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Dangerous to Know (Paramount) is a glowering melodrama with artless plot, artful production. Akim Tamiroff, alumnus of the Moscow Art Theatre, has had 60-odd Hollywood roles, nearly all of them brooding and villainous, most of them whiskery. In this picture he is a thin-mustached, esthetic bigwig racketeer who tunes his moods to Tchaikovsky or Wagner, keeps a slinky-eyed hostess (Anna May Wong), is dangerous to know because he eliminates occasional associates with sad-eyed sadism. With his town's financial and civic agencies pretty well in thrall he makes the social error of trying to snare a fine-feathered society girl (Gail Patrick), accidentally spills a little salt on his own tail, ends up where the righteous Hays office likes to see all enemies of society.

Hawaii Calls (RKO Radio) is a vain effort to make 10-year-old Bobby Breen swap his mammy-singing mannerisms for the more suitable antics of a lifelike small boy. Its story outfits him with rags & tatters, a shoeshine box and a stowaway's berth to Honolulu. But whether Bobby sings wistful or swingy songs in his reedy, choirboy voice, he goes at them with expert, unchildlike, vaudeville-stage punctilio.

While it lasts, Bobby's soprano voice is the principal asset of Sol Lesser's Principal production unit at RKO. What worries Producer Lesser is that Bobby's voice will not be soprano long. In consequence he frequently records Bobby's songs far in advance of production, so that no Lesser picture, once started, will have to be scrapped should Bobby turn baritone overnight. In Hawaii Calls Bobby's voice holds up; it is the picture that takes the queer turns.

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