Two weeks ago I sniffed around the Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive. Although the trial access period expired last Friday, I did snag a handful of screen-grabs for films that will be playing on TCM, and that were suggested to me by readers. The films are: Crooner, The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters, The Hoodlum, The Bat Whispers, Convention City, and a request for an original review for London After Midnight. As my access to the EIMA archive expired on Friday, I was unable to act upon anything after that. But here’s what I did find:
We start with Crooner (Lloyd Bacon, 1933): TCM‘s super-brief synopsis: “A saxophone player rises to fame as a singing star.” I found a few reviews on this one, including one in Broadcasting that cribbed the following from John S. Cohen, Jr. (a movie critic for the New York Sun): “Agreeable and fresh, if somewhat unimportant entertainment.” I decided to go with the longer review from Variety (Vol. 107, issue 11, Aug., 23, 1932), and I’ll include sources as part of the screen grabs from here on afterwards. My blogging parameters require me to shrink the screen grabs, but you can click on the image and magnify as needed. There are some interesting word choices that I wouldn’t foresee being used in a film review today, ie: having the protagonist described as “a swell-headed, impossible sapadillo.”
The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters (Edward Bernds, 1954). TCM synopsis: “The Bowery Boys battle a family of mad scientists.” I can see why a review was requested, as there aren’t any articles available on the TCM site. But they do have the original trailer, which provided the cover image for this post. The film gets a shrug of a review, but I like that it includes the aspect ratio (1.85-1), an attention to detail that sadly has been dropped over the years.
The Hoodlum (Sidney A. Franklin, 1919). “A spoiled rich girl fights for her life when she’s trapped in the slums.” I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a very interesting premise to me, plus: Mary Pickford! Variety clearly approved of this pic when it said that this “is the type of feature made to sell, and will sell like a wind travels.”
The Bat Whispers (Roland West, 1930). “A masked criminal terrorizes the residents at a deserted country house.” On the TCM website you can read a Leonard Maltin capsule review that only gives it 1.5 stars. I was surprised to find myself wanting to see the film after Maltin’s review, despite his labeling it an “Excruciatingly archaic ‘old dark house’ thriller about the search for a mysterious killer known as The Bat.” Why? Because he goes on to state that “Of interest to buffs for its striking visuals, including some eye-popping miniature sets.” Also: “Simultaneously filmed in experimental 70mm widescreen process called Magnifilm.” The review I’m included mentions these things and more, and is overall quite favorable, even going so far as to say that it will “sustain the interest and keep it a fever heat.” Don’t read the third paragraph if you hate spoilers! (That sentence just added thanks to reader comment.)
Convention City (Archie Mayo, 1933). This title has a decent synopsis on the TCM website, which is good because I have to admit that most of the hits I got when typing in the two words “Convention City” had nothing to do with the film and had mostly to do with places vying for various convention honors. Still… here’s one peak back in time that is relevant to the pic:
London After Midnight (aka: The Hypnotist, directed by Tod Browning, 1927). A great request! This famously lost film has been restructured with stills and has haunted many minds (including my own, thanks to a picture of Lon Chaney taken from this film that I suspect I saw at a very young age on the cover of Famous Monsters of Filmland.) I can’t improve upon the original request, which stated: “Since we can’t see them, maybe we can read a little about them.” Agreed:
While the reviewer is clearly disappointed, his interest in “the mugger” leaves me to believe he was hoping for a different kind of film than what Chaney and Browning were working on. Either way, as an added perk, here are parting screen shots relating to Lon Chaney:
What to add after this, but one last haunting image:
