Evening star., 1935-01-19

being vigorous, simple, unaffecte
those rare actors whose talents d
into the very teeth of the cal
director has told him (Which, of
you can walk from here to here
chalk marks, and you may tn
right in order to stay in the pict
Fhese~ motion picture necessities
MUM sweeps aside with any gesture
he happens to have at hand. And
when he Is either in closeup or long
shot he retains that naturalness which
makes all of his characterizations
strikingly original.
"Bordertown" is an effective melo-
drama. Its path Is not absolutely
straight-and its mission does not do
much credit to our side of the fence
Mr.. MUM going back to "his people"
(MeXico) with a good deal in his
favor. But since he has made a
hash out of being a lawyer, since
he has made hash out of what he
hoped would be love and marriage,
since he has been the cause for mur-
der and for madness, 1t Is possibly
about time that he turned his other
cheek to California and scuttled back
with Mamma Ramirez to those with
whom he could be more tolerant and
understanding.
Munis sin in this case is ambition
You see him first as one of the for
tunates in graduating class of law
yers." You see him next out in the
world losing his temper over his first
law case. You see him then as a dis
appointed and disbarred lawyer, who
makes gold out of anything which
he touches. In the midst of all this
there Is the married woman who
commits murder in order to be nearer
to him; and society" girl who loves
him and leaves him. The latter Is
uninteresting and very badly drawn.
The former is knockout.
X X X X
RETTE DAVIS, who now Specializes
in monomania, and who can be
described by only one word (unprint-
able), Is again at her best when she
is out of her nut. To get even with
MUM for leaving her fiat, she goes
to the courts and claims that he CO.
creed her and helped kill her husband.
Then, when her moment of triumph
is at hand, when she is on the stand
and about ready to point an accusing
finger at him, she does a neat little
Ophelia instead, and is dragged from
the room. bowling and bawling. and
doing as nice little bit of acting as
you will see this year
Mr.. MUM and Miss Davis make all
of this something to see-even if it
isn't Grimm fairy tale. Margaret
Lindsay, who is nice person, but no
great shakes as an actress, plays the
blue-blooded girl-and Eugene Palette
is fine as the husband who is left in
his garage by his amiable little wife
She Is, in fact, so good to them, when
he is under the influence, as to allow
him to sleep peacefully in the back
seat OF his car while she locks the
garage door and leaves on the gas.
THE Earle stage show this week is
headed by that extremely able
singer, Donald NoviS, who can make
even such an overplayed song as June
In January" sound like new. Other
than this popular singer. you will find
Don zelaya still at top form. getting
his customary welcome; the Five JAMS
leys. little men juggled around by big
men, and Lee Murray and the Sinclair
Sisters, plus a blond bombshell. doing
some exhilarating dances. Audrey
Sieber, who should be dressed by
Adrian-and sometimes seems to be-
comes out between these numbers to
give the boys treat.
X II
ANN HARDING and Robert Mont
"A gomery make 1.-THE Biography of
a Bachelor Girl" now playing at
Loew's Fox, an intelligent and graceful
comedy. While it is not the "Biog-
raphy" you saw at the National-since
no play is the same without it's par
ticular star Gina Claire), and since
some Of the lines and situations would
naturally have had to be weakened
it is, nevertheless, diverting and sophis-
ticated entertainment and puts Mont
gomery up another notch.
Miss Harding plays the role of
Marion, the portrait painter with
past, with that romantic winnie in
her voice with which you are familiar.
Although we begin to wish that some
one would come along and give Miss
Harding Bette Davis role, making
her so bad that she positively reeks
with crime, she is still very attractive
and sometimes very beautiful and
she almost makes you believe that she
has had all those various affairs with
that variety of mankind-who help
to make her planned biography of
such vital import.
1t is this biography, the involving
of names which in the old days meant
little and now mean much (such as
Senators, etc., and the imminent
publishing of the biography which
form the basis for this amusing and
well-written story. Miss Harding is
persuaded to write it (ghost-write it,
and publish it by Publisher Montgom-
cry, who has coaXed her to such a
thought by dangling $4,000 before
her portrait-weary fingers. But the
more she thinks about it, and the
more she plots it, the more figures
keep cropping up from the past i'm
ploring her to stop such nonsence-
nay willing even to bribe her. Such
one for instance is Bunny" the
man who would make the first chap
ter Of Marion's biography worth
reading, and who, since he Is now on
the way to political glory cannot af-
ford to have himself aired as
juvenile Romeo.
Edward Everett Horizons charac-
terization of Bunny, Charles Richman
l. yAA nd