OLYMPE ON OLYMPUS

Radio Record, 29 July 1938, Page 25

OLYMPE ON OLYMPUS

Mie. Bradna S cales The HeightsBut Pm Not Certain She's On Tbe Right Slope .

Crooks Regenerated With Musical Aid

["Stolen Heaven." Paramount. Directed by Andrew L. Stone. Starring Olympe Bradna: First release; Wellington and Dunedin, July »

N an otherwise inconspicuous picture, called "The Last Train from Madrid, there was a cheeky-looking, baby-faced actress who caught the attention from the moment she was seen deserting from a Spanish Amazon regiment for the more enjoyable company of Journalist Lew Ayres. That was Olympe Bradna, 17-year-old actress from La Belle France. Then came "Souls at Sea," and little Mademoiselle Bradna had skipped most of the preliminary rungs of the ladder to stardom with her poignant, restrained performance as Babsie, the jll-fated girl who fell in love with George Raft. And now, Olympe has jumped the remidining rungs and is at the top of the ladder. She is a star in "Stolen Heaven." I’m certain she deserves to be there, for among the shiploads of foreign actresses whom Hollywood imports every year-and soon forgetsshe has piquancy, a fresh charm, and dramatic depth that make her out-

& standing, So far, she and Danielle Darrieux are the foreign ‘(liscoveries’ of 1938,

On Wings Of Song ET I can’t help thinking that it would have been better if Olympe Bradna’s ladder to the stars had been pointed in the direction of a slightly firmer part of the movie firmament than it is in "Stolen Heaven." Having reached the top, the chubby-faced French girl has to step off into an airy, unsubstantial expanse of hokum, with practically only the musie of some of the great masters to support her. Anybody less talented than La Bradna might have come hack to ground !evel with a bump. Into one of those convenient new States with which Hollywood dots the map of Europe in a manner to make the partitionists of Versailles go red-white-and-blue with envy, Olympe is precipitated as the most elusive member of a gang of elusive jewel thieves. This country apparently lies somewhere between Hungary and Germany, judging by the agile, picturesque peasantry, and the national habit of drinking beer in the open air and singing rollicking choruses, Rather Shocking T is rather shocking to discover that such a nice child as Olymne is a crook, even though the gang _ for which she operates is so unconvincing that I doubt if in real life it could manage to steal even a glance. That very blonde and somewhat insipid young

man, Gene Raymond, is their leader and they operate from a beer-garden where Gene plays the violin and Olympe sings and dances (very nicely, too!) rousing the burghers and fraus to a peak of wild excitement with a song abour the "Boys in the Band." Forest Idyll "PHIS part of the pieture is happy and exciting enough, though they conld profitably have dispensed with that tiresome episode about the open trapdoor into which the irate cabaretowner is predestined to step as surely as if Jobn Knox or Calyin himself had deereed it. But when the crooks have to dash for the border, and Olympe and Gene hecome separated from the others, the film drops even the pretence of reality and becomes a kind of romantic musieal idyll that seemed to me to grow more and more artificial with every foot. Nothing more is heard of ‘The Boys in the Band’; instead we have the music of Liszt, Chopin, Grieg, Moszkowski, and Strauss, which comes rippling through the greenwood from the hermit home of Josef Langauer, once great pianist, who has cut hitnself off from the world because his memory is failing. Despite a head of hair of the Paderewski pattern, this eminent maestro is easily recognisable as Lewis Stone. (Continued on next page.)

Saved. By"Music With the childlike trust common t¢ """~ great artists, the maestro shelters The’ engitive jewel- thieves and becomes part of their scheme to skip the coun"try, by ~ being bluffed: into the belief that: they will sponsor his return te the werld'of music. But as the vague old gentleman practices assiduously af the piano. for this great event, the te ee music of Liszt, Chopin, Grieg, Moszkowski and.-Strauss gets to work on the hard hearts of the tricksters softening them’ so effectively that ins the. finai scene .they almost welcome , the chance to wipe the slate clean by ; going to gaol.

i ean believe it of Olympe, who is such an innocent and impressionable child; but the reGeneration of Gene Raymond hy meang of Liszt, Chopin, Moszkowski and Strauss is something about which I eraye leave ta remain cynical. If Sounds Were Seen yp like to know who was playing that musie so brilliantly for Lewis Stone, There are many sequences where the screen throbs with the music of the masters, and although it does perhaps rather add to the artificialit; of this crime story, I’m duly grateful for the chance to hear it. The finale comes in a _ burst si melody, with the playing of Liszt’s Second Hungarian Rhapsody at a peasant festival. I think we could have done without those montage shots of neighing horses and whistling trains, but the producers have certainly made a good attempt, in the words of "Time," to give an idea of what the Second Rhapsody might look like if sounds were pictures. Frankly, I can’t quite make up my own mind about "Stolen Heaven." if liked Olympe Bradna and the music enormously, the rest not nearly st much. So considering everything, [I think a "Dark Horse" grading is the Coincidence FEW days after writing the above paragraph about the attempt to suggest in "Stolen Heaven" what sounds might look like if they were pictures, I saw another film which has been produced solely for that unusual purpose. It it an M.-G.-M. short subject, "Optical Poem,’ made by someone called Oscar WFischinger. Once again the subject of Liszt’s Second Hungatian Rhapsody, only in this case couventional images-such as ‘peasants dancing-are dispensed with; and by the aid of vari-roloured circles, squares

