BAD SISTER

David Durand and Bette Davis

BAD SISTER (1931). Director: Hobart Henley. Colorized.

The Madison family are beset with a series of problems. Laura (Bette Davis) is in love with Dr. Dick Lindley (Conrad Nagel of All That Heaven Allows), but he only has eyes for her sister, Marianne (Sidney Fox). For her part, Marianne falls hard for an out-of-town stranger, Valentine (Humphrey Bogart of The Barefoot Contessa) who has distinct, if unpleasant, plans for both her and her family. Dad (Charles Winninger of Lover Come Back) is prompted to find out as much as he can about Val, but the selfish and immature Marianne may cause terrible problems with her own actions. Meanwhile little brother, Hedrick (David Durand), shows Laura's diary to Dick, leading to a moving sequence between brother and sister. 

Sidney Fox and Humphrey Bogart

Bad Sister is best-known as the first film ever for Bette Davis, who is quite good, but you wouldn't necessarily see her as becoming a major and long-lasting star. This was also the first film for the capable Sidney Fox, who didn't have the same good fortune, committing suicide at 34. Bogart, of course, went on to great success and is quite effective in the movie. Nagel and Winninger score as suitor and father, and the film is nearly stolen by young Durand as the lovable if irritating scamp Hedrick, although the boy has his sensitive side as well. Based on a story by Booth Tarkington, Bad Sister is a charming, funny, and occasionally touching comedy-drama. Zazu Pitts and Slim Summerville are also in the cast as maid and son-in-law. 

Verdict: Lovely old movie. ***. 

JUST A GIGOLO

William Haines and Irene Purcell

JUST A GIGOLO (1931). Director: Jack Conway. 

Lord Robert Brummel (William Haines) finds lots of female companionship with married women who have no problem cheating on their husbands. His Uncle George (C. Aubrey Smith) thinks his nephew is an overspending mountebank who doesn't know the value of a dollar. For some reason George thinks a match between Bob and equally upper-crust Roxana Hartley (Irene Purcell) would make the perfect union. But before he consents, Robert wants to make sure that Roxana isn't like (to his eye) most other women, and tests her by pretending to be a paid dancer and gigolo. 

C. Aubrey Smith and Haines

Just a Gigolo is a mildly amusing comedy that boasts a winning performance by the likable Haines, and an especially notable turn from the equally charming C. Aubrey Smith. Although a trifle off-putting at first, Irene Purcell proves an attractive and capable leading lady. This was her first full-length film and she only appeared in five more. (Ironically, Haines only had five more films to go before his movie career was over.) An interesting aspect of the film is the fury felt by Roxana when she learns of Bob's deception, his gall at testing her morals when he himself is hardly above reproach. The movie gets across the unjustness of the double standard without hitting you over the head with it. Although released in 1931, Just a Gigolo isn't creaky and moves at a fairly fast pace. Charlotte Granville is fun as Roxana's mother, and although Ray Milland is listed in the cast, if you blink you will certainly miss him. 

Verdict: A good chance to see Haines, once a top box office attraction, in a sound film. **1/2.

LITTLE CAESAR

Edward G. Robinson

LITTLE CAESAR (1931). Director: Mervyn Leroy. 

 "Mother of mercy -- is this the end of Rico?" 

 The great Edward G. Robinson became a star with this exciting and entertaining gangster flick. Rico (Robinson) wants to be somebody and have everything while his buddy Joey (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., who comes off convincingly lower-class) just wants to be a dancer. The two should have just gone their separate ways, but Rico seems obsessed with his pal (any homoerotic aspects of this go unexplored). Rico rises in the rackets until he takes over an important gang, and forces his old pal Joey to help him rip off the establishment where he entertains with his girlfriend, Olga (Glenda Farrell). Rico gets bigger and bigger but there are forces conspiring against him ... Robinson is just terrific, and he has a solid supporting cast, including the aforementioned performers as well as Thomas Jackson as Sgt. Flaherty; William Collier Jr. as Tony; and Sidney Blackmer (who had an important role many years later in Rosemary's Baby) as "Big Boy." 

Verdict: Fun to watch Robinson rise and fall. ***1/2.

