honest men and women wrestling with the responsibilities of shifting generations Thousands of honest straightforward young men PHOTO PLAYS DOWNTOWN PHOTO PLAYS DOWNTOWN PHOTO PLAYS DOWNTOWN You can't say enough good things AT the present moment New York is scrambling to pay $2 a seat to Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper as they appear in "The Champ" about this picture see "The Champ" and many are the wails on Broadway that you can't get a ticket for love nor money in a sea cellent things that occur in the thea YXPublix'Dubinstui BosV I an riii vnim Critic On Hie Hearth son when New York hasn't much of either In most cases the $2 opening ter only after years of waiting Every one including Mr Barrymore would have admitted it was sheer stupidity to compare this fine subtly shaded and infinitely moving revelation of childhood and its pathos to the the atrically bawling and mumbling attorney in "A Free Soul" a characterization that could have been achieved by almost any good actor with a well stocked bag of stage tricks To tay that Master Cooper's work was in in New York is made possible merely because New Yorkers submit to a racket other cities would resist But with "The Champ" it is different This picture is worth $2 of anyone's money It would have made a great road show That Kansas City is seeing it at ordinary prices is just one of those occasional bargains that come true The reviewers in several sophisticated magazines have called this a "first class second rate picture" Despite the fact we'd love to count ourselves in the select circle of sophisticated critics we are compelled to observe that if this is a second class movie we've never seen a first class one There seems to be ferior of Mr Barrymore's is to con tradict the evidence Everyone ex HEART WITH JOYf V4 "afifS story brimming wA TSf 'w Jf ot sweethearts of fr home and family ot ls mother Pathos dig' Jt (eef tfte heart r3 Nix jtC 1 blended with boisterous Ttr hard-listed drama pected the boy to get the reward Why didn't the academy give it to him? The academy has done some strange things It forgot a lot about "Journey's End" when it gave "Dawn Patrol" a prize for originality It for got Greta Garbo's fine "Anna Chris a notion among such high pressure gentry that a picture can be good if tie" when it gave Norma Shearer a re word for a "best performance" al though it confidentially was whis basically is pure hokum seem thrilling and believable while you are looking at him Dwight Fry as the idiotic hunchback is not nearly so "ham-y" as he was as the "fly-eating" juvenile in "Dracula" although one wonders just why a scientist engaged in the most difficult and advanced of experiments should hire a half wit for an assistant The prize performance next to Mr Karloff 's is that of Frederic Kerr doing another of his wheezing fussy old aristocrats Mr Kerr does the same sort of thing here that he did in "Waterloo Bridge" He does it so well we hope Mr Whale keeps him as the comedy relief in all his pictures Mae Clark is the heroine into whose boudoir the monster invariably must bolt in a picture like this and John Boles is the handsome friend of Frankenstein Edward Van Sloane also of the "Dracula" cast gives a convincing portrayal of a university professor but unfortunately he speaks a prologue with so much ladylike charm and so many eyebrow waggings that he conveys an impression that is not so much of skulls and horrors as it is of lavender and old lace The fact the story has been modernized probably helps It Undoubtedly it makes the scenes in the medical college and in Frankenstein's laboratory more effective Mr Faragoh in a manner revolutionary for Hollywood familiarized himself with certain biologic terms before throwing them indiscriminately Into his dialogue The result is that when the professor speaks on the deformed brain of a criminal and when Mr Clive talks of mysterious forces "beyond the ultra-violet" you feel for the moment that some outlandish scientific phenomenon is about to be accomplished Tire modernization has one serious drawback Only a -village full of ing dialogue that formerly encumbered his tales "Frankenstein" has suspense suspense that will put you on the edge of your seat Suspense that makes you jump at things an Intelligent person should be laughing at A great deal of this is due to the excellent scenario of Francis Faragoh but only a competent director could have maintained the tempo that rushes you quaking and shivering through this tale The story was written In the last century by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley wife of the great English poet The story as it has been transferred to the screen concerns a medical student Frankenstine who is obsessed with the idea of creating life He is not content to try the mere restoration of life to a dead body His critics miRht call that a simple case of resuscitation He must make a body and give it life To do this he goes about graveyards and gallows picking up a hand here and a leg there until he has assembled a new human being a misshapen thing that does not resemble the old model that has been current since Adam This thing through a bungle on the part of the half-witted hunchback who assists the scientist is equipped with the brain taken from a low criminal When the creature is endowed with life it goes on a rampage that terrorizes the countryside Next to Mr Whale's deft direction one Is Impressed by 'the performance of Boris Karloff as the monster This man seems to justify the press agent blares that are heralding him as "the next Lon Chaney" Not only does he know how to wear wax eyelids and artificial foreheads in the best Chaney fashion but he succeeds in projecting through all this makeup certain flashes of fine acting The remainder of the cast is adequate Colin Clive makes a role that the general public enjoys it That's a pered Miss Shearer got her reward theory that's a bit foolish Everyone will enjoy this picture even the sophisticated critics if they are honest because she was going to have a baby If the academy is giving