and triangles, which move, and group together in a continuous series of changing patterns, the producer attempts to "illustrate" the background accompaniment .of the. stirring . music. A remarkable effect, very largely successful, though somewhat tiring to the eyes. You really do feel most of the time that you are seeing the music as well as hearing it. It’s a sort of animated surrealist tone-picture-if you know what I mean! Mad Family That Will Make You Laugh [Merrily We Live, " MLG-M.. Directed by Norman Mcelod, With tonstanee Bennett, Brian ‘Aherne, Billie Burke. First release: Welling: . ton, August 19, ]

HEN Alan Mowbray, as the . dignified. ~ butler, fainted dead away in the first 10: feet. of "Merrily We Live," I made ‘sure it was going to be, as L had feared, just another crazy comedy to vent my spleen npon. But no! The people in- this show are crazy-delightfully, wonder. fully erazy---but the show itself almost completely escapes the stigma of mechanical Iunacy.Made by Hal Roach, ‘yferrily | We Live’ is almost as eooil as. "Topper." it has the same deftness of directiou which keeps the lunacy under contro! and maintains a clever balance between dialogue and action. The story, if ineredible, follows a well-defined and logical course aud is peopled by characters which are something in the neture of caricatures of recognisable types. Even in their maddest moments they are seldom annoying. Since the success of this picture depends sO much On the producer, I suppose I might as well be one of the first to start talking about the distinc. tive "Hal Roach touch." Tramp-Collector BERRILY WE LIVE" owes a good deal of its plot to ‘My Man Godfrey." Mrs. Emily Kilbourne, mother of a family of quaint individualists. has a passion for collecting waifs and strays-a passion unquenched by the sad discovery, time and again, thai her proteges have decamped with the family silver. When Brian Aherne arrives dusty and dishevelled at her house one morning there is the same warm-hearted welcome for him from Mrs. Kilbourne as for all the others of the hobo fraternity-and the same insulting reception from the Kilbourne daughters, the long-suffering Kilbourne father, and the harrassed Kilbourne butler. But you know from the start that this hobo is distinctly not like the others. You know that he will probably turn out to be a prince in disguise, or a movie star trying to get in touch with nature, or a millionaire who is tired of limousines and wants to know the joy of the open road: But this

doesn’t prevent your being interested to discover what he really is. As a matter of fact, the tramp turns out to be a novelist-but not until after he has been coerced into the job of family chauffeur, become the target of the younger daughter’s romantic yearnings, the serious object of the elder girl’s affections, and the ceutre of interest. at an uproarious dinnerparty at which he begins as a waiter and ends up as the most popular guest. Billie Burke Burbles "THERE is the same smoothness and competence of acting in "Merrily We Live" as there was in "Romance For Three," a film which it equals in quality. As Mrs. Kilbourne, Billie Burke is as absent-minded and talks as much: as ever-but this time has something worth talking about. You want to hear her on the subjects of tramps, goldfish, roses, Shakespeare ("As Shakespeare said-Now what did he say ?-Well, never mind, I’m sure he must have said it, anyway. .. ."), family trees and fathers ("Having a father is one of Nature’s unwritten laws" !). , Yowll rejoice also at the fitful leaye-takings of Butler Alan Mowbray aud his final resolve that he is in the wrong racket and would be better off as a tramp; the precocious mischiefmaking of Bonita ("These Three’) Granville; the spluttering rages of Clarence Kolb as the head of the madhouse and its only sane member, and his erratic progress up and down stairs in one of the funniest portrayals of drunkenness I’ve ever seen. Constance Bennett consolidates the good impression she made in "Topper" ; and as for Brian Aherne-why tas Hollywood taken so long to discover him as a romantic comedian? Even pudding-faced Tom Brown is bearable for once, as the son of the madhouse. If you want a laugh, see this picture, I guarantee you'll get it, nearly all the time. Jack Holt’s Sacrifice Act Again ("Flight Into Nowhere." Columbia. Directegd by Lewis D. Collins, Starring Jack Holt. Just released.]

MONG my most vivid film memories of the old silent days is the picture of Jack Holt, released from prison after a term as long as you could expect Hollywood to give him, coming home to find his wife in love with his Best Friend. I shall mever forget Jack setting his grim ~ mouth and walking outside in his Best Wriend’s overcoat, so that a gang of racketeers who were waiting for the Best Friend bumped off Jack by mistake, Just sob stuff, of course. It has been done better dozens of times in different situations. All the same, Jack Holt’s sacrifice act caught up my heart in those boyhood days, and I