PLATINUM BLONDE

Jean Harlow and Robert Williams

PLATINUM BLONDE (1931). Director: Frank Capra.

Reporter Stewart Smith (Robert Williams) is told to interview a wealthy family over a breach of promise suit involving the son, Michael (Don Dillaway). Smitten with Michael's pretty sister, Ann (Jean Harlow), Smith forgets all about the colleague, Gallagher (Loretta Young), who's carrying a torch for him and he winds up getting married to Ann. Smith wants Ann to live with him, but she prefers the family mansion and dresses him in monkey suits. Will he rebel and find his way back to Gallagher? You needn't see the movie to be able to answer the question, which even for 1931 is utterly cliche-ridden and thoroughly predictable -- not a single thing happens that you don't expect long before. Young and Harlow both offer expert performances, but Robert Williams is a case of an unlikable (at least in this role) actor playing an unlikable part -- his Stewart Smith is a complete, self-serving jackass that Gallagher should have kicked to the curb long before. Jokes about butlers, snobs and society are less funny than creaky. Louise Closser Hale makes an impression as Ann's mother, who is constantly asking for a double-bicarbonate. Robert Williams made no other films after this, as he died the same year it was released at a tragically young 34. Some see him as stealing the show from his female co-stars in this picture, but I confess that I do not agree -- glib Williams is just not my cup of java. Capra's direction of the film is more than okay, but that script ...!

Verdict: Even Frank Capra can make stinkers. *1/2.

24 HOURS (1931)

Kay Francis and Clive Brook

24 HOURS (1931). Director: Marion Gering.

At a party Jim Towner (Clive Brook) turns to his wife, Fanny (Kay Francis), and asks her where things went wrong. Turns out both of them are seeing other people, with Fanny dallying with David (Minor Watson), and Jim fooling around with singer, Rosie Duggan (Miriam Hopkins). Rosie has thrown out her hoodlum husband, Tony (Regis Toomey), and trouble starts when he demands to be let back into her life again. One of the main characters winds up murdering another, with suspicion falling on a third. 24 Hours doesn't work as drama, mystery, or even melodrama, as it seems too long even at a mere 66 minutes. Of the cast Regis Toomey [Shopworn] comes off best, with Wade Boteler [The Green Hornet] also scoring as the doorman Pat, who is Rosie's brother. Clive Brook isn't bad, but he makes a rather dull leading man, and Francis is competent but not given very much to do as his wife. Miriam Hopkins [Lady with Red Hair] get a little more screen time as Rosie, bur her delivery of a couple of torch songs is almost ruined by her voice. Francis and Hopkins, although involved with the same man, don't have a single scene together, stripping the film of its main point of interest. Its stage origins are apparent, although one can't imagine this was ever any world-beater.

Verdict: This positively creaks. Even if you like Francis and Hopkins this is one you can miss. *1/2.

THE PUBLIC ENEMY

James Cagney and Jean Harlow

THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931). Director: William A. Wellman.

Tom Powers (James Cagney) and his pal, Matt (Edward Woods), grow up in a tough part of the city, and get in with a bad crowd. Tom becomes a gangster and killer during prohibition, earning the enmity of his brother, Mike (Donald Cook), who has little but contempt for him. Tom is such a creep that at one point he even shoots a horse! Tom and Matt work for Nails Nathan (Leslie Fenton) and Paddy Ryan (Robert Emmett O'Connor), and get involved with such "broads" as Gwen Allen (Jean Harlow), Mamie (Joan Blondell), Kitty (Mae Clarke), who gets a grapefruit in the face, and Nail's unnamed girlfriend (Dorothy Gee), who earns Tom's scorn by getting him drunk and going to bed with him. The Public Enemy is refreshingly frank and well-acted, with Cagney getting high marks, along with Fenton [The House of Secrets], O'Connor, and Beryl Mercer [Jane Eyre] as Ma Powers. Harlow was still considered a lousy actress this early in her career, but she's actually competent, if unexceptional, and her performance is satisfactory. Frankie Darro and "Junior" Coghlan (Frank Coghlan, Jr.) play Matt and Tom as boys and are both good. One of the best scenes is a dinner at the Powers house where ex-soldier Mike can no longer control his anger at his brother and bootleg beer goes flying, and the death of Putty Nose (Murray Kinnell of Charlie Chan in Paris) is also well-handled. That said, The Public Enemy has not really worn well with time -- especially when you take into account the many superior gangster films that came later --   but it still remains an interesting picture. The great final scene of the movie almost makes the whole movie! Handsome Edward Woods was supposed to play Tom Powers, the lead role, but it was given to Cagney instead,; he became a star and Wood's career eventually faded out after only 13 credits.