prizes for babies it missed a great chance this It is one ot the most human and appealing presentations the screen has offered in many a dreary day Furthermore it's an adult picture you can take the children to see The same police who should arrest you If you take youngsters to see certain exhibitions in town this week should year when it overlooked Jackie Cooper who was recently a baby and who unquestionably is an actor prob-pbly the most remarkable actor in Hollywood Was the academy afraid to give a boy a prize for fear of the reflection it would cast upon the adults of Hollywood? Whatever the reason there will be a great chance to reconsider things when the next snap on the bracelets if you don't take them to see "The Champ" You'd be depriving them of a great awards are given out It will be dif flcult to overlook his work In "The thrill and reasonable pleasure The story concerns a gin-soaked and punch-drunk prizefighter who wanders into Tia Juana long aftpr he has lost his championship With him is his little son a devoted manly little fellow who worships his blowsy father as a god Theirs is a strange companionship the man to whom nothing matters and the boy to whom "Frankenstein" Frankenstein Colin Clive Klijaheth Me Clarke Victor John Boles The Monster Boris Karloff Dr Watdman Edward van Bloan The Dwarf Dwleht Prve Baron Frankenstein Frederic Kerr Horror done expertly by a new "Ion Chaney" LAWRENCE LEHMAN the conscientious- manager of the Malnstreet theater has decreed that no children's tickets will be sold during the' run -of "Frankenstein" This effort to discourage child attendance is In every ay commendable since "Frankenstein" is a picture of sheer horror 'hat will do no good to the nerves of a growing child Of course a child can get in by having a full price ticket Thus the children of the rich are In danger of being frightened out of their wits and thrown Into convulsions while the poor will remain in their beds sale from Hollywood bogles Perhaps this effort to preserve the sanity of the masses and wreck that of the classes is the first step in a revolution to be pulled off a generation from now For Frankenstein" Is unadulter-ted horror but it is horror cleverly done its "happy" course of action "ins through the stealing of human brains from a medical school a deft little course in grave robbing stran-B'ings burnings alive attempted vivisection and child drowning Now it ould be possible to get up on a plat-term and denounce this form of entertainment We would get applause frnm certain quarters for doing it but we believe that would be overshooting the mark There is a part the public and a large part that fnjoys these shockers Any adult ho goes to the Malnstreet should know the type of picture he Is going to see before he gets there If he docsnt like this sort of thing he can remain away If he does like it he should like "Frankenstein" The Universal film company always has scored Its biggest successes with bogle-man pictures PmhaDa It is the number of central Europeans in executive capacities that make their were-wolfs and vampires so realistic At any rate "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Dracula" "-'ere among the biggest successes of the organization Oddly enough the first of these pictures to be laid in Germany "Frankenstein" Is directed "BAD GIRL" GOES "OVER THE HILL" Champ" "Over the'HIII" Ma Shelby Mae Marsh Pa Shelby James Klrkwood Jolmnv 8helby James Dunn IauH Potter Sallv Eilers Thomas Shelby Edward Crandall Phvllis Claire Maynard Isaac Shelby Olin Howlnnd Minnie Eula Ouy Susan Shelby Joan Peers Ben Adarus William Pawley THE CHILDREN Isaac Joe Hachey Johnny Tom Conlnn Thomas Julius Molnar Susan Marilyn Harris Isabel Nancy Irish An old-fashioned drama that goes jjrauj on the sob slvff Nice' ly directed by Henry King and presenting Jimmy Dunn and Sally Eilers the lovable couple of "Bad Girl" THERE probably was no season more ausnicious than this for the Fox Company to arrange a re vival of "Over the Hill" not merely because a great many of us have been inquiring closely into the com Obpiker "tfT TriMLiJiMii Return foffo 'Sate ranichfah in if SJs 1 forts offered by the poorhouse but for the more serious reason that audi (I ence tastes have swung from stark realism to heart throbs "Over the Hill" has plenty of throbs Around ten years ago the silent version of this picture throbbed sev eral million dollars out of American pocketbooks It's still throbby The elderly and sweet mother still goes to the poorhouse The good brother still drags the bad brother through the village streets This time we are given a closeup showing that the seat has been dragged out of the bad brother's trousers Perhaps that shot summarizes ten years of progress In the movies That last remark may be unduly rvnieal It is true the present smart 1 Till 1 DM 1 Aleck era in Hollywood is naively unable to distinguish self-conscious vul It is the joy of love life happiness garity from earthy wit but one shot "THE CHEAT" oy an Englishman James Whale and cted by another Briton Colin Clive a cottage in Sussex some nurse must have told the little Whale many old wife's tale of the raw heads id bloody bones of Old England because he revels in the gory and midnight howlings of this film Furthermore he directs it with a understanding of film values After about two years in Hollywood tor Whale is becoming almost as a director as he said he was at the tame of his arrival Ha has hrned to use the motion picture "amgra "rl "it th- rverlnrt- does not make a picture and except It is the story of yesterday to for this one offending flash "Over the day tomorrow (S 60) It is Hill" is very moral almost pain everybody story day I fully so The picture is an out and out tear Jerker That is not particularly ot- Thn vniinr lovers who thrilled yon In the Vina Del mar story are teamfd again in "Over the Hill- a talkie version? th Told Xnfc Mae Marsh returns to the screen the mucu abused mother of James Dunn fensive Terhaps It will Jerk as many tears arid dollars Us predecessor and Bally Eilers once more is his sweetheart.