Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-18
Movies Show That the
Tropics Are Not What
They Were in Old Days
The Road to Singapore" Proves Weak Vehicle
for William Powell-"An Unbeatable Combina-
tion" Goes Wrong and Comment
By E. de S. Melcher.

IN one of. those numerous film
magazines which brea tn e
about as much truth as Eve
L did to Adam there is to be
found the following comment
upon The Road to Singapore, +"
Williams Powell's first picture for
the Warner outfit: Here is a
story (say they of love and
temptation in the tropics-an un-
beatable combination"
Well, unfortunately, the COM
bination was all too beatable, and
one is inclined to wonder what
ever made Mr.. Powell wander
away from the Paramount lot,
where he had made himself
nice little niche as dapper gen.
tleman whose power was a hand
some combination of the mental
and the physical, and who could
play villain as we'll as hero and
make you believe either or both
Of them.
For some reason the tropics
have always intrigued the ro-
mantle minded more than, for
instance, the North Pole or even
(pardon, Admiral Byrd the South
Pole. To find love in the tropics
has been, since time immemorial,
pretty exciting thing, and this
because the pulse beats faster
there and the flies fly faster and
because you sleep under yards of
netting and do just about every
thing that you don't do at home
Only a few semesters ago at
the mention of the tropics the
movie moguls ran out into the
street to find who had done the
mentioning and why. The hot
spots of the earth, after the
dynamic exposing of them by the
blond Jeanne Eagles, were con-
sidered the most perfect setting
in the world for any play or any
film, and any one who could
write a tropical story was des-
tined to pocket much lucre. All
Hollywood actors tried. their hand
at the Sun-baked climeS-even
Charles Farrell and Janet Gay
nor (do you remember them as
cunning little dope fiends?), and
but for imperative Nos" from
the lady herself Greta Carlo
might have been seen putting
away on some desert isle, famed
with palm leaves and with a bot
tie glued to her lips.
All of this, of course, occurred
yesterday and the day before
yesterday, and by the time Lenore
Uric got around to playing
Pagan Lady" the public had be-
gun to agree that the sight of a
lady under the somber influence
of heat was beginning to pail and
that romanticisrA under such hot
, sun blistered in more ways than
one.
Now, suddenly, with William
Powell on their hands, the Warner
Brothers, after somewhat chill
Winter, delve into their manu-
script shelf and pull out "The
Road to Singapore" a lukewarm
version of what was once Heat
Wave" on the stage. And poor Mr.
Powell goes under. There is no
question that he did or that he
does. The person who said that
love and temptation in the
tropics are an unbeatable COM
bination" will have to be told that
he is lying in his teeth, because
the tropics no longer have the old
lure, temptations have seemed
much more exciting elsewhere,
and in spite of such one-time
:. formidable actors as Mr.. Powell
and Miss Doris Kenyon "a beauti-
full lady If there ever was one
watch for her when she comes to
Washington to sing) there is
nothing in the cinema world that
has seemed more tepid or more
puerile
In other words, the tropics are
not what they used to be. They're
full of hot and cold running
water now, anyway. Almost in the
same breath one is loath to say
that Powell is also not what he
used to be. It is hard to explain
just why, and yet it does seem