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"V .*. '
Pictures of the Week
"Queen of Hearts*' (//ojils ie Luxe)
Grace Perkins, dressmaker's assistant,
who worships a stage star, and who mir
aculously finds herself a star of the first
magnitude In the same heaven with her
divinity, is the backbone of "Queen of
Hearts." Although it may not sound flat
tering to compare Oracle Fields with a
spinal column, I really intend it as a com
pliment, because without her supporting'
-.strength the film would sag into an
amorphous- mass. As it is, with her it
stands erect and is as bright as a new
sovereign. For the benefit of the youth of
to-day I may say that I draw my analogy
from a coin and not a king. Once, in the
dear dead days beyond recall, there was
a coin known as a sovereign. It was very
bright and beautiful, but alas! It was killed
in the Great War. However, to return to
Gracie Fields. In this film will be found
the reason for. her popularity in Britain.
It is difficult to decide just what ifr is that
she "lias got that makes her so individual.
When you feel sure she cannot sing for
nuts she emits a string of notes that prove
she is qualified to sing for a ton of nuts.
She has more than a touch of the gamin
in her mixed composition, and contains
the material for three different women,
and one does not know wlilch wjll emerge
next. Another thing is that sometimes
one would be prepared to argue she is not
good-looking, and at others you arc just
as posltli'e that she is. She can be serious
nnd a rattling good comedian at the same
lime. But even these contradictory ele
ments do not explain her. The only thing
is to say she is Gracie Pleldfi and leave it
at that. Whatever-It is she has got, she
has it in heaps.
In this film she begins at the stage door
as Grace Perkins- watching for her Idol
Derek Cooper (John Loder). Derek comes
out fairly "blotto," having drunk himself
into this condition because of his hatred
for his leading lady, Yvonne. Grace drives
him home and saves him from the nollca<
and the consequences of his load of whisky.
Then Grace is mistaken for a stage-struck
millionairess who Is to finance Derek's
show. He lias forgotten his guardian angel
of the night before. Grace proves that
nhe can sing and gets a contract. But
before this happens nhc is pursued by
police for breaking traffic reglations, and
by Yvonne for snitching the limelight in
the show. It is pretty thin stuff, but It
is surprising what body and nourishment
Grade Fields endows It with. The back
stage stuff develop Into a riot. The man
agement cast Orace as the feminine victim
in .an Apache dance. Her partner, is six
feet of muacularagility. That rehearsal
would wreck, the gravity of a dyspeptic
archbishop, although it 1b pure slapstick.
It should culminate in the man throwing
Grace through a window. Instead, In her,
frantic efforts" to escape from the. ordeal,
Grace catapults th^ six-footer through the
window. But you need to see it to obtain
the full flavour of the episode. It is, I
think, the mpst genuinely funny dance
I have seen on stage or screen. John Loder
makes an excellent partner for Grade
Fields, but she smothers everyone else in
the show, whether she is "dodging a cop JF
rehearsing,' or singing In a coffee stall.
How does she do it?-you can search me;
I haven't-got the answer.
"No Limit" (Hoyls de Luxe)
This is one of those films that English
studios make ^especially for consumption
by the millions of the midlands and Eng
lish > manufacturing towns. Their people
arejts people, and their humour is its
humour, and that humour isjabout- as
subtle as b~ sock in the jaw. Pictures of
this type are actually "comic strips" from
newspaper^ brought to life by the camera.
No doubt they are deeply appreciated by
the people for whom they are made, and
for whose entertainment the positively
.obvious is essential.* But for those to
whom thfe "comic strip" has lost its ap
peal they are nearly as amusing as a
toothache. Listen 1 George Shuttle
worth is a. motor-cycle rider , suffering
from arrested development-a delect
common te all motor-cyclists or they
would not be motor-cyclists. He. sets out
for the Isle of Man to enter for acham
plonship race on money stolen by his
mother from his grandfather. Both
mother and grandfather account for
George's arrested development. .George
falls in with a pretty typist, Florrie, who
befriends hizn for little or no reason,
especially as she frequently exhibits signs
of intelligence. After a series of impos
sible and Impossibly stupid adventures
Georgeclowns his -way to victory in the
race. We are led to suppose that George
and Florrie marry, -and can only pray,
for the benefit of the race, that they are
mercifully denied offspring. I would
simply liate to think of what George's
son would be like-probably he would
grow up to be a crooner. And George,
being what he is, would boast about it.
