Monday, Aug. 01, 1927
New Pictures
The Great Mail Robbery. Those who would renew their acquaintance with The Great Train Robbery of cinema's infancy may do well to contemplate The Great Mail Robbery, wherein armored trucks, machine guns, tear gas and other refinements of crime are employed in the Wild West as a background for old-fashioned vanquish-the-villain-hug-the-heroine melodramatics in modern clothes.
The Poor Nut (Jack Mulhall). Parts of J. C. & Elliott Nugent's play made into an inferior cinema tell a story about the despised college grind who turned himself into a revered athlete when one of the campus belles tinkled near his heart.
The Blood Ship. The captain is a ruthless desperado who murders and tortures those unfortunate enough to have been shanghaied aboard his Seven Seagoing vessel. When the crew finally rises in mutiny their leader is discovered to be the man whose wife and infant daughter the gory captain had stolen years ago. The daughter has grown up to be the one lovely thing aboard, so there is a hero for her.
Rolled Stockings (James Hall,* Louise Brooks,-- Richard Arlen--). If the jubilant alumni only realized that Jim Treadway's stroking old Colfax to victory was in part the silent triumph of his brother Ralph, who dashed the cup and the bad lady from brawny Jim's lips, and told him he ought to keep training the night before the big race, perhaps they would have felt the same simple gratification as the audience when the unsung hero got the girl and ended the picture. Paid to Love (George O'Brien, Virginia Valli). The picture involves a mythical kingdom and a case of mistaken identity, but does better than might be expected considering these handicaps. One Gaby (Virginia Valli) is hired to teach Crown Prince Michael (George O'Brien) how to love, and does.
*These are some of Paramount's Junior stars, garnered from colleges, vaudeville, actors' agencies, and trained in Paramount's school for cinema.