The Screen

...It is now possible to establish a regular routine by which no actor need be imprisoned by one vehicle for more than a year—a few months in New York and a few weeks in metropolitan centres...

...The excellent ability of Florence Reed was concealed in the dross of The Shanghai Gesture for an interminable time...

...Grumpy merits as great an admission, in spite of the trivial nature of the comedy itself...

...If a Cyril Maude uses up one sixth of those precious years in road-touring with one play, he is curtailing by that much his chances to run the gamut of his art...

...After that, a screen version of the play can be broadcast—to the delight of millions throughout the country, and to the vast relief of the leading actors...

...From this dilemma, talkies are pointing a way out...

...But the improvement in the technique of directors has been no less marked...

...Margaret Anglin wasted many years of her prime touring in two or three mediocre plays while the stage was hungering for her art in pieces worthy of it...

...It is also reflected in the greater mobility of serenes and the smoother run of sequences...

...The mild romance is also well carried out, in a decent undertone, and capably handled by Philip Holmes and Frances Dade...

...We have now ample evidence that good plays, well acted, can readily be transferred to the screen without losing much of their original charm...

...The rest of the entertainment hangs chiefly on the inimitable character touches by which Cyril Maude enriches every slightest action of Grumpy...

...The pleasure given to a few people week by week in this small city or that, cost the stage as a whole a terrific price...

...The episode, for example, of the bank president lured away from a fashionable wedding in broad daylight, taken to his own office at the point of a gun and forced to turn over a block of bonds while the business of the bank goes on is rather above the average level of ingenuity...

...Incidentally, a new generation has sprung up since Cyril Maude last appeared in Grumpy—so that several million new Grumpy fans, as well as countless older ones, can now have the chance to revel in the fragile but delicious entertainment...

...Nor is the stage the only loser...

...Paul Lukas gives a good performance as the not unattractive villain, and Halliwell Hobbes does an excellent character bit as the omnipresent and helpful butler...

...The testy old criminal lawyer, whom everyone loves, and whom everyone likes to see "explode" every now and then, finds a chance to solve the mystery of a diamond robbery within his own household...

...Marguerite Churchill is interesting and likable as the rather obtuse and gullible heroine...

...But Earle Foxe as the night club master of ceremonies and Regis Toomey as the grinning and likable juvenile show rather better qualities as screen actors...

...Lowe is, on the whole, somewhat heavy handed and heavy spoken to meet the greatly improved standards of the talkies...

...The artist also loses—if not financially, then certainly in the chance to fulfill a life's promise, and to enjoy some of those rewards of home and congenial surroundings which hard work merits...

...If we assume that an actor reaches his or her greatest promise at twenty-five, then we have at the most thirty years in which to enjoy the artist's best work, even allowing for the transition from younger to older parts...

...Today we have this little gem of character acting transferred to the talking screen, making it possible for ten million people in every corner of the country to see and hear it within a few short weeks—and at no cost to the theatre...

...It is nearly three years now since we have seen Helen Hayes...

...All this the talkies have accomplished in a few months...

...The skeleton of its plot is not by any means novel —the society criminal and gang leader who works himself into the good graces of a charming girl, only to fall in love with her, and finally to die saving the life of the man she really loves...

...This is reflected in the greater ease of the actors, in their unforced speech, and in their increased use of minor subtleties formerly reserved only for the stage and for small theatres...

...The Measure of Progress HAVING seen the first "all talking" picture to be shown in New York (an incredibly short time ago), it seems only fair to pay some tribute to a progress that must be measured by rapidity rather than by the attainment of full perfection...

...The story of Grumpy is, of course, of no great consequence...

...Does not this promise a great release for the fine actor and a great gain for the legitimate stage...

...The screen catches every slight nuance of gesture and spoken word...

...Edmund Lowe carries off the role of the self-reformed gang leader with reasonable ease...

...Even the most hardened enemy of the talkies admitted the excellence and charm of Disraeli on the screen...

...Whatever inborn prejudices one may have against the talkies, some of its sharp edges should be polished off by this thought...

...The mechanical improvement of the talkies in the last year has been astounding—particularly in the increased delicacy of shadings in sound recording...

...They have accustomed themselves to both the limitations and possibilities of their new medium with a swiftness and sureness no one would have dared to predict...

...The task requires no phenomenal detective abilities—but the chief pleasure comes from seeing the old war horse in action...

...But one must admit a considerable mixture of directing skill and well turned minor situations with the banal plot— enough in fact to make the story good entertainment...

...Good Intentions IN THE dual role of director and author, William K. Howard has produced another crook play to add to the long list...

...No new parts felt the enlivening grace of his humor...

...THE SCREEN By RICHARD DANA SKINNER Grumpy TT IS said that Cyril Maude has played in about fourteen •*• hundred performances of Grumpy—which means that during the laborious course of five years, he managed to give about a million and a half people a glimpse of this famous character...

...The true theatre lover who is fortunate enough to live within the radius of one of the larger cities knows only too well what it means to lose the work of a fine actor or actress for years through the road success of a single popular vehicle...

...Another novel point is having one of the chief gangsters the radio announcer and orchestra leader of a night club...

...Nothing is lost, even to the asthmatic breathing which holds one in constant suspense and fear for the old man's life...

...It is only once every three or four years that we have the chance of seeing George Arliss in a new play...

...During those five years his polished art was lost to the theatre at large...

...The whole picture is merely a good illustration of ingenious handling and incident applied to a stock situation with general refreshing effect...