In case I have not made my opinion of
"No Limit" quite, clear, let me add, with
all possible emphasis, that it is appalling
bosh. i
"Annie Oaklty" {Lyceum) >
Little Cinderella Lyceum has had the
luck to draw a pearl this week. I am
not going to assert that "Annie Oakley"
is in the "Mutiny on the Bounty"
or "Escape Me Never" class, but
on its face value it is~miles ahead
of many of the films that the big picture
houses advertise with half-pages of bally
hoo and bombast. Part of its value lies
in its simplicity and lack of pretence,
and a great <feal more comes from the
quiet but arresting charm of Barbara
Stanwyck. As an actress she has some
thing more than her undeniable good
looks to offer thett can throw most of
the boosted blondes into the shade. The
part of Annie Oakley in other handB might
easily-become a blatant offence, but Bar
bara Stanwyck has had the sense and
originality to make Annie shy and almost
mouselike. It appears that the character
is "based on a real-life Annie Oakley. She
was a country girl born on a small farm,
who Won fame as an astounding rifle shot.
She gained her skill as a quail shooter
for the market, and-Invariably got her
birds in the head, so that the bodies
should not be damaged. Later she toured
the "World with Colonel Cody's Buffalo
Bill Wild West Show. I doubt if the
film shows us anything like the actual
Annie Oakley, but that does not matter a
jurat. ' In it Annie, the country girl, be
comes enamoured of Toby, the champion
shot of the showr and to save her idol's
feelings allows him to outshoot her, but
the truth that she is the better shot
comes out and causes a lot of trouble
before the 60ft. kiss of reunion in the
final fade-out. Where the film scores
.is in its broad vital re-creation of the
Buffalo Bill show, with its cow-punching,'
bull-dozing, Indian-raiding episodes
worked out in a vast arena. Any man
who has ever been a boy will shed all
but the first ten or dozen years of his
life when Colonel Cody swaggers across
the screen-the very real and actual Buf
falo Bill of a thousand boys' stories, care
fully hidden, and classed as trash by
misunderstanding, parents. All the
Indians are there, and especially that
Sitting Bull, who turned Custer's com
mand into custard. Through all this
moves quiet Annie Oakley, performing
miracles with her rifle with attractive
modesty, and to wl^om the Colonel sweeps
off his hat with Western chivalry. My
account of the picture may seem rather
inadequate to explain its excellence,
which is in the spirit as much as the
letter. Another thing about it is its
casting and its costumes, which are ac
curately modelled oh those of the 'eighties;
There are Mclvor, a Scotch hotel-keeper,
and the Colonel's amazing publicity agent,
and a dozen other characters all true to
life. The film is good, honest beef, that
tastes the better after a long course of
ii-ich, but indigestible, banquets. It is well
worth seeing*.
"Two Hearts in ^Harmony" (Lyceum)
An English production of mixed quality,
with Bernice Claire hi the lead, supports
"Annie Oakley," who does not need much
supporting. It is about Mickey (Bomlce
Claire), a cabaret singer, who b applying
for a Job as model to an artist, and through
receiving a wrong address arrives at the
mansion-of a marquis-widower-where
applicants for the position of governess to
the marquis's small son are being inter
viewed by a sour and austere -secretary.
The secretary asks Mickey to show her
"qualifications," and Mickey, thinking he
is- the artist, raises her Bklrts and glve^
him a liberal view of them-and very fine
"qualifications" they are, though 1 do not
profess to be an expert on that particular
branch of art. Still experience of the
stage and screen has provided me .with
some superficial knowledge. The stag
gered secretary glares at the shapely ex
hibition, and counts Mickey out. However,
by a streak of luck, she & appointed
governess despite the secretary, who -was
an old crab, anyhow. Mickey therefore
is governess to the small earl by day and
cabaret singer by night. The marquis; who
is a very gay lad,, discovers the double life
of Mickey, and falls Ilk love with her. He
sheds all his dissolute companions, and be
comes a home bird, plays with his little
son, and worships Mickey. When last
seen Mickey is well pn the way to.become
a marchioness; It is a rather punk story,
and looks 'as though it had been lifted
from a penny novelette. Bernice Claire,
however, makes a delectable Mickey, and
another -good character is her pupil, a
ridiculously old-fashioned youngster. : As a
film it might be worse, but it could also
be a good deal better.
