About two years ago, during the noon hour of that spring day when legal beer was given back to Americans, I happened to be sitting in a now-forgotten institution—a speakeasy.
It was a Friday, because the occasion was a meeting of the Wednesday Culture Club, which perversely enough meets on Friday. On this particular day the members were slow in arriving, most of them having decided first to sample the new beer, but George Bye, literary agent and representative of Joan Lowell, who incidentally is the moving spirit of the organization, was present.
He was engrossed in conversation with a fattish gentleman who was waving a few typewritten sheets under Mr. Bye’s not-prominent nose. Finally the heavy fellow left and Mr. Bye announced that he had just signed a contract for Joan Lowell under which she was to make a moving picture.
The result of that conference I saw the other night at the Rialto Theatre. It is called “Adventure Girl.”
Produced by the Van Beuren Corporation and released through R. K. O., “Adventure Girl” purports to be a more or less staged transcription of Miss Lowell’s jaunt through the Caribbean Sea and parts of Central America. Completely unreal as to story, it manages nevertheless to be surprisingly interesting. Miss Lowell, who has never claimed—and she has claimed a great deal—to be an actress, turns in a natural and pleasing performance. She is an attractive young woman and makes the most of her looks.
SHIP AHOY AND OTHER ADVENTURES
“Adventure Girl” gives Miss Lowell a chance to get aboard a ship and play the role that gained her fame as the author of “The Cradle of the Deep.” She is cast in the part of the skipper of the “Black Hawk,” a small sailing vessel. As the young woman is piloting a ship thorugh the Caribbean a hurricane blows and drives the cloth-covered vessel into the Saragossa Sea, that weed-infested jungle which is said to imprison boats.
Wandering over the old hulks Joan discovers on one of them a map showing the location of a hidden treasure in Central America. Immediately plans are changed and off goes Joan to uncover the pot of wealth.
The remainder of the film deals with our heroine’s terrifying experiences with wild animals and wilder natives, who to me seem justly outraged in feeling perturbed when Joan tries to pilfer the ruby eye from their favorite Idol.
This attempted larceny almost causes Joan’s death, as the natives capture the girl and drag her back with murder in their hearts, but she is rescued and by—whom? By the U. S. Marines, or, to be more accurate, by one U. S. marine.
After all, we know that one U. S. marine can lick as many natives as he has hairs in his head and all marines are generously thatched. Needless to say, before the final shot is flashed on the screen, showing the “Black Hawk” sailing into the sunset, everything has been satisfactorily settled.
The cast supporting Miss Lowell includes her seventy-year-old father, Captain Nick Wagner, and William Sawyer and Otto Siegler, the two members of the Black Hawk crew. There is also a native brown-skinned girl who plays the part of a princess. Her fight with Miss Lowell is one of the high spots of this melodramatic, slightly ridiculous yet enjoyable film.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
