AT THE METROPOLITAN--Go to "Dodge City" in a reminiscent mood and you will enjoy it, for it will bring back with the crash of a six-shooter those days ten years ago when you slipped down to the neighborhood theatre with a quarter burning a hole in your pocket. This is the western of the 20's recreated faithfully, with all the old thrills and all the old cliches. It has the same story abut the indomitable sheriff who cleans up the toughest town in the West. It has the same bad man whose gang rules the town with a cruel hand of iron. There is the lovely orphan lass from the south ho has come to live with her uncle. And in the centre of its al there is the same roaring saloon with swinging doors and husky voiced entertainers hipping their ways around. It is, of course, a western with modern trimmings--a Cast of thousands, Technicolor, and saloon women's gowns by Adrian or somebody of the sort. But for old times' sake, you should like it just the same. You should thrill as Errol Flynn bravadoes to his inevitable victory, you should gnash your teeth when the bad man murders a respectable rancher in cold blood, and you should swell with patriotic pride as the covered wagons wind into the sunset.
AT THE FINE ARTS--Art for its own sake is the theme of "Ballerina," romanticized French version of life among the "petits rats"--child dancing students of the Paris Opera House. Frankly sentimental, often overdone, and built about a plot which is so poorly constructed as to contain two separate climaxes, the film nevertheless succeeds by virtue of the sheer beauty of the dance, the genuine character of the dancing school atmosphere, and the well-chosen background music. Janine Charrat, as the child ballerina, has been carefully directed with a view to psychological complications by Jean Benoit-Levy, and as a result her performance in more convincing than that of her adult co-stars. Particularly colorless is Yvette Chauvire, for whose love the child arranges the crippling of Mia Slovenska in the midst of her performance of "The Dying Swan." As entertainment, the film has novelty, but lacks vigor and humor; as a work of abstract art, there is little to be desired.
AT KEITH MEMORIAL--Little Miss Fixit, alias Deanna Durbin, wends her charming way through another of the average stories Hollywood has bestowed on her, and comes out on top by virtue of a clever script, her own unforced gaiety, and the really remarkable Durbin voice. Those who cringe at the mere mention of sentimentality are not gong to enjoy "Three smart Girls Grow Up," for there are the inevitable "intimate" bedroom scenes, tear-besmirched love affairs, and deep, dark young-girl secrets. But the sentiment is seasoned with humor-as, indeed, the whole film is; Charles Winninger, a hopelessly absentminded Wall Street begwig, is constantly funny, and Deanna herself, in the course of straightening out her sisters' affaires du coeur, upsets the conventional applecart on many a delightful occasion. Add to this the music--which, this time, included "The Last Rose of Summer"--and the whole is well-worth the holdover which, we have on good authority, is scheduled.
AT THE UNIVERSITY--The same whitewashed British Lancers--this time in the persons of Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and Victor McLaglen; the same vicious tribesmen, now worshippers of the goddess of blood; the same melodramatic story--these form the skeleton of "Gunga Din," Hollywood's latest version of "The Lives of A Bengal Lancer." Yet about this skeleton has been built the flesh of humor, and into the whole has been breathed the breath of life by fast-paced direction and some excellent acting by the principals. Novelty; too, enters, for there is an interesting portrayal by Sam Jaffe of Kipling's celebrated water-boy; and Mr. Kipling himself even pops into the picture on occasion. The film is entertaining, and far better than the latest Charlie Chan affair--which pleases only the yelling school kids in the balcony.
AT LOEWS STATE AND ORPHEUM--One must concede Mickey Rooney a moral triumph for toning down his elaborate facial contortions, but his tolerably effective portrayal of "Huckleberry Finn" does not save the film as a whole from being a tedious, uninspired production. What little zest remains of the hilarious Mark Twain story is submerged under the Negro Jim's long harangues flash of humor arouse the spectator's interest, as, for example, when the King and Huckleberry give a delicious parody on Romeo and Juliet. But such antics are all too infrequent, and even the melodramatic steamboat-race climax fails to save Twain from Hollywood. Funnier is the companion picture, "Blondie Meets the Boss" in which "Baby Dumpling" gives an uproarious imitation of a modern jitterbug.