Verdict: Cagney holds the attention. *** out of 4.

ERAN TRECE/CHARLIE CHAN CARRIES ON

Ana Maria Custodio and Manuel Arbo

ERAN TRECE/CHARLIE CHAN CARRIES ON (1931). Director: David Howard.

The American film Charlie Chan Carries On has been lost, unfortunately, but apparently the same plot was used for the Spanish-language version with Manuel Arbo playing Charlie Chan. [A very similar plot was later used for Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise.] When a man on a tour is found murdered in his hotel room, Inspector Duff (Rafael Calvo) of Scotland Yard takes charge. Naturally the other members of the tour come under suspicion, and there are more murders from a rather audacious killer. Things really get serious when someone even takes a shot at Duff in the police station! The movie is half over before Charlie Chan shows up and eventually solves the case. Manuel Arbo makes Chan seem a bit like a nitwit and overdoes the smiling routine. The other Spanish actors are all effective, however -- Calvo and Ana Maria Custodio make the best impression as the cop and the first victim's daughter -- and the story line is a good one.

Verdict: Charlie Chan from an alternate dimension. **1/2.

ONE HEAVENLY NIGHT

Evelyn lays a big egg in "One Heavenly Night"

ONE HEAVENLY NIGHT (1931). Director: George Fitzmaurice.

Flower girl/usherette Lilli (the amusingly named Evelyn Laye) aspires to be just like the notorious man-hungry chanteuse Fritzi (Lilyan Tashman), and she gets her chance when Fritzi asks Lilli to impersonate her on a trip to the tiny kingdom of Zuppa. There Lilli meets the handsome Count Tibor (John Boles), and the two fall in love after an initial unpleasant encounter. One Heavenly Night is, alas, not an example of one of your more memorable operettas, having an uninteresting story, tedious comic relief, and songs that are only vaguely pleasant at best. Playing a young ladies man, Boles is sexier than in such dramas as Back Street and Stella Dallas, in which he was convincingly middle-aged only a year later. Neither Laye nor Tashman are terribly attractive by Hollywood standards; although Laye isn't a bad actress, she lacks distinction. One problem with Laye in this movie is that she's rather affected even before she begins her impersonation of the haughty Fritzi. Leon Errol is on hand as Lilli's vocal coach and loving buddy, but even the great comedian isn't able to do anything to save the picture. Laye made a few more films in the thirties, and then wasn't seen again for twenty years. That same year Fitzmaurice directed Greta Garbo in Mata Hari and he guided Barbara Stanwyck in her second film and first sound picture, The Locked Door.

Verdict: A not-so-heavenly hour and a half. *1/2.

THE VANISHING LEGION

"The Voice" confronts a cowering member of the Legion

THE VANISHING LEGION (12 chapter Mascot serial/1931). Directors: Ford Beebe; B. Reeves Eason.

"The Voice ... has spoken." 

