The Daily Alaska empire., 1938-02-23
COLDWYN HAS NEW VENTURE;
 F0LLIES SHOW
First Musical Entry in Two Years = Many Good,
 Some Bad Features
By ROBBIN COONS

his latest stab at the title of Master Snowman of Hollywood, Samuel Goldwyn succeeds so brilliantly that his failure is the more pro- nounced.
 The Goldwyn Follies' is The Touch's first musical entry in two years. For beauty and for comedy it is unsurpassed by anything Hol- lywood has ever done. For one se- ouence alone, "The Water Nymph Ballet" the film sets new high in beauty of staging, setting, and per formance. The color photography, throughout the picture and most notably in this sequence, is of the highest quality, far beyond any thing yet presented in the medium, and so startlingly life-like at times that the screen becomes an lntl- mate, closeup stage. The humor, generally, is rollicking, genuine, oc- caSi6nslly sharply satiricai, varying in appeal from an uplifted eyebrow of Adolphe Menjou to the broad slapstick insanities of the Rltz Brothers. The performances Of the principals--Menjou, Andrea Leeds, the Stage Door girl who here proves that the rosy promise of that role was no freak, the ballet dancer Zorina who is a gifted comedienne as well as one of the original Gfaces, Kenny Baker whose singing is as nice SIS his ingenious shyness-are splendid.
 HaIf-Baked Chestnuts
 With all these clements and more combined into reSplendent offer ing. Goldwyn's picture is handl- capped by a number of would-be comedy gags which are likely to fall flat on the resounding silence of an audience spoiled into expect ing everything to be perfect. con sidering that Goldwyn had whole corps of his best writers laboring on the script before Ben Hecht tGok charge and did the final version, it seems incredible that an aspiring Master Snowman should have left these in. In an ordinary film per hapS these chestnuts could be for given. In a picture of this magni- tude, however, they jar distinctly
 Perhaps, however. it was inevit- able that in his effort to crowd everything into one picture the producer should have admitted stuff below the productions high par.
 There is material here to capture widely varied audience tastes: Helen Jepson in glorious screen operate debut; Edgar Bergen and Charlie Mccarthy (stealing all their joint sequences from veteran Phil Bak- er), ballet and swing, classical music and hotcha, Gershwin songs
 two hours of amazing entertain ment, with exceptions above noted.
 Novel for a screen "extravagan- ga" is the intimate feel of the musical numbers. instead of acres of sets and hundreds of girls, Di- rector George Marshall used the technique of lavish simplicity to give the camera a front-row seat and the audience an eyeful.
 Some Quick Chances
 Tn Brief:
 "A Tank at Oxford" establishes Robert Taylor's claim to he-man- nishness in a nice, hokumish bit of painless education abroad, expert ly done and sure-fire winner. Maureen O'Sullivan is the girl, and there's an English actress, Vivien Leigh, who ought to be in Holly wood. Jack Conway directed.
 Walking Down Broadway tells what happens ot six chorus girls who pledge to hold reunion. Lynn Bari, with a movie contract, gets killed by truck. Phyllis Brooks dies in a fall. Leah Ray goes to jail. Jayne Began has to flee the country with her absconding hus- band. Dixie Dunbar, dumb but nice, weds an old roue. Which leaves Claire Trevor with Michael Whal- en, and virtue triumphant. Moral Don't sign pledges, even under Nor