Lights of New York, first seven-reel all-talkie, is made by Vitaphone (Warner Brothers). It was undoubtedly put together in a hurry; but as an experiment, like the first hot-dog sandwich, it is a palpable hit. The story concerns a young man and a girl who left a small town to seek Manhattan fortune. The girl dances in a nightclub. The proprietor makes advances. The young man is forced into the bootlegging business, though he would rather be a barber. It ends, after several murders, with a philosophical detective advising the young couple to go back to the country. Members of the cast have voices which register well. The detective (Robert Elliott), in particular, is a talkie find.
The Actress. Back in the days when there were no rackets, Sir Arthur Wing Pinero wrote a play called Trelawny of the Wells. Its wit was distinctly of the lavender variety. Its entrances and exits were deftly manipulated amid fluffy excitement. A year ago, George C. Tyler revived it on a Manhattan stage with 83-year-old Mrs. Thomas Whiffen, John Drew, Pauline Lord. People loved it, forgot about it and flocked to the new musical comedies. Now it has been made into a film by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and called The Actress. The director, Sidney Franklin, has handled it tenderly. Norma Shearer,* though not the ideal Actress Rose Trelawny who sneezed lovingly in the Gower drawing room, has acquired a little of the oldtime sauce. O. P. Heggie did well as Grandfather Gower.
The Racket. Thomas Meighan is the police captain. Louis Wolheim, of What Price Glory, is the bootlegging gang leader. Marie Prevost is the cabaret girl. "Skeets" Gallagher is a reporter. The result is the fastest moving, most convincing of the recent parade of rum-revolver-racket films.
The City Without Jews.f At first, the board of censors in Manhattan said: "No." Then, a few days later, they said: "Let it run." It really did not make any difference, for the film is harmless, the public refused to become excited, there were no race riots. The story is laid in the year 1976 in the city of Vientra, where a law is passed ousting all the Jews. Troubles beset Vientra. Then the Jews are called back.
*She will be 24 on Aug. 10. No girl from the farm, no onetime Childs' waitress, she entered the movies as a debutante from Montreal, Canada, where her family lost money after the World War. The pictures that made her were The Flapper, Broadway After Dark, Pleasure Mad. Later, she did The Demi-Bride, The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg. She is the women's tennis champion of Hollywood, swims and dives well, drives a Chrysler, likes apple pie and rice pudding, runs an ostrich plume shop in Montreal. Her husband is Irving Thai-berg, production manager of the M-G-M studios. She is now working on a film version of The Last of Mrs. Ckeyney.
†A film made in Germany.