Oil man "Happy" Cardigan (Harry Carey) has a certain time period to bring in a gusher but he finds this is difficult to do when he has to deal with raids on the oil fields by a group of men on horseback calling themselves the "Vanishing Legion." Then there's a mysterious character called "The Voice," who issues commands using a special transmitter and never speaks above a whisper. It is suggested that the Voice is actually one of the four directors of the oil company. Adding to the intrigue is a company secretary named Miss Caroline Hall (Edwina Booth), who may be an agent of the Voice, and may even have something to do with the Vanishing Legion. If that wasn't enough mystery, we have young lad Jimmie Williams (Frankie Darro) who is the only one who can ride a wild horse named Rex, and his father, Jed (Edward Hearn), who is wanted for murder. As the serial progresses, things get a little confusing with all the inter-relationships, and people turning out to be something other than you thought they were. Darro probably has more to do in this serial than anyone except maybe Carey, but he's billed after Carey, Booth and even "Rex, King of the Wild Horses." He gives an excellent performance and out-acts most of the adults, although Carey, Hearn and others are at least competent. Booth comically over-acts at times, but she's continually called on to suggest an alternating good gal and bad girl to keep the audience guessing which she might actually be, and generally she's both attractive and vital. Other prominent characters include Ashton (Philo McCullough), who may have some relationship to the man allegedly murdered by Jimmie's fugitive dad; the Sheriff (William Desmond), who at one point is suspected of being the Voice; and Hornbeck (Lafe McKee), Jed Williams'  lawyer. Although he does not actually appear in the serial, the voice of the "Voice" is supplied by none other than Boris Karloff, which not only adds some spookiness to the proceedings but neatly hides the identity of the actual villain. Two memorable cliffhangers in the movie involve Carey nearly getting trampled by a pack of wild horses, and Booth opening a door in a hallway and discovering that there's no room inside, just a quick path to the sidewalk far below.  Booth had very few film appearances but Carey was also in Beyond Tomorrow and had a notable role in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

In the entertaining book Classic Cliffhangers Vol. 1  by Hank Davis, the author suggests that there's something "unnatural" in the (off-screen!) relationship between Frankie Darro, and the actor who plays his father, Edward Hearn. Davis seems to think that Hearn fondles Darro too much (but I watched the uncut movie and saw absolutely nothing over the top in the realistic displays of affection a father would show for a motherless boy whose whole world revolves around his beloved dad) and he is particularly disturbed by a scene in which father and son kiss on the lips. The kiss may seem to be held longer than necessary (and looking at it with 21st century eyes one might find it discomforting) but Davis neglects to inform the reader that this scene occurs at a highly emotional moment when both father and son are afraid they may never see each other again. To suggest that Hearn was getting off on it and is therefore a pedophile is patently unfair. This was a more innocent time period, and parents and children did kiss on the lips without anyone thinking it was automatically unnatural. The boy actually initiates the kiss and this is not the only time he does so, and given the time period especially, it doesn't seem that weird.  Davis also doesn't mention that in other scenes, such as when Jimmie thinks his father has been killed, "Happy" hugs the boy to his breast, strokes his hair, but there's no suggestion (and shouldn't be) that this makes actor Harry Carey a pedophile. I'm as repelled and outraged by child molestation as anyone else, but I don't think it's fair to label someone a pedophile based on a scene in a movie! There is nothing on the Internet to indicate any unnatural interest in children on Hearn's part; only that he was married and had a child. Hopefully I'm wrong, but it's almost as if Davis for some reason decided Hearn was gay and that therefore he must be a child molester! This would be especially bizarre as Davis spends a lot of time decrying the racist aspects of many of these old serials.

Verdict: Creaky but somewhat entertaining old serial, but not one of Mascot's best. **1/2.

WATERLOO BRIDGE (1931)

Kent Douglass (Douglass Montgomery) and Mae Clarke

WATERLOO BRIDGE (1931). Director: James Whale.

"You don't stay boyish very long in this war."

During an air raid by German zeppelins in London during WW 1 a prostitute, Myra (Mae Clarke) meets a soldier, Roy (Kent Douglass), home on leave and realizes somewhat to her dismay that this inexperienced 19-year-old is falling in love with her and has no idea of what or who she really is. This first film version of Robert E. Sherwood's play -- it was remade in 1940 -- is a very affecting and well-acted drama with well-drawn characters. Although it betrays its stage origins in many stage bound sequences, there are also successful attempts at "opening up" the story and the outdoor scenes are well-handled. Douglass, who later changed his name to "Douglass Montgomery," gives a natural, charming, completely convincing and sincere performance as the smitten, sensitive young soldier, and while Clarke is a little less natural, she is also excellent. The supporting cast includes Doris Lloyd as an older friend of Myra's; a snappy Ethel Griffies as her landlady; Frederic Kerr as Roy's father, the major; Enid Bennett as Roy's mother; and even Bette Davis in the small role of Roy's sister, Janet. [Davis is winning, although you wouldn't have imagined she'd become such a big star.] The uncompromising ending packs a wallop and is quite moving.

