Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-31
From the Front Row
Reviews and News of Washington $ Theaters

reels and, starting today. Will Os-
borne and his orchestra complete
the program. E. de S. NJ.
Journeys End"
Still Drawing at R-K-O Keith's.
"W JOURNEYS END Tiffany's
faithful and inspiring picture
version of r. G. Sheriff's stage sue
cess, is being held over for a second
week at R-K-O Keith'S Theater.
All that has been said in praise of
the play may be transferred literally
to this screen edition of the original.
It has the same atmospheric pathos,
the same touch of quiet heroism, the
same humor that breaks through the
hard and creased surfaces of the
nerve-riddled British officers. Add
ing only one or two scenes that show
actual fighting in the open, the film
silrewdly has kept within the lirnita-
lions of the script, adding nothing
new except a most effective ending.
1t is this ending that has caused
some comment It has been said
that here the picture descends to I'M
necessary theatricalism: that the
subdued murmuring of the guns at
the time of Raleighs death and the
UGulk Oub NY oCB4GCo
lend an unnatural touch that never
could have been true In the original
Coincidence y, however, invariably
the friend of the dramatist. as it is
often mans ally in real life.
In this case the mufhing of sound,
just at the time one of the most
courageous of those young officers
expires, seems not only just, but.
dramatically convincing. There
must have been occasional doldrums
at such moments, and as climax
to picture of this sort 1t comes as
a thankful interlude to the usual
thunderings that the directors are
apt to instill into the finale of their
war pictures.
The story of these British officers
at the front has become almost a
legend-a legend that needs no rep
etition. Colin Give PLAYS the part
of Capt. Stanhope magnificently, Tan
MacClaren, David Manners and Billy
Bevan do all that could possibly be
thony Bushell, of them all, seems at
one point curiously ineffective.
Journeys End" is not to be
avoided. because its subject is war,
or because you have seen it before
on the stage. The older it grows
the more mellow it seems to be-
come, and the screen has been in
finitely kind to it.
Caught Short"
Catching the Populace.
in Caught Short" the best that
Hollywood seems to have been
able to do in the way of pictures
for those excruciatingly funny ladies,
Marie Dressler and Polly Moran, the
story has been dropped mostly in
the wastepaper basket. However,
even with the slimmest of plots, the
mildest support and the Oldest song
sung since Adam made a theme
song out Of his rib, this couple re-
main the most satisfying buffoons of
the screen. And the crowds are
fairly pouring into Loew's Columbia
without ceasing.
Just why after all these years
Marie Dressler should still be able
to make faces that wilt the spine
with laughter. is one of those mys-
teries that probably will be solved
only In another talkie world. Faces
she certainly can make, and the
more she twists her mouth up and
down the four poles of her facial
hemisphere the funnier she becomes.
SAD to relate. neither of these
Two blisSfully ridiculous ladies seem
as silly as has been her wont. Due
to the added and vapid love interest
the introduction of Spanish song
that falls pathetically fat and a
few moments when sentiment is sup
posed to engulf the audience in
tears there are stretches when even
the potency of their billy-goating
cannot possibly make any Roadway.
Somewhere in the middle of all this
they are allowed fieeting and neb-
ulous bits of comedy, which reach
a grand climax when the final fade
out fades on cat getting an airing.
Constant pickering, heckling and
the rougher sort of teasing keeps
Polly Moran busy as she tries to get
Marie to put her money in Wall
Street. This is the profound theme
on which hangs this Hollywood
drama. Marie, of course, like every
one else, needs the lure of the Street,
goes broke and returns to normalcy.
So does Polly. Their son and daugh-
ter get married and thus ends the
film.
Needless to say the two leading
players are themselves throughout,
Charles Morton is adequate as the
lover and Anita Page takes the prize
for the most insipid heroine ever
to win her man.
Amusing short subjects, newsreels
and the Columbia orchestra augment
this tonic for warm weather