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The Moviegoer

"The Ghost Goes West" for Vengeance, Love, and Fun; Song and Dance in 'King of Burlesque"

Both pictures at the University this week are fairly riotous, although the feature number adds a dash of satire to the run of rollicking fun. In "The Ghost Goes West," Robert Donat, last of the clan of Glourie, is forced to sell his ancestral castle at the moment Jean Parker happens along. He persuades her father (Eugene Pallette) a multimillionaire chain store tycoon, to buy the fortress and transplant it to the bonny banks of Florida. But unfortunately, a jolly philandering Glourie disgraced himself two centuries before, and was doomed to haunt the castle to take revenge on the enemy, clan MacLaggan. With Donat the man and Donat the ghost both of an amorous turn, poor Jean has a tough time telling which is the real Glourie. Pallette, the grocery magnate, setting his stronghold, complete with ghost, in a tropical grove with gondolas in the moat, will send you back for a look at your "Robber Barons" to see how old J. P. used to buy up Italy at a gulp. The ticker-tape welcome of the ghost to Broadway almost persuaded us that Roosevelt is a dream, and Charlie Mitchell reigns in his stead.

"King of Burlesque" catches Warner Baxter between a crusty society dame (Mona Barrie) and poor, but nonetheless faithful, love (Alice Faye). True love wins out in the end, of course, for while Park Avenue wilts him and jilts him, love makes a fortune dancing in London and stakes him to his theatrical comeback. Though the plot creaks mildly in spots, the cracks of Jack Oakie, the dancing of Alice Faye, and several good songs ("I've Got My Fingers Crossed," "I'm Shooting High") manage to hold it together for the final embrace. But we would not care to dine in Warner's night club, with fifty trapeze girls soaring over our gin and ginger.

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