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The Moviegoer

Aubrey Smith and "Courtney Players" Save the Day as Little Freddle Draws Crocodile Tears

Heading the bill at the University today and tomorrow is "The Music Goes Round," a hurriedly-concocted musical comedy which loses a great deal of the spice it might otherwise have contained as a result of the definite and sudden demise of its title song. Harry Richman, in the leading role, plays a famous stage and radio star who gets mixed up with "the last of the Mississippi showboats" and anonymously brings its cast to Broadway to amuse the sophisticated audience of his forthcoming, production. He falls in love with the heroine of the showboat's melodramas, who is also the daughter of its owner. Naturally she is upset when her New York audience laughs and cheers instead of weeping at the histrionic attempts of her cast, and departs in a rage. But Harry pursues her all the way back to the Mississippi and there woos her with the song "Life Begins When You're in Love."

Except for the "Courtney Players" of the Showboat this movie is completely uninspired, with dull places in it that seem to go on forever. The Players are extremely amusing, however, and are worth sitting through the rest.

In "Little Lord Fauntleroy," with Freddle Bartholemew, C. Aubrey Smith, capable supporting cast, the audience watches Freddie win the heart of his grandfather--the Lord Dorincourt and everyone else in the cast. Freddie is an unusually talented actor and performs his part, which is sweet and sickly anyway, creditably. You wince every time he calls his mother "Dearest," however, and only in several happy scenes where the old Lord figures are you relieved from monotonous and nerve-racking demonstrations of sorrow. The straight story in "Little Lord Fauntleroy," as a matter of fact, is strongly reminiscent of the burlesque melodrama in "The Music Goes Round." As Lionel Stander that prince of hard-boiled funny guys remarks about the latter. "If don't miss an emotion!"

C. Aubrey Smith and his dog are trub the bright spots in a picture which might murder the appeal of Freddie Bartholemew for intelligent movie-goers. In "Copperfield" the boy was marvelous Please, Hollywood, don't make him into a male Shirley Temple.

In the Paramount News Herbert Reever gives his speech about white rabbits and the Democratic Party, and there are scenes of one airplane crash and one storm disaster.

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