Evening star., 1939-12-23

emily is not the one the studio
intended.
BY way of a vaudeville supple
ment to the screen feature, Harry
Anger has assembled a program
called Xmas Bellies" the most
diverting moments of which are
provided by the Roxyettes in some
seasonal routines, and in the PAN
tomima of Cookie Bowers.
"On Dress Parade" makes its
greatest claim to interest in its
early sequences in which Leo
Gorcey CSpit," rememberO is
poolroom prodigy who decides that
military school is preferable to a
reform school. He Is the old Gorcey
there, completely recognizable in
his contempt for the graces Of liv-
ing, a kid who meets every proffer
of kindliness with the lofty scorn
of lowlife brat. The old vitality
of the gang. four of whom have
reformed when this picture opens,
survives in Gorcey's rebellion
against the schools regulations, its
smartly turned-out and idealistic
students and, above all, its chin-up-
old-man officers. He hates them
all with equal intensity and his
one-man campaign to annihilate
them is thing of spirit, regardless
of what else it may lack of ad-
mirable qualities.
The picture carries sardonic kind
of comedy during these early Sc
quences, but conviction vanishes
when the kid is won over to the path
which leads to reform. Forgetting
his early poolroom training, remorse
for having caused the serious injury
of the schools student leader Zone
of the reformed Dead Enders)
leads him to such feats of scholar
ship as ranking first in his class, to
offering the hand of fellowship to
his erstwhile enemies. and finally to
the superheroic rescue of the class
mate for whom he once had super
contempt.
AS one of the two most talented
members of the Dead End" gang,
Gorcey struggles energetically with
the sentimentality of the part he is
called upon to play. Whether it is
because he has been too good at
being bad, or for some less obvious
reason, he never quite succeeds in
making the part believable. Even in
that immaculate uniform, his slouch
and his corner-of- -the-mouth speech
gone, he too closely resembles the
unregenerate Spit to fool an audi
ence. That he was the champion
toughy of the old gang, however,
probably is proved by the circum-
stance that the others are much
more successful in sprouting the
wings called for in "On Dress
Parade"
The traditional reds and greens Of
Christmas make colorful garb for
the Roxyettes in the routines with
which they dominate the stage pro-
gram. They are at their most
charming best, not to mention their
most Christmasy, in a dance in
which each is equipped with a doll
as dancing partner. That is cute, in
the most praiseworthy sense of cute.
OF the remainder of the bill, de-
signed mainly for comedy, Bowers
achieves the greatest success when
he pantomimes those two familiar
characters, man getting out of bed
in the morning and jittery female
taking a dip at Florida beach.
They are not new, but Mr.. Bowers
still does them well. Against the
handicap of Charlie McCarthy's
popularity, Paul Winchell and his
dummy, Jerry, prove that ventrilo-
quism still has its capacity for mer-
riment, Alfred Lytell still does that
dog-imitation act with its comedy
touches and Jean and Jerry have an
| acrobatic dance act which also has
its humor.
The vocal department is handled
with its usual skill by that widely
known sextet, the Virginians.