"Diamond Jim" {State).
The second ^release this week based on
A real character is "Diamond Jim," other
wise James Buchanan Brady,'who biassed
in New York id the 'eighties. There are
people 4H11 living in Melbourne who can
remember a medical prototype of Dia
mond Jim, who' flourished in our fair
city about the came time, and who glit
tered with the festoons of jewellery.he hung
on his rotund figure. I remember seeing
a pair of cuff studs he wore, each with.an
emerald nearly an inch square, set in a
band of diamonds. The New York Dia
mond Jim must have been a useful bird
to know, as he was in the habit of hand
ing out diamonds to his friends with, the
same careless liberality as another man
would hand out cigarettes. The picture
that purports to tell his history dislocates
the verities rather seriously, but it makes!
first-class entertainment. It is strange,
hbwever, that despite lavish setting and
the expense Involved in such a production,
some unpardonable anachronisms are In
troduced, such, for instance-, as electric
light signs for theatres and starting gates
on racecourses in the early 'eighties. Small
things, perhaps, when compared with the
whole, but they irritate with a persistence
similar to that of a ^raspberry seed under
a denture, than which nothing can be
more destructive of ease. The success of
the film is due to a great extent to the in
terpretation of Jim by: Edward Arnold,
who was born for the part of the breezy,
great-hearted vulgarian. There is a thin
story running through the celluloid of
Jim's ill-luck in his romances. He made
money in car loads, but when it came to
girls he always picked the wrong one. It
is not his disastrous romances that are
the attraction. so much as his optimism,
his jewelled magnificence, his gargantuaii
appetite, and his bigness of -character that
make Jim and the ^picture so memorable.
Edward Arnold - is supported - by Jean
Arthur, who takes the parts of two, of the
girls to whom -Jim lost his heart, and "by
Bihnle Bames^ who appears as that Lillian
Russell who .was America's equivalent of
England's Jersey Lily. It is a good film,
and, apart- from the anachronisms, is
one that makes the 'eighties live again. It
is well worth seeing.
"Here Comet Trouble" {State)
Anything pan happen on the screen, so
it is not surprising toseean entrancing
feminine crook in this picture make love to
a stoker in order to smuggle s stolen ruby
of fabulous value into New York. The
stoker,-by the way, was third engineer on
the steamer on which the crookess travel
led. He got into a fight, missed his
ship, and regained it by a swift motor
launch. He was taken before the cap
tain, who summarily disrated him from
third engineer to stoker. Now I have
never been either a third engineer or a
stoker, -but I would like to bet the director
of this picture drinks all round that uo
ship's captain has authority for ^exercis
ing such a peculiar brand of discipline.
Not that it matters much, for Duke Dono
van is stoker for only five«mlnutes before
he heroically saves the steamer from being
blown up by the breaking of a water gauge!
I may be wrong, but I doubt if a broken
water gauge would be likely to blow up a
dinghy, much less a 25,000-ton liner-still
even that is possible on the screen. Duke
to some extent is protected from the wiles
of the lady crook, Evelyn, by his love for
the manageress of the ship's beauty par
lour, Margie. And that, too, is all "hooey."
because Margie is an impudent hussy and
a bad-tempered Uttle shrew, while Jttelyn
Is a large-eye^, luxurious brunette, ex
quisitely upholstered, and dynamically
magnetic. Now I ask you, as man to
man, how much protection could Margie
offer against Evelyn? That's Just what
I think) Had I been in Duke's place .
No, I will not continue on that line of
thought, as it might lead to requests for
extra'-'professtonal explanations. However,
there are more improbabilities an inch of
celluloid than there are in most pictures,
and that is saying a good deal. Paul Kelly
Is Duke and Arllne Judge and Mona Barrle
are Mantle and Evelyn.
Mr. Richard Crooks, leading tenor of
the Metropolitan Opera House, New
York, arrived in Sydney by the Mariposa
on Monday. He will begin a season of
concerts at the Sydney Town Hall on
Saturday night. .. % said that he would
vary his programme, singing both classics
and popular songs. Mr. Crooks is ac
companied by his wife and two children,
and hia accompanist, Mr. Frederick
Schauwecken
A message from Moscow states th^t M,
Maxim Gorky, the revolutionary writer
and dramatist, who has been 1 suffering
from serious heart trouble, has Im
proved slightly.
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