Evening star., 1932-04-17

TIME best scene in THE Wet
Parade" includes neither
L the heroine, the hero, the
bad man, the Character"
lady, nor any roSS-current atmoS-
pheric studies who happen to be
idling around the lot. Strictly
without benefit of cast or charac-
terS, this scene takes place in a
Subterranean rendezvous of what
Mr.. Barrie once called the Never
World and has to do only with a
long and interesting series of
bottles which are transformed
from modern glassware into an
tlque replicaS of the same.
The sight of what is said to be
popular sport in the underworld,
namely the magic falsifying of
twentieth century bottles into
what used to be household neces-
sites of our grandfather day, is
somehow unusually stimulating.
Although, strictly speaking, un-
dertaken along unethical lines, it
is yet mild form of propaganda
in dry direction, since now the
public will be able to recognize
such things when it runs into
them. And, too, the cinema'S YER
sion OF what goes on in the boot
Logging world is so complicated
that there need be little fear of
Implications being attempted as a
side issue with those who have
witnessed it.
Then, too, the sight of these
bottles, filled with doubtful alco-
hol, is the nearest thing yet to
making modern audiences come
out with indignant Kisses and
soulful catcallS. Shortly after
these lawleSS symbols of glassware
are revealed, the brother of the
heroine is shown quafing vigor-
ously from one of them, and then
suddenly is withdrawn from the
world of sight. This bitter punish
ment. this plunge into the realm
OF the blind, this unexpected
dlvitalizing of one of the major
requirements of man is so fierce
IN its war on alcohol, so tragic in
ltS significance, that the film at
once may be said to rank very
near to Ten Nights in a Bar
room" and to that glamorous
moment when little Eva COR who
ever it isl, having been shot by
mistake, expires chanting a fer
vent little song as she wendS her
way to heaven.
The SimilaritieS between these
two popular recreationS ("The Wet
Parade" is intriguing vast audi
enceS day by day and Ten Nights
IN a Barroom" may still be seen
IN the Summertime playing to
huge audiences in the State of
Malne) are, of course, not strik-
lngly great. But certain Slaugh-
tiers, certain SaWduSt details, and
the CLINT of brass railingS, and a
lew unstable gentlemen of the
underworld, make the two some
what alike. While the hero does
not eventually don parochial
blouse, he at least becomes the
father of a bouncing child-and
this (Since Bad Girl') has been
proven to be the most successful
ending with audiences nowadays.
Somehow, at the first hint of
motherdom in a film the public
begins to sit back and take it easy.
Although wars, murders, broken
bottles and all sorts of SkirmiSheS
may be taking place around and
about, as soon as the heroine is
headed for the maternity ward,
and the hero stands around
anXiously biting his fingernails,
there is a certainty that all'S right
with the world and that the final
picture will show the new family
smiling down at each other
Sweetly.
All the elements of 1882 'Ten
Nights" are, however, diScernible
in THE Wet Parade" While its
theme is said by some Scribes not
to include any form of propa-
ganda, it seems fundamentally
overf1owing with it. 1t takes first
one side and then the other, but
it leaves you with the conviction
that something should be done
about the methods of keeping in
or keeping out this sometimes
disastrous paStime A stern, melo-
dramatic sometimes over dra-
matic) picture, it becomes, after
a long-winded beginning which
includes much that seems un-
neceSsary-a powerful sermon in
denunciation of the evils of alco-
hOi = II In too admirably acted