Critical Moments

The week preceding Christmas is usally a theatrical interlude. Most of New York spends its days pushing in and out of department stores and by evening the energy to go to the theatre has been left in the shops. This year was no exception to the rule and Broadwas was quiet. There were three openings—but these plays were started so as to be ready to catch the crowds which will clutter up Broadway this coming week. Katherine Cornell, who has been touring the country for nearly a year, returned to give “Romeo and Juliet” at the Martin Beck. Ina Claire, one of our better comediennes, opened in “Ode to Liberty” at the Lyceum. This in an adaptation of the great French success “Liberte Provisoire.” The third opening was “The Sky’s The Limit” but I fear that it will not survive the arrival of Santa Claus.

MIGHTY BARNUM AND GENE FOWLER

For the first time, cinema patrons have a chance to read the script of a film before they go to see it. “The Mighty Barnum.” which opened at the Rivoli on Saturday, was produced by Twentieth Century Pictures and released through United Artists but before it was shown to the public, Covici, Friede issued the scenario of the film in book form. Having read the script and seen the picture I can report that “The Mighty Barnum” is, for sheer entertainment, in a class by itself.

But before telling you more about this picturization of the life of America’s greatest showman, I must have a word about its author, Gene Fowler. This tall gray-thatched Westerner, who looks as though he would have made a swell football end, is the most disturbing writer in America today. Whether he turns his hand to writing novels, biographies, plays or scenarios, the results invariably cause a furor. Critics refuse to take Fowler calmly. Either they praise him with glowing adjectives or pan him with violence. No matter what he does, critics either say that he could or should have done better or that he was the only man who could write the work in question.

—FOWLER AND SHAW?

When “The Mighty Barnum” was published in book form, his publishers compared his footnotes to those of George Bernard Shaw. Wham! Down jumped some of the critics stating that such a comparison was not only odious but an outrage. Yet one of these fellows who objected strenuously, turned around and wrote an essay comparing Shakespeare’s career to that of Fowler’s. Another columnist thought that Shaw was the wrong name with which to link Fowler’s, he suggested that Rabelais was a better measuring standard.

Fowler also has trouble in making his critics realize what he is trying to do. In his introduction to “The Mighty Barnum,” he very plainly writes, “it violates most of the canons of literature and kicks history squarely in the groin. It seeks to create and sustain a mood in consonance with an era of pioneer showmanship.” You would imagine that after such a statement critics would not then greefully point out the imaginative phases of Barnum’s life that Fowler injected into his script. Nevertheless, Fowler is called to account and accused of carelessness. Those who found fault do not realize that the picture was written to entertain and not to educate and the entertainment value came first.

“The Mighty Barnum” needs no apologies. It is a rollicking, exciting lively film ably acted by Wallace Beery, Adolph Menjou and Janet Beecher. Barnum (Beery) is first shown running a grocery store but buying freaks instead of selling merchandise. His wife (Janet Beecher) wants him to go back to Connecticut. She is disgusted and gives him the money to pay his debts but Barnum, aided by a drunken newspaper man (Menjou), rents a building which he turns into ## museum of oddities. He is immediately successful and all is well until he imports the bearded lady. New York refuses to accept her as anything but a man and when Barnum tries to prove her sex he is nearly lynched because a rival promoter has bribed the lady into allowing him to act as her substitute. Barnum thinks he is licked but in walks the famous midget, General Tom Thumb, and Barnum is again a success. He is at the top of the world but after a fiasco with Jenny Lind, with whom he things he is in love, he loses all that he owns, including his wife who returns to her home in New England. How he is finally rescued from his downfall by his former freaks and how his star once again rides high because of an elephant, makes this one of the most enjoyable films of the year.

“The Mighty Barnum” is lifted above the ordinary run of pictures by the sparkling pointed dialogue supplied by Mr. Fowler. When the bearded lady sorry for her trickery to Barnum wants to convince him of her sincerity she says as a final shot: “Look at the gray hairs in my beard—just from remorse.” Such humor is not of the stale trite Hollywood variety. It is something a little different, slightly pathetic yet humorous.

As Barnum, Wallace Beery is pictured as a great oaf, an illiterate fellow born with a genius for showmanship. He was lucky but he knew an attraction when he saw one. Perhaps the real Barnum was possessed of stronger stuff, but he could not have been as amusing and easy a fellow to fathom as Fowler’s Barnum. Wisely, Fowler has made his Barnum a successful “schlemiel” and what more can an audience ask for? Adolph Menjou as the drunk saved from rum by Barnum, gives a fine restrained performance, and Janet Beecher, as Mrs. Barnum, is particularly skillful. Her New England sense of propriety makes a delightful foil for Barnum’s boorish conduct. A word should be said for the scenic effects, they are unusually fine. Building a section of New York one hundred years ago was no simple task and the reproductions are excellent and very much in the spirit of the film. “The Mighty Barnum” belongs on your “must” list.

OTHER FILM NOTES

Shirley Temple in “Bright Eyes” is the holiday week attraction at the Radio City Music Hall. James Dunn is also in the film. At the Paramount, Bing Crosby and Kitty Carlisle in “Here Is My Heart” is the film. The stage show is headed by Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians. At the Capitol, after two disappointing weeks, Greta Garbo’s picture moves on and “The Band Plays On” takes its place. John Fogarty, Slate Brothers, Ching Ling Foo and others make up the vaudeville. “Anne of Green Gables” is the film at the Roxy.