Verdict: Simply heart-breaking. ***1/2.

THE GALLOPING GHOST

THE GALLOPING GHOST (12 chapter Mascot serial/1931). Director: [B.] Reeves Eason.

This cliffhanger serial was built around the "talents" of famous football player, Harold "Red" Grange, who sort of plays himself, and that not very well. His off-screen nickname was -- you guessed it -- "Galloping Ghost." Red is a college football player [Grange was 28-years-old but looks in his forties or older] who is framed by crooked gamblers and tossed off the team of Clary University. His buddy, eh, "Buddy" (Francis X. Bushman Jr AKA Ralph Bushman) is secretly married to bad girl Irene (Gwen Lee) when players are supposed to be single, so he's an easy target of blackmail and is later hypnotized so he doesn't even know who he is. Red is eventually accused of murdering another player on the team. Buddy's sister Barbara (Dorothy Gulliver) has a yen for Red. Since we know who the chief bad guy is from the first there's little suspense, but there is a surprise concerning a sinister "cripple" who rather energetically weaves his way through the action and cackles maniacally at the end of each episode. The action is often cranked up like a silent movie. It's interesting that the cliffhanger at the end of the first chapter -- Red lets go of a parachute he's sharing with a gal and manages to land safely on top of another plane -- was later used more or less in more than one James Bond movie. Other good cliffhangers include a bit with a boat that's crushed between moving piers and a car in a garage that crushes downward on top of Red's prone body. This is a busy, not-terrible serial that suffers a bit from a primitive style and some pretty bad acting, although serial fanatics may enjoy it. Theodore Lorch as Dr. Blake and Tom Dugan as a stuttering cabbie are the most memorable members of the cast, and Gwen Lee isn't too bad, either. Lively theme music.

Verdict: Has its moments but mostly for serial completists. **.

THE CHEAT

Tallulah Bankhead

THE CHEAT (1931). Director: George Abbott.

"If you're trying to appeal to my better nature, it's hopeless, for I haven't any."

Elsa Carlyle (Tallulah Bankhead) and her husband Jeffrey (Harvey Stephens) are feeling a financial pinch when Elsa makes matters worse by losing a bundle at cards. She compounds this error by making a very unsound investment. The oily Hardy Livingstone (Irving Pichel), a wealthy man who collects women like literal trophies, offers Elsa his help -- but at a price she isn't willing to pay, leading to melodramatic complications and a climactic courtroom scene. Except for her overacting at the finale, Bankhead is quite good, and while hardly a raving beauty, one can imagine she never lacked for dates. Stephens is adequate and Pichel is fine, although the movie might have had more of an edge -- and given Elsa more of a moral dilemma -- had Hardy been played by a sexier actor one could believe she was attracted to. The picture is minor but holds the attention and Bankhead is basically swell and appealing. Pichel was later the villain in the serial Dick Tracy's G-Men and directed many films, including The Most Dangerous Game (co-director) and Quicksand. Bankhead later appeared in everything from Hitchcock's Lifeboat to Die, Die, My Darling to the TV series' Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour and Batman.

Verdict: Creaky old pre-code melodrama enlivened by Bankhead. **1/2.

NIGHT NURSE

NIGHT NURSE (1931). Director: William A. Wellman.

"For a beginner, you're not doin' so bad."

Lora Hart (Barbara Stanwyck) wants to be a nurse more than anything, but after initial discouragement is accepted as a probationer in a hospital. Upon graduation, she is assigned to be a nurse to two little girls with serious health issues, as well as a seriously alcoholic and uncaring mother (Charlotte Merriam) -- "I'm a dipsomaniac and I'm proud of it!" she screams. Worse still is the sinister doctor in charge (Ralf Harolde), who seems to be conspiring with, of all people, the chauffeur, Nick (Clark Gable in a small but vital role). A strong, forthright and entirely admirable person, Lora goes to the head of the hospital, Dr. Bell (Charles Winninger), but discovers that "ethics" prevent him from interfering despite the danger to the children. Stanwyck gives another impressive performance as Lora, and has some terrific scenes when, concerned about the little girls, confronts both doctors and especially the deplorable mother, going so far as to knock the woman to the ground! Joan Blondell is her customary good self as another saucy nurse, Gable is swell, and there are good supporting performances from Winninger, Merriam, Harolde, Blanche Frederici as a housekeeper, Vera Lewis as the mostly grim superintendent of nurses, and Ben Lyon as the bootlegger and romantic interest, Mortie. [One can't help but wonder why Lora doesn't just pack up those kids and take them to the nearest emergency room instead of giving one of them a milk bath!]

