Evening star., 1940-05-18

tered. paramount, whose life Is not
cloistered, Goes know.
"Typhoon," which must be rated
as fairly good joke If not by, then
on, Paramount is q jibe at Miss
Lamour's traditional form-fltting
sarong, at the Tarzan pictures with
their .superhuman animals and
'treetop houses, and suspiciously ir-
reverent toward such elemental
classics as Hurricane" and some
other colossal H'wood spectacies. It
has conspicuous touches Of all these.
Moreover, each one is enchanced by
the presence Of Dotty, the Dusky, in
such state Of jungle naivete that
her reaction to loves first kiss is
that ut isn't like kissing daddy"
II that doesn't kill you, you are
q pretty sturdy specimen. And, If
Paramount didn't have its tongue
in its cheek, well eat the excellent
typhoon and fire sequences which
make the photography dramatic as
well as very handsome.
Some of the gaily incredible
elements which have gone into
"Typhoon"' include:
First, Miss famous as q lovely
waif, who has lived since childhood
on an otherwise uninhabited Pacific
island. Her only companion is q
chimpanzee whom he apparently
has taugh to understand English in
return for his devotion and protec-
ton. Making it the more remark
able that she has survived is the
fact that the island yearly is swept
by typhoon which brings with 1t
wall of water so feet high, or one
foot below the, floor of the tree
penthouse with elevator) in which
the oddly assorted pair live.
Second, Mr.. Preston as the young
ne'er-do-well, whose torso has sur
vived astonishingly well a tre-
mendous wash of alcohol, and who
is landed on the island by q tramp
submarine. The submarine, manned
by a jungle crew, has to land be-
cause that's where it runs out of
oil The dumb native crew simply
passed up the last filling station
without a thought of what it took
to drive submarine.
AS if that were not enough to
prove, and delightfully."- at times,
that script writer Allen Rivkin was
playing a joke, there's an island
chief who has yacht as big as
Vincent Astor's, but more warlike
since the chief likes to pretend it's
a navy and is always shooting at
people and things.
Running through the strange
goings-on of these strange people,
is a love story. the effort of Miss
Lamour to land her man, Preston.
Before he succumbs, it takes a ter
rifle jungle fire and a more terrific
storm to convince him that, II she
is a baby, she handles herself re-
markably well in conflict with the
elements IN some of their most
violent manifestations. W.
The picture fades out in the inti-
nation that they are going to navi-
gate 400 miles of open sea to the
nearest minister, then return to the
island to live, no doubt creating a
new civilization based upon peace
and understanding.
1t Is entertaining enough If you
take it in the right spirit. which is
to say, not seriously.
The opportunity To praise a Jug
Cling act, which is news like a man
biting dog, is the major blessing
OF Harry Anglers stage production
this week. Sufncient major" to
subordinate the fact that Red Skel-
ton, in better health, also is in much
more comic form than during his
first weeks engagement.
The juggling act is that of the
Hoffman's, of whom there are six.
Their variations on the usual Jug
Cling theme are altogether ad-
mirables
The effervescent Skelton and his
pretty Edna offer two comedy
sequences that are tuu of zest, and
Low, Hite and Stanley, a giant,
middleman, and dwarf are incongru-
ously funny. Cover and Jean, clever
young team, share dancing honors
with the Roxyettes, whose routine is
varied this week with fashion show.