THE MICHIGAN DAILY SUNDAY, APRIL 5, 1931 THE MICHIGAN DAILY SUNDAY. APRiL ~. 1931 caa avaw.i vy rcrv+. Screen Reflections IN TOWN Gum-c h e w i n g, wise-cracking, slow-moving Will Rogers is here, as you doubtless already know, in the talking version of Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee" at the Ma-{ jestic. It's reviewed below. 1 The Michigan deals with a more modern locale in "Honor Among Lovers" with chawming Claudette Colbert, the captivating brunette of "Manslaughter"-again co-starred with Frederic March. Downtown t h e W u e r t h offers George Bancroft and Kay Francis in a supposed.. low-down on the **~ tabloid newspaper r a c k e t spicingly titled "Scandal She et." Extree! Extree! OUT OF TOWN CLAUOETT c ArtW Eddie Peabody, banjoist par ex- cellence, masters the ceremonies at the Fox while some 800 talented lads and lassies from the theatre's dancing school cavort on the stage in ar Easter Follies. The screen displays Victor McLaglen, Lew Cody, and Fay Wray in "Not Exactly " Gentlemen." And it's Barbara Stanwyck at the Downtown in the epic of the taxi dancer "Ten Cents A Dance." Ric- ardo Cortez and Sally Blane head the supporting cast. Bert CONNECTICUT YANKEE" For two hours of the inimitable Will Rogers comedy,tthe "Connec- ticut Yankee at the Court of King . - Arthur" affords the usual amount of a- musement and is well worth seeing. Acting is by no m e ans R og er s forte. H is appeal consists of his shuffling, back- country manners and his flow of Ichatter which is Rogers typically American, if such a thing may be said to ex- ' ist. And these characteristics fit perfectly into the part which he plays. As a small-town radio dealer, . he is taken back fifteen hundred years to the court of King Arthur, and then proceeds to revolutionize that country with his modern methods. It has been said of this picture than he so often forgot his lines and substituted his own, that the- directors let the script go al- t o g e t h e r since the impromptu speeches were much better. Wheth- er this is true or not, he gives us ' a very good picture of the country town Yankee, his shrewdness, and ability to capitalize on every op- portunity chance throws in his way. As to the picture itself, there is admittedly nothing in the plot of the play. Mark Twain originally wrote his book assa satire on Amer- Ican ideas and attitudes in his day. The directors of the play have skill- fully transferred l. - those same points to the present picture, although< of course most of the finer subtle- ties had to be left out in favor of the more obvious . o n e s. Neverthe less, the effect is / r,.r most amusing, and the general idea has been car- MAURESN O'SULLIVAN1 ried out perfectly. Supporting the main lead are, ! ,several minor parts, all of whichl" .were admirably acted.aMerlin and King Arthur gave especially good characterizations. Fr a n k Albert- son at times acted with an overdose of affected naivete, but had very little else to do. Maureen O'Sullivan appeared on the scene very little, and Myrna Loy performed very1 well the part of the usual high- I pressure vamp who starts out to1 "get" Will Rogers. The group scenes showed some fine direction and good photogra- phy. Perhaps the best and most amusing shot of the whole show was the "charge of the Austins."" The finest bit of acting goes to Mer-I 4 &I ND DR~r RONNY JOHANSSEN A Review. Miss Johanssen was entertaining when inimitable; very dull when imitative. Her accompanist was te- dious all the time (seeming to nurse an antagonism for the dancer's tempos when she was accompanist and opening the lid wide on harsh tones unrythmically organized when she was soloist). So that the eve- ning was something of a come- down after the fine evenings of dancing we have had last year and this at the Mendelssohn. Within a very limited fieid, Miss Johanssen is a delightful dancer. She has a quite penetrative sym- pathy for the pertness and levity of the awkward rustic. When she is merely translating this sympathy (in "Polka"and "Rustic Dance") by a piquant variety of pace and some very charming miming, she is very quaint and humourous. When she is doing minor decorative dances (her Menuet and Strauss Waltz) she is also successful, though very uncertain in execution. But when she is imitating Yvonne Georgi, the results are, I think, to be deplored. She is utterly incap- able, it would seem, of either Miss Georgi's emotional depth,her un- failing sense of design, or her pre- cision of execution. The result is such a dance as "Alla Marcia" in which the peucliar approach to the dance-art which Kreutzberg and Georgi have perfected is dissipated by seeming over-ambitious, over- cryptic. There evidently was a nar- rative to that dance, if one didn't get it (as I didn't) the dance seem- ed to have no continuity or coher- ence. The "Javanese Impressions" also seemed somewhat pointless. RECITAL THIS AFTERNOON Joseph Brinkman of tie piano faculty of the School of Music will continue the faculty series of reci- tals this afternoon at 4:15 in the Mendelssohn Theatre. Mr. Brink- man is spending his first year in Ann Arbor. Several years ago he became prominent in the Chicago Musical circles by winning the com- petition for younger musicians that meant an appearance as soloist with the Chicago Symphony-a role which he has duplicated several times since. During the present year, he has become familiar to Ann Arbor audiences both as solo- ist and as the pianist in the two recitals of the School of Music Trio. His program for this afternoon will consist of the following num- bers: Toccata and Fugue ............ .Frescobaldi-Respighi Ballade in D Minor ........Brahms Ballade in F Major ......... Chopin Toccata .......... Purcell-Sowerby Sonata .................Brinkman Prelude in C Minor .......... Bliere Siluetas de la Calzada ...... Turina Gargoyles ................ Goosens La Marchande d'eau fraiche..Ibert On Remembering a Child's ....... Tune .............. Lee Pattison Caprice Italien ...........Poulenc The public, with the exception of small children, is cordially invited to attend but urged to arrive on time. ART AND MRS. BOTTLE Jane Cowl, the inimitable star whom people enjoy in anything, wil be seen Monday night at the Whitney in a play "Art and Mrs. Bottle" which was received very well in New York and last week got glowing notices (as indeed all plays do) in Detroit. The author, Benn W. Levy is a young English- man who has another play "Mrs. Moonlight" on Broadwayenow. In "Art and Mrs. Bottle, Levy takes as an object for pleasant satire the various illusions of freedom and utter beauty supposed to be con- nected with the Bohemian life. His Mrs. Bottle leaves a prosaic home, husband and children to indulge this life with a grand flourish. She lasts, surprisingly long, staying a "Bohemian" for some twenty years. When she returns to her home she squelches her children's illusions and deftly re-establishes it as a normal prosaic family. Miss Cowl, who is inaugurating a repertory, is said to have found this role a very fertile opportunity for her intricate and delightful comic technique. Supporting her are two very well-known men, Leon Quar- termaine and Walter Kingsford. The Whitney performances are scheduled for 8:15. MUSIC IN DETROIT The Detroit Symphony program in the regular subscriptions series this week seems to be one of the i BE A rnOSPECT OB! Help your favorite organization, such as a club, high school class, church or other group in the great .LD RUSH If you wish to GOLD RUSH, help some organization you can do so by being in this one of great their prospectors. $2800.00 IN SOLD GIVEN HERE'S HOW In case less than 25 Claim Stakes have been sent in for the organization you wish to help, you can send in a Claim Stake now which will give the or- ganization 1000 more arrows. Claim Stakes were published in the last two Red Arrow advertisements. If you missed them you can get one from the Michigan Daily office. Another Wa y To Help A way which will be used all through the contest is to save your Red Arrow money for the organization you wish to help. Each Red Arrow dollar you give it will entitle it to 500 arrows. The organization which gets the largest number of arrows between now and August 13 will win a $1,000.00 Bag of Gold and the handsome brass .bound cedar lined Treas- urer Chest. Do your best to help an organization win. Your help will be appreciated and you will enjoy the excitement of the contest. JOIN THE GOLD RUSH TODAY! .. qI. fil it lov1 IIC/ C, We have long npted the progress pretty sad spectacle. From the which the two largest representa- technical standpoint much of his tines of our American civilization work might be analyzed as reiter- have made in regards to their gov- word mahe analjzxasetes- er~nnt.We hve n mid, ew1ated masses of juxtaposed tones (tone clusters) requiring no ingen- Y rk and Chicagd, both of whose uity whatsoever to write, plus quite sp tendid and efficient administra- inocuous diatonic harmonic and ti ns are undergoing investigations melodic progressions, mostly in a b their respective states. different register. As for his count- t is no secret that municipal, erpoint of rhythms, I can only say gov rnment in the United States is that, although the idea is nothing not ing but a history of graft, cor-- new, as employed by Mr. Cowell it ru tion, political intrigue and a col- becomes musical mathematics, no le tion of scoundrels and rascals more. To retain the same rhythm be t only in managing their cities in the same voice, throughout a no for the benefit of all the inhabi- piece for three voices is simply to to its but just a few-themselves. multiply monotony. It looks as Ci izens in municipalities for years though Mr. Cowell, when he con- ha e been crying out against the ceives a technical innovation which unjust and unfair methods which more gifted composers would simp- have characterized their' govern- ly take for granted, proceeds to ments. Citizen committees, reform write a piece solely to illustrate the mbvements and all sorts of societies theory of it. have in the past joined in to fight Musically his compositions are Sthe governments of cities. Now, fi- scarcely above the elementary real- nally, the states are acting. ism of such old-fashioned parlor In New York, while Mayor Walk-- pieces as "The Burning of Rome" r was vacationing in California and the "Battle of Waterloo." So ying to appear healthier, espe- far I have failed to find anything tally since he foresaw the brewing genuinely creative in his music, and orm, an embroglio started by I am sorry that Ann Arbor has to -Goyernor Roosevelt will perhaps re- hear it as representative of con- sult in many drastic changes. Tam- temporary American music rather, many hall is undergoing an em- than the work of such original and,I C~od(gbrings the jog and glad- T 1 US4 " ul, of the iWord I -L ftly very meaning aster ... Spring, expresses the rebirth of things new. At Eastertide the hearts of men Make renewed interes the highier inspirations of life. t in. At for- Eastertide We pause and look ward to better and finrr things to come. All the world Welcomes3 this Easter with its blessings of happi- ness. U,, Hilil l II II I I f11