Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-20
The Weeks Attractions in Local Theaters
Reviews Of New Photoplays and Stage Productions

4 sings something worth nearing ana zoe!
1t we'll
| If the master of ceremonies is te
become an institution, Alexander Cal.
lum's modest and gentlemanly conduct
in the position is certain to attract sc
much public favor that the whole pro.
fession will be forced to take him al
| its model. He doesn't tell folks with
sickening repetition how good he Is
And he really is a singer of some repu-
tation in the musical comedy field.
Mr.. Cal.un1, for example, is just about
the oppos,:e type Of character from that
Of Jerry Reavis, the hero OF the feature
picture at the Fox. entitled "A Song Of
| Kentucky"
AS for this picture-well, there Is
springtime in Kentucky, soft moonlight
lovely ladies, fast horses, lingering
music, love, proud old Southern
aristocracy, and whatever else you can
ask for the price of admission. Jerry
Reavis, who started life as a newsboy
on the East Side, is really genius. BY
| the time the story opens hard work,
this real genius, have lifted him to the
point where he can produce without
batting an eyelid such lovely and pro-
found lyrics as the following:
"sitting by the window. that's all do,
Sitting by the window, lonesome and blue,
Sitting by the window, thinking of you"
He sings this exquisite bit of senti-
ment so wonderfully expressed at a
talking picture theater one night that
the heroine, beautiful ward of a rich
and proud old Kentucky family, falls
head over heels in love with the genius.
Under the inspiring influence of love
the genius ascends still further the
heights of lyric ecstasy until he can
write lyric so expressive of the deep,
elusive, profound, sad passion of life
as the following:
IN ne'er forget the night we fell in love,
The moon was watching from above" etc.
The girl thinks the stuff is good and
loves Jerry more and more. Her family,
however, doesn't think much of a Tin
Pan alley song writer and snubs Jerry.
The part Of Jerry is played by Joseph
Wagstaff. Lois Moran is the beautiful
daughter of proud old Kentucky who
appreciates true genius.
Those who like the picture, it is
probable, will not be enthusiastic over
Alexander Callum, and vice versa.
IAl-ACE again at the Palace. The
neir own millennium seems to have
descended, sponsored by
the cherubic Wesley Eddy.
If you don't believe this, try to get
in. Once there, you will find Mr.. Eddy
smiling as buoyantly as ever. There
seems little doubt that he is the Rudy
Vallee of Washington-or rather, be-
cause their mode of attack is quite dis
tinct, he Is the idol of his own pal
pitating army, which refuses to let him
alone. It is extraordinary, too, mas
much as Mr.. Eddy,s voice is small and
not especially alluring; yet 1t has that
fever quality which is catching to say
the least.
Wesley has brought with him a good
show, too. Les Parfums" has a very
soothing quality. 1t is worth the price
Of admission alone to see those Adagio
dancers, Adler and Bradford, come near
to dashing out their brains.
The latest Norma Shearer picture,
Their Own Desire" is not what 1t
ought to be, recruiting as it does the
services of Lewis Stone, Belle Bennett
and Robert Montgomery. Although it
having a theme song, it has almost
everything else, including a polo match,
q gray-haired, tear-stained mother, a
blonde breaker-up of the home, a violent
storm obviously fabricated in o tank
and the Lords prayer.
The story is one Of those WITNESSES"
built on the divorce idea, the depth
that 1t reaches being about puddle deep.
Miss Shearer is knocked out in a
polo game, for no apparent rea-
son, she is subjected to another knock
out-this one mental-when she finds
that her father is going to leave home
in favor of a blonde vampire. The
hapless girl sides with her bereaved
mother, although why she doesn't hit
her over the head instead is a ques-
ton, and the two of them go off to the
mountains, where in the place of rest
and quiet Norma finds the son Of her
fathers future wife to fall in love with.
After that the plot loses track of itself.
Norma Shearer, in spite of being coy
and self conscious, gets away with 1t by
retaining her bathing-suit figure. Lewis
Stone in the beginning tries hard with
the role of the father, but along about