Verdict: A little absurd but entertaining. ***.

MURDER AT MIDNIGHT

MURDER AT MIDNIGHT (1931). Director: Frank R. Strayer.

Playing a rather elaborate game of charades, party host Kennedy (Kenneth Thomson) shoots his male secretary (Robert Ellis) and discovers to his horror that the blanks in the gun were replaced with real bullets. When Kennedy later turns up dead, people assume he killed himself out of guilt. But old Aunt Julia (a vivid Clara Blandick) suspects the truth, and importunes oafish Inspector Taylor (Robert Elliott) to get cracking, as Kennedy's widow Esme (Aileen Pringle) wrings her hands. This is one of those very creaky old mysteries that cries out for a musical score and which you'll probably forget the minute it's over, although it does have a suspenseful climax and a clever bit employing a phone as a murder weapon.

Verdict: You might want to play charades instead but this does have a moment or two. **1/2.

SVENGALI (1931)

SVENGALI (1931). Director: Archie Mayo.

"Trilby in England would be like a butterfly in mutton soup."

The impoverished music instructor Svengali (John Barrymore) meets a young model named Trilby (Marian Marsh) and exerts his influence over her. Svengali has not stood the test of time, now coming off as quite dated and hokey, although the sparse, impressionistic sets with the huge corridors are striking. Barrymore can't seem to make up his mind if he's playing Svengali or Rasputin, and the picture doesn't seem to know if it's serious or a black comedy. In any case, it seems to be over just as it's getting interesting. Bramwell Fletcher and the always reliable Donald Crisp are also in the cast, and Carmel Myers makes an impression as a pupil of Svengali who loves him and makes the ultimate sacrifice.

Verdict: Barrymore should not be measured by this movie. **.

THE BLACK CAMEL

THE BLACK CAMEL (1931). Director: Hamilton MacFadden. 

Inspector Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) is called in when an actress, Shelah Fane (Dorothy Revier), filming on location in Hawaii, is found murdered. Apparently Miss Fane knew too much about the unsolved murder three years earlier of another actor with whom she had been involved. The suspects include a fortune teller named Tarneverro (Bela Lugosi), a maid named Anna (Violet Dunn), Shelah's friend Julie (Sally Eilers), her boyfriend Jimmy (Robert Young in his "film debut," although he was also an extra in The Campus Vamp in 1928), Shelah's fiance Alan (William Post Jr.), an odd painter and beachcomber named Smith (Murray Kinnell), and Shelah's ex-husband Robert Fyfe (Victor Varconi). Aside from Oland, most of the actors are merely serviceable, although Violet Dunn is vivid, as is the ever-overwrought Dwight Frye in the role of a butler. Lugosi has a good-sized role, but is not really seen to good advantage. Handsome Varconi seems to have stolen his accent from Lugosi! Born in Hungary, Varconi was also in The Man Who Turned to Stone and Atomic Submarine. Stage-bound and slow, The Black Camel is a fairly dull Charlie Chan movie. Even the Monogram Chans were better than this. There's an amusing scene showing Chan at home with his snappy and very American family. 

Verdict: It creaks. **.

FIVE STAR FINAL

FIVE STAR FINAL (1931). Director: Mervyn LeRoy.

To drum up circulation a newspaper does a story on a woman who, twenty years before, murdered a man who knocked her up and refused to marry her. She was acquitted, married someone else, and now has a daughter who is engaged to a society fellow -- the daughter has no idea that her mother murdered her biological father. When the story breaks, there are serious repercussions in the family. This is the kind of dull, self-righteous drama that falls flat on its face due to its superficiality and ludicrous contrivances. Edward G. Robinson is lively as the editor who becomes disgusted with it all, and Aline MacMahon scores as his secretary. Boris Karloff offers an interesting performance as a weirdo reporter. H.B. Warner and Frances Starr are very effective as Mr and Mrs. Townsend, the doomed murderess and her husband, but Marian Marsh overacts as their daughter, Jenny. The picture moves fast but isn't very absorbing.

STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM. No one ever makes the point that, even if the murdered man were a stinker, he didn't deserve to die, nor is the point made that Mrs. Townsend murdered her child's father. It's just accepted that homicide was somehow the only solution to her problem! Mrs. Townsend commits suicide, leaving her daughter, and the man who stood by her all those years, to fend for themselves, and Mr. Townsend, after finding his wife's body, also commits suicide, leaving the daughter he raised to face the music by herself! We're supposed to feel sorry for such utterly self-centered people? Talk about lousy parents! At the end of film Jenny blames the newspaper for the suicides, and even -- a chip off the old block -- pulls out a gun and tries to shoot them -- ridiculous! Five Star Final wants to engage the emotions but it certainly never engages the intellect. A script with much more depth might have helped this to amount to something.

Verdict: Even Eddie can't save this stinker. *.

TRANSGRESSION

TRANSGRESSION (1931). Director: Herbert Brenon.

"It is not wise to leave a beautiful young woman alone in Paris too long."

 You can say that again. Robert Maury, (Paul Cavanagh) sends his wife Elsie (Kay Francis) to Paris for a year while he's seeing to some tedious stuff in a rough environment abroad. Before long Elsie is being wined and dined by the handsome Spaniard Arturo (Ricardo Cortez, pictured), who maneuvers her into visiting him in Spain without an escort. Elsie decides to send her husband a letter asking for a divorce -- and well, things don't quite work out the way anyone hoped they would. Good performances by the three leads -- Cortez is especially memorable -- bolster this otherwise pedestrian romance/soap opera, which is nevertheless reasonably absorbing. The ending is just a touch pat. Nance O'Neil, who was rumored to be Lizzie Borden's lover, is vivid as a witchy relative of Robert's who hates his wife.

Verdict: Ricky and Kay make an interesting couple. **1/2.

PARDON US

PARDON US (1931). Director: James Parrott.

Laurel and Hardy are caught selling beer during prohibition and are sent to prison. An added complication is that Stan's loose tooth makes it sound as if he's giving everybody – from a roughneck cellmate to the prison warden – a Bronx cheer or “raspberry,” with the expected results. Eventually the boys are forced to join an escape and wind up on a nearby plantation in black face. James Finlayson plays the prison teacher and there are a lot of effective character foils in small parts. Oliver Hardy does a fine rendition of “Lazy Moon” during the plantation sequence. This is minor Laurel and Hardy but the boys are as good as ever, and there are some genuinely amusing moments.

Verdict: No pardon required. **1/2.

REDUCING (1931)

REDUCING (1931). Director: Charles Reisner.

A very funny and engaging comedy starring the great Marie Dressler, teamed once again with the delightful Polly Moran. In this the two are sisters who haven't seen each other for many years. Divorced, Polly is now the wealthy proprietress of a health/reducing club for women, while Marie, married to unsuccessful Elmer (Lucien Littlefield) is down on her luck and has brought her whole family to Polly's townhouse at the latter's invitation. While basically good-hearted, Polly is also a bit of a snob (she pronounces her last name Ro-shay instead of roach, as Marie puts it) and tensions between the two women really come to a boil when Marie's daughter (a gorgeous Anita Page) begins dating the same man (William/Buster Collier Jr.) who's been going out with Polly's daughter (Sally Eilers). This brings out Polly's most condescending instincts and Marie's most terrible wrath. While the approach is humorous Reducing explores sibling rivalry and class distinctions in an intelligent manner. William Bakewell plays the nice boy from back home who has a yen for Anita Page.

Marie Dressler was a brilliant actress. In Reducing she doesn't seem to act -- she just is the character; she's not saying lines she's spontaneously saying whatever comes into her character's head. Her comic timing is faultless; there is never a self-conscious, awkward or untrue moment.

She's a genius.

Verdict: Wonderful! ***.