Evening star., 1934-01-25

-DOOI bdDyj 40 pAi lCioAAA SASW
uttering high, squeaky barks, an
and down the back makes the ba
The return of this sort of
any means auspiciouS, although
Metropolitan seemed to get some
The producers have enormously given
yards of footage to a prologue which
It is necessary to have. but which could
be dismissed in few simple cinema
syllables. The R-K-O people 60 on at
great length about girl who has a
beastlv father, with feastly friend,
who hits him over the head with a
whisky bottle, who then falls down with
a tremendous BOOM, thus upsetting
the only lamp in his circus training
tent, thus lgnlting the whole chebang
and thus suddenly burning himself and
a few rash monkeys to fraZzle. Daugh-
ter being left fatherless, and we pre-
sumo motherleSS, trots herself onto a
boat Communicated by Robert Arm
strong. who is trying to avoid New York
process servers and who is also setting
said for the land of Kong, where he
has heard there is much fine treasure.
An hour of this sort of thing doesn't
dispose you too favorably toward the
later Kong sequences. And little Mr..
Kong is a sorry disappointment after
his eloquent sire. although he battles
with a nifty right. hugs his opponents
q la Jim Londos and is very heroic in
the uproarious earthquake scenes.
These scenes, although false to the
teeth, are the only real stimulouS you
get out of the film. Too much comedy,
up until then. and little Mr.. Kong,
scratching him head and having his
finger bandaged by kind-hearted Mr..
Armstrong, give you the wrong feeling
about the little fellow. He shouldn't,
after all, be a clown. He should go
right on stepping on his fellow men
and sneezing at mortaS as well as
dinosaurs.
The cast is no great shakes. Arm
strong is well enough as the hero ad-
venturer and Helen Mack is splendid
when she is asleep.
X x X x
RR1EF guide to the new weeks
~ films:
"SON OF KONG"-Warner's Metro
politan. Opened yesterday. A Teddy
Bear version of the original with little
Mr.. Kong being too nice about it all.
Good earthquake scenes and Mr.. Kong S
fright" keep you sometimes entertained.
GROSS COUNTRY CRUISE" -
Rialto. Opens today. Transcontinental
bus story. with Lew Ayres going from
New York to San Francisco. Others in
the bus are June Knight, Alice White,
Alan Dinehart and Minna Gombell. one
of Washingtons favorites. Advance
word about it says: Love, hate, revenge,
comedy and murder" Ought to be
good.
"MR. SKITCH'-LoeWs Fox. A Will
Rogers film, with Will Rogers and zasu
Pitts. That ought to do for anybody.
Harry Green and Eugene Palette are
in it, too. The stage show is headed
by J. Harold Murray, Broadway singing
star, last seen in Music in the Air
(swell show. and Alex Hyde and his
Musical Darlings" well, orchestra,
anyway. Bob Hope, Lew Parker & Co.
and the Dodge Bros. Revue complete
the bill.
~MAN OF TWO wORLDS"-R-K-O
Keith's. This ought to be an interest
ing film, mainly because Francis Lederer,
Czech matinee idol, makes his film
debut in it. Although he plays the role
of an Eskimo ladies will find that he
is not by any means cold. ELISA Landi
is there, too, to keep the temperature
at an even boiling point.
"EASY TO LOVE"-Warner Earle
Adolphe Menjou, suddenly sprung to
the top of the ladder again; Mary As
tor, one of Hollywood's genuine beau
ties, and Genevieve Tobin head the cast
OF this Warner Bros marital COM
edy. Duke Ellington, Harlem's noisiest
and best band. heads the stage show
"DESIGN FOR LIVING" - Palace
The long-awaited Ben Hecht version of
Noel Coward's play. Bright, sophisti
Gated, and will probably shock your
Aunt Martha. Miriam Hopkins, Gary
Cooper and Fredric March play at lov-
ing each other very much
"OLSEN'S BIG MOMENT"-Colum-
bia. This moment belongs to Ell Bren-
del Others who have moments in the
film include Walter Catlett, Barbara
Weeks and John Arledge.
x x
WE ARE sorry to have missed the last
Nv act of Years End" which the
Pierce Hall Players presented last night
before a very large audience in their
nicely heated hall We are sorry, be-
cause 1t isn't fair to judge only two acts