Evening star., 1932-02-27

assets Of youth at h,r elbow. she
has shouldered her way through the
multitude of screen celebrities who
wax and wane almost fortnightly
and risen so far above most of them
that her star Is now permanent
fixture and shines more brightly
than the fairest flower of Hollywood.
Miss Dressler began frankly at the
age Of three score and more to stage
a come back" as burlesque queen.
She twisted her face, she exploded
her words, she rolled around and
was never anything but an ex-
aggc -ated lady of the beef trust
scho :. Then suddenly, In Min and
Bill, she reformed; she grew mere
calm and more collected and when
she "acted" the muscles Of her face
began to relax.
Now, in Emma" she proves her
self one Of the great tragediennes.
There Is little question but that at
the end of this film when her au-
dience is indulging in handkerchief
emotion, she Is treating them to the
most successful mining to be seen
this season. Overcoming. except in
one or two instances, the immensely
successful comical abilities which
she possesses, and delying deep into
the more normal and more difficult
seriousness of acting, she produces
the most devastating effect on her
audience since Helen Hayes did her
more youthful emotings as Madeline
Claudet.
The story, which has been con-
structed to give full scope to the
stars powers, concerns the humble
pleasures of good housekeeper,
Emma, who brings up a brood OF
young children in the place of their
mother, only to find that all but
one of them, Ronny, are selfish,
spoiled and ungrateful creatures.
Somehow it is the little things IN
this rather than the nature OF the
plot which stand out. Miss Dressler
being thrown about in an airplane
dummy Is funny, she is funny wan
dering through the station picking
up her ball of yarn, she is funny
riding in a boat at Niagara Falls,
and she is funny elsewhere. But she
is infinitely better than that in her
character delineations on smaller
scale. In fact, it Is by the process
of building these up that she creates
eventually the most outstanding
study" of the year. This Is work,
in fact, which is so fine that ad-
jectives seem superfuous in its de-
fense.
On the stage the much-present
Bob Murphy introduces vaudeville
revue in which are featured those
rare dancers AL and Ray Samuels,
Johnny Hyman giving Mr.. Garner
doing a
brief eccentric dance and Mr.. Muir
phy's son and daughter rather put
ting one over ION the old man"
E. de S. MELCHER.
Mexican. Story
At the Fox.
MEXICAN mystery gives force to
4VA a somewhat light plot, with
prospects of many fatal encounters
in the film, THE Gay Caballero," at
the Fox Theater. Besides offering
a view of George O'Brien in fea-
tured role and Victor McLaglen In
one of his most romantic parts. the
play is to be credited with new
and interesting development in the
work of Conchita Montenegro.
This actress has been considered
chiefly as an example of the tenn
peramental character in the midst
of hard but picturesque experience.
She here attracts attention to
more truthful picture of the Latin
woman as a person of vigor and wise
action. She approaches the Amer
ican ideal of individual courage and
alertness in the midst of shutting
plotters. George O'Brien has
more thoughtful task than has been
customary in his experience in the
motion pictures and the film is to