have ever since had a sneaking regard for him. He’s such a MAN is Jack. Bandy legs and underhung jaw and all, there’s no one, in my opinion, to touch him as the type of tough, straightshooting, big-hearted guy that the directors like to get into their less pretentious pictures. Last Of The Ineas S09, because of Jack, I enjoyed "Flight Into Nowhere," his latest Columbia film, with good-humoured ac ceptance of its many faults. It is the story of a bumptious air pilot who is degraded for disobeying orders, but who steals a plane and flies off on a survey flight which he had been promised before his disgrace. Naturally, you can't steal planes with impunity nowadays, and the rash young man soon runs out of fuel and makes a forced landing among the Last of the Incas. These extraordinary people, who speak educated English and look like nothing so much as amateur theatrical society members dressed up for an Old Hnglish pageant, receive him courteously and give him the chief’s daughter for a wife. But the lost pilot has another young wife at home who, in the manner of her kind, has been stirring up Jack Holt to go find the errant boy. . Jack gets together an expedition and plugs off bravely through the jungle and bloodthirsty savages-ending up at the Incas’ kingdom to give the pilot a ~

Straight. left on the jaw. for his. infidelity and his now chronic drinking. Still A Good Chap HE fade-out of the film is rather surprisingly abrupt, and gives the impression it has been cut at the last moment. But it still contrives to.show. what a straight-shooting guy that Jack Holt is. "Flight Into Nowhere" is justi an average, inexpensive adventure film. no better than the usual run. But I liked it-it was so good to see Jack Holt’s leathery face again. Their Dead End Had An Exit! [ "The Devil’s Party. ad Universal Directed by Ray McCarey. Starring Victor McLaglen. First release: Wellington, July 29.] ‘:

N the opening scenes of "The Devil’s Party" there appear slum children who might be second cousins-several times removed in point of toughness-to those young hooligang whose horrible caperings highlighted "Dead End." But the kids of this new picture make good! Somehow-we aren’t told how-one of them grows up ‘0 be a prosperous night-club owner; an- --"

other dons the. cloth of the Church: -¢wo others. go into the police force} and the grubby little girl who tagged along for their semi-criminal escapades in dirty back alleys is miraculously transformed into g beautiful and eminently respectable crooner. Cops And Robbers TPHESB splendid examples of how "~ environment can be conquered by Hollywood’s social workers meet once a year in the night-club to look back on bad old times and possibly think how lucky: they were that Edmund Grainger was their producer and not Sam ("Dead End") Goldwyn, who would probably have kept them in the gutter, From one such meeting develops the quite exciting complications of "The. Devil’s Party." As a matter of fact, the film could really have started at this point and forgotten all about its slummy origin and its pretensions to being a social document. For "The ‘Devils Party" is basically not much. more than a routine cops-and-rob-bers meclodrama-and, as such, acceptable entertainment if you like the type. The Wrong Clothes Victor McLAGLEN is miscast as . the night-club owner whose associations ‘with the underworld make» him atleast morally. responsible for the’ tight: corners and emotional conflict into which his friends are thrust. MeLaglen’s mountainous brawn does not look its best when encased in a dinner jacket. Nevertheless, he does the part fairly competently; but is eclipsed by Paul Kelly, as the priest--a role more than a trifle reminiscent of Spencer Tracy’s in "San Francisco." New heroines keep popping up so fast in minor movies these days that one hesitates to be dogmatic, but I think Beatrice Roberts may be worth ‘watching for in future films. She looks attractive, and her crooning can-with-out stretching the truth-hbe described as singing.

-.De-Odorised:- Drama of The Slums "Boy of the Streets," Monogram. Directed by Norman aurog. Starring Jackie Cooper. Release date indefinite. a ee me

T seems, indeed, that three or four studios hit on the "Dead End" idea almost simultan= sously; but I must confess the only. picture in that freshet of slum releases which deeply impressed me with a sense of reality and worthiness was ©

"Dead End" itself, "Boy of the Streets* might well have been-an inferior plagiarism had it not been for the fact .that it. was made before the really big show.in.the group. Put it this way ,.. if you didu’t like "Dead. End" you will like "Bay of the Strects.’’ If. you liked "Dead End" you will come out of "Boy of the Streets" with a bilious smile and the flavour of the chocolates you munched in the interval quite unimpaired. Fairy Godmother N "Boy of the Streets" all the garbage cans have been de-odorised and liberally sprayed with attar of roses, Jackie Cooper comes through the fire of an unfortunate upbringing quite urscorched, and goes off to become a respectable gob in Uncle Sam’s navy; Maureen O’Connor looks singularly slummy until a fairy-godmother-rich-girl-tenement-owner-who-was horrificed-by-her-property-when-she-saw-it bough Maureen a tailor-made and sent hey to finishing school-after which she suc: eeeds only in singing more Ivish songs very sweetly and looking more undeeoratively plump and smudged than ever, Competent Acting Bits I liked? Marjorie Main whining with that inimitable backache-and-kidney-pills look, a veritable ocean of unshed Irish tears in a veritable glow-worm cave of Irish. eyes when Maureen sang "Does Your Mother Come From Ireland?’ to a mother about to die from T.B., Jackie Cooper doing his ustial competent acting, and the ingenfous way in which everything was worked so it ecouldn’t help but turn out right in the end. They tell me the picture made a lot of money in America. I can quite be lieve it.