(3 of 3)
There are so many able technicians in Hollywood that even pictures as uninspired as this one are generally built into reasonably inoffensive entertainment, unmarred by the ineptitudes which can make bad plays atrocities. There is nothing distinguished about This Modem Age but, like a medium-priced sedan, it runs rapidly and smoothly along, an inconspicuous mechanical marvel which disgraces no one and will probably make a profit. Joan Crawford's new haircut, which gives the effect of a pale overgrown hedge straggling down the back of her neck, is not as unbecoming as it sounds. Good shots: Joan Crawford and Neil Hamilton (the fiance) dislodging a china vase and waiting for it to crash while it falls on a sofa. Trite shot: a scene of revelry which reaches its peak when Monroe Owsley tries to prove he is sober by walking in a straight line.
The Dreyfus Case (British International) relates, with few deviations from fact, the events which followed France's conviction of Captain Alfred Dreyfus for treason in 1894. The merits of the picture are, as they should be. more dramatic than didactic. It introduces with too much profusion and too little clarity the documents which lead to the conviction of Dreyfus but it is explicit in dealing with later developments of the case: the imprisonment of Dreyfus on Devil's Island; the efforts of Emile Zola and others to establish his innocence; the trial of the real traitor, Major Esterhazy; the subsequent recall and rehabilitation of Dreyfus. The picture suffers from the technical weaknesses of most films manufactured in England but it recreates for its audiences the excitement which made the Dreyfus case a scandal, a tragedy and a political upheaval as well as a cause celebre. Good shot: Dreyfus (Cedric Hardwicke) having his buttons pulled off and his sword broken.