Word: plotting
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...built around a laugh-clown-laugh sequence in which a young Spanish singer, his heart broken when his sweetheart is taken away from him, outdoes himself as Canio in Pagliacci. Yet so skillful are detail, dialog, direction that the spectator is never concerned with the values of the plot as realism. Modern sound technique has transformed the old romantic design into a highly successful and credible operetta. Novarro sings Spanish folk songs, English foxtrots, Italian opera. He has one of those brilliantly cultivated concert tenors which are far more effective than operatic voices for the microphone. Little Dorothy Jordan plays...
...other elements, casting and plot, are well above average. Audiences go to melodramas expecting to be fooled, thrilled, and amused, and if this is what they expect to find at the Hollis, they will not be disappointed...
...delightful English comedy. It consists of that more mature humor of contrasting characters, not caricatures. There is a certain mellowness and sub stance in Mr. Drinkwater's handling, and of course, the sureness of an accomplished dramatist. And there is no heap of froth to hide any inadequacies of plot. The usual "Says who-whozzat" business usually associated with comedy is fortunately omitted. The situation is presented and the comedy is a matter of the effect upon the different characters, always true to their type; ever so slightly satirical but always good natured...
...plot is transparent from the beginning and quite naturally worked out; and the two minor characters do their work in a convincing manner. It is the story of a writer, a lady killer who must always be a sophisticated fop; at the same time having the sense to realize that he must marry money to have his necessary good time a light story amusingly done...
When young Master Jack Bedford lies about orders he has given Gus, Gus is discharged. As a waiter in a Louisville restaurant he overhears the plot against the Bedfords, foils the villains, returns to the Bedford stables in time to ride Big Boy to victory against a field of jockeys weighing pounds less than himself. Jolson in the plot is innocuous, often preposterous, unhampered by the story: singing, quipping, dancing, rolling his eyes and giving the Jolson public oldtime Jolson nonsense from the days before he got mixed up with Sonny Boy. That both Warner and Jolson know Jolson...