"Manslaughter", now playing at the University, is an unusually good talkie. Its success comes entirely from the technical excellence of the direction and the personal charm of Claudette Colbert whose performance makes young men return again and again to the scene of the crime.

The story is older than the movies, which have played a hundred variations on the theme of the young district attorney who sends the girl he loves to jail. But never before in the experience of these reviewers has the excellence been of such high calibre. The acting of the entire cast, and of course, particularly of Miss Colbert and Mr. March, together with the technical perfection of the director makes this movie a tour de force in the auditory cinema.

Huysmans claimed that what man wanted was faith; Gissing believed in purity, and Lawrence in a supreme intimacy. "What Men Want", the other theatre offering, is a superb compendium on the whole question. Disguise it, as the producer attempts to do, with the facial expressions of the sophisticated and the dialogue of a gangster melodrama, embarrass it with one long and gay party after another, what men want is still "It", is the humble impression gleaned from a thoroughly unenlightened hour in the fifth row. Cynicism, real live raciness, speed, boredom, naivete, a boy and a girl on horseback, and several admittedly clever studio shots are all hurled thither and yon for the bafflement of the audience. But you can't fool skilled observers. It's sex, and, incidentally, one of the most abortive attempts at entertainment that Hollywood has seen fit to foist on Americana. Time your entrance for "Manslaughter" and if you don't know what men want, this is no time to learn. The management has handsome red lights denoting exits at regular and timely intervals.