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orders he must obey and the way he must walk the chalk-line. He alienates himself from his fellow students, demands a room of his own. and is a fine prig and heel in every way, although he is his class leader in studies.The awakening of Powell to what it means to be a decent citizen and a good sport occupies the rest of the picture, and the people who work on the job include Lewis Stone as Dick’s father, Miss Keeler as the girl friend, and Ross Alexander. Eddie Acuff. and John Arledge as three midshipmen who are everything to their companions that Powell isn't. There has to be an explosion on shipboard, too. to make Dick see the light, but that obligingly occurs. Then it's “Anchors Aweigh!” and everything is all right, but not before the audience has almost given up all hope that things would turn out that way.Powell plays the leading role in “Shipmates Forever” in the way that is intended, probably, but the part is an unpleasant one much of the time, so the spectators grow far fonder of the aforementioned Miss Keeler, Mr. Stone, Mr. Alexander, Mr. Acuff and Mr. Arledge, noted in the- paragraph above, than they do of Dick. Ruby will have to brush up on her tap-dancing to keep pace with Eleanor Powell in “Broadway Melody” certainly. The scene showing Miss Keeler teaching a group of children how to dance is hardly a grateful one, as any woman, even though she be as diminutive as Ruby is, would look large and awkward doing a tap step in the midst of a lot of little boys andgirls..We would like to say a particular word of praise for the acting of Ross Alexander In this film. We have never thought the boy was good before and have noted the fact definitely and thoroughly. In “Shipmates Forever” he is FINE. We want to note the fact in capital letters.Things that irritate movie writers: The announcement in the press book of “Shipmates Forever” that Dick Powell thinks that every actor who plays in an army or navy picture!picture by any means, but it is a satisfactory program feature and audiences probably will like it. Paul Muni is quite an actor to have in the leading iole, and he shows it in everything he does. Here is a man who can make the lift of an eyebrow or the gesture of a hand mean more than a 100~word declamation from the lips of the average movie star. Muni knows what everything is all about all of the time. He's hard to beat in his correct line of parts,Ann Dvorak looks attractive as the girl in the case and acts the part in the carefree style in which it should be played, Barton MacLane, probably the best man on the screen as a gangster today, is true to type aftd absolutely correct as Red Bastian. and his many underlings play their roles equally well.Helen Lowell provides a nice character bit as the fussy owner of the home where Muni lives, and Robert Barrat and Raymond Brown are outstanding as a small town boss and a village banker, respectively. Do you remember when Raymond used to act in stock companies at the Shubert and Missouri theaters here?Good bit: A village yokel ordering a dog off Helen Lowell’s lawn after she has read the riot act to a crowd for trespassing.\iIda Lupino and Joseph Cawthorn Provide Entertainment in “Smart Girl,” an Interesting Comedy at the Tower.Pat Ravnclds ..............Tda LupinoNick Graham.............Kent TaylorKay Raynolds.............Gail PatrickKarl Krauscmeycr.....Joseph CawthornHans Krause me ycr.......Pinky TomlinHarry Courtland.......Sidney BiackmerMrs. Krausemryer........Greta MeyersJames Raynolds..........Claude KingMiss Brown..............Fren EmmettAuctloneer•*«,««,,«««»...'*Perry Iiiss Nelson ...,*•.*««•»».•.»• Harold MlnjirMorgan....,............Charles WilsonDonovan................Booth HowardTHE troubles of a pair ofsociety damsels left pennilessupon the death of their fatherare on entertaining display in “Smart Girl,” this week's film at thei a iMiiA MEDICO WHO GETS INTO A LOT OF TROUBLE.ft... .. Sfe.■h'. I a.V. ••■.' y.v.v.-.-.SB ■. , , .. -tv »«•:-. v. ■...A'MMMm■ •: • .'