The New Pictures

The Silver Streak (RKO) shows the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad's streamlined train as a capable deux ex machina in a melodrama of the rails. The Silver Streak, according to this picture, is the design of square-jawed young Tom Caldwell (Charles Starrett),* in love with the daughter (Sally Blane) of a railroad president. By refusing to try the train, B. J. Dexter (William Farnum), an obdurate and stupid tycoon, precipitates a broken heart for his daughter and a case of infantile paralysis for his son, Allan, an engineer at Boulder Dam. This makes it necessary for The Silver Streak, with Tom Caldwell at the controls and B. J. Dexter biting his knuckles in its luxurious caboose, to race from Chicago to Boulder City at 100 m. p. h., carrying an "iron lung", to save Allan Dexter's life. Before it reaches its destination, The Silver Streak barely escapes being wrecked at a drawbridge which closes a split second before the train arrives at full speed; rounds a hairpin turn at 100 m. p. h.; narrowly misses being derailed by a sleepy switchman; grazes a freight train; gets out of control on a downgrade when a passenger hits Tom Caldwell on the jaw.

Cinemaddicts will find it good melodrama as well as spectacular advertising, an up-to-date revival of a time-honored cinema formula, in which implements like Diesel engines, iron lungs and Boulder Dam are more exciting than the people.

The Man Who Reclaimed His Head (Universal). Audiences who remember Claude Rains in The Invisible Man may find the title of this picture misleading. The Man Who Reclaimed His Head is not a sequel to The Invisible Man but a gloomy war film, in which Rains impersonates a hapless journalist named Paul Verin, who is harassed by shyness, poverty and the irony of fate. The title is a pretentious figure of speech. Properly speaking, Verin reclaims not his head but his brain. He is hired to write pacifist articles which make his employer famed. When the employer, after having betrayed Verin by entering a deal with munitions manufacturers, begins making motions at Verin's pretty wife (Joan Bennett), it is the last straw. Verin decapitates him and goes to see his lawyer.

Improbable, earnest and exciting, The Man Who Reclaimed His Head is improved by Claude Rains' spectacular overacting and weakened by the notion it embodies that a strange munitions ring, meeting on a yacht, was entirely responsible for the War.

Mills of the Gods (Columbia). In a cabin in some craggy mountains improbably located in Illinois, a young man (Victor Jory) demonstrates to a pretty girl (Fay Wray) how a Chopin waltz should be played. This performance belies the fact that the young man is a fiery labor leader, the pretty girl a frivolous, cynical socialite. But it marks the beginning of her redemption from a gilded background. She has been living in Europe, along with all her family except her grandmother (May Robson). That indomitable old lady, retired after 50 years of running the family plow factory, becomes active when it appears that Depression may close the factory, put most of the town out of work. She summons home her worthless children and grandchildren, asks them to chip in some of the $50,000,000 they possess. They laughingly decline. While Miss Robson secretly negotiates to raise $4,000,000, she puts the onus of closing the factory upon her pompous son, who plans to double-cross the workers, have them shot down if trouble breaks. Meantime Miss Wray saves her labor leader from arrest by driving him to the Illinois mountains. An accident compels her to spend the night. By the time her family is ready to leave town secretly, she has forthrightly aligned herself with her grandmother and the factory workers.

In the hands of Director Roy William Neill, even the most reasonable-sounding incidents in Mills of the Gods become somehow spurious and faintly distorted. Far from spoiling the picture, this gives it variety, mood and charm. As usual May Robson acts well, lovably growling, barking, scowling and huff-puffing her way along.

Priestly Picket

When the only cinema theatre in small Sayville, L. I. opened for a showing one night last week, a man in a black hat, black coat and Roman collar began pacing up & down before the entrance. He scrutinized each & every person who entered. He chatted occasionally with passersby. When children attempted to buy tickets he shooed them away. After an hour, when the show was well under way and no more customers were appearing, the man in black departed. At the same hour the next night, and the third night, he returned to the theatre, went through the same routine. After that, the theatre wound up its showings of Mae West's Belle of the Nineties and Rev. James A. Smith resumed his ordinary care of the Roman Catholics of Sayville.

Though Belle of the Nineties is not on the Class C (banned) list of the Legion of Decency, Priest Smith dislikes Mae West and picketed the theatre so that no Sayville Catholic should see her film. During the picket, the theatre manager said he was lucky to get an audience of 50. Glad was he to tear out his Mae West posters, tack up those of Helen Hayes in a Class A film, What Every Woman Knows.

*Actually the train was designed by the Chicago firm of Holabird & Root (architects) who acted as advisors to the Burlington, and Paul Cret of Philadelphia who worked with the builders, Edward G. Budd Manufacturing Co.

An "iron lung" is a casket-shaped box into which a person with breathing difficulties may be placed. A bellows, run by hand or motor, alternately sucks air out of the box and re-admits it, thus forcing the patient to breathe.

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