..y/.vvv,ii*ii*ii** t*\t1I5IhiofRrcamP*ioatwStmJisrcale;UPJj8SfclRi8lt;nRiapw[tPaul Muni has the title role in “Dr. Socrates,” at the Newman, and^__________________ town that gangsters use for their “home grounds.There is plenty of e:of it all.auJUticftaia:should get a service stripe from the government. Aw, now, you go on!Swell songs: “Don't Give Up theShip.” “I'd Love to Take Orders From You,” and “I'd Rather Listen to Your Eyes,” all in the “Shipmates score.Gang Guns Roar and There Is a J,ot of Kseiiement In “I)r. Socrates,” the Paul Muni Picture at the New man.Dr. Caldwell ........Paul MuniJosephina Gray............Ann DvorakRed Bastian..........Barton MacLaneBen Suggs .......Raymond BrownBill ............*** r*w*onMel Towne.............Caroline Suggs..........Grace StaffordDr McClintock......... Samuel Hind*.........Marc LawrenceChuck ..............Sam WrenFloyd 'Stevens......*.Hobart Cavan-nehGreer....................Henry O NeillEXCITING days are on thecalendar at the Newmantheater this week wherePaul Muni is appearing in “Dr. Socrates,” a photoplay that is full of action and won’t give the sleepiest spectator in its audiences time to take so much as a catnap. Gang guns pop freely from reel to reel and the picture closes with the good old “G-Men” getting into action, something they’ve been doing even more frequently in the films than in real life recently, if such athing is possible.The story introduces Paul Muni as a bashful little doctor in a small town where he has decided to settle down —his medical career, which had been outstanding, having been wrecked by the death of his fiancee. To Muni's house comes for treatment one night Red Bastian, the menace of several states, who makes bank-robbing his specialty, but is accomplished in all-around thuggery as well.Bastian throws a gun on Muni and makes the doctor treat an injured arm, which Paul does so well that the Bastian gang adopts him as its official physician. That is hardly a pleasant role for Muni and things get worse when Bastian covets Ann Dvorak, a pretty hitch-hiker who has wandered into the situation and muddled it up on her own account. Paul, you see, likes Ann. too, and the complications that start then are not ftn-until the little doctor showst thus toughest gang of criminalsi be conquered by medicine a* wellby bullets.Dr. Socrates” is not an epochalTow'er. The troubles, incidentally, seem mainly to be wrapped around the possibilities of either youngster absorbing the slightest grain of sense. One (Gail Patrick; never does. The second (Ida Lupino) takes her time about it but finally turns out to be quite a lady.The first five minutes of “Smart Girl” are so identical with the similar period of time in “Champagne for Breakfast” which recently appeared at the Tower, that they well could be called an echo. Kent Taylor ealls at the mansion of James Raynolds to serve a process on that impoverished ex-millionaire. Ida Lupino, Raynolds's daughter, meets Kent at the door. Invites him to havesome caviar, and introduces him to her sister, Gail Patrick, While Taylor is in the house, Raynolds shoots himself, the family's few remaining possessions being sold later at auction. There the resemblance of “Smart Girl” and “Champagne for Breakfast.” which has been twinlike so far, abruptly ceases.Miss Lupino gets work as a designer for Joe Cawthorn, dialectician hat manufacturer, while Miss Patrick marries Taylor and starts slowly to make his life miserable. The small fact that Miss Lupino also loves theman adds to the turmoil of the situation considerably.Kent gets a job under Sidney Biackmer, crooked stock promoter, and Miss Patrick starts cheating with the boss. Miss Lupino discovers all that is going on and has to straighten it out, which she does with the aid of Mr. Cawthorn and despite that of Pinky Tomlin, who plays as addle-pated a young man as we ever have seen on the screen. The last reel of the picture finds Ida getting Kent, which you knew she would do all along, but she has been a pretty likable soul throughout affairs, so you are for her all of the time.* Miss Lupino, without possessing j any particular portion of good looks, plays the leading role in “Smart Girl” j in a pleasant fashion that instantly wins the sympathy and support of the audience. Miss Patrick is too much the siren as the other sister and doesn't look half as well in the film's later reels as she does in theearlier ones.Kent Taylor is good looking butnot especially distinguished as the main man in affairs, Joe CawthornnaghPlt;eiclt;p:vidaitmeaning much more to the
Newspaper Details
Kansas City Star
Kansas City, Missouri, US
Sun, Oct 13, 1935
Page 56
Full Page
Clipped by
Rotten T.
USA 13 Jul 2020
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