The New Pictures

Peck's Bad Boy (Sol Lesser). Sure of pleasing the Legion of Decency and that large portion of the cinema public which considers Jackie Cooper's pout irresistibly affecting, Producer Sol Lesser quite properly thought it unnecessary to make this picture a faithful transcription of its original. Admirers of George Wilbur Peck's 1883 classic may therefore be disappointed to find it projected upon the screen as an up-to-date tearjerker, in which young Bill Peck experiences every childhood misery known to Hollywood, from a cuff on the ear to forced separation from his mongrel dog. When he writes an essay to the effect that Mr. Peck (Thomas Meighan) is an ideal father, he learns that Mr. Peck is not his father. When his Aunt Lily (Dorothy Peterson) and his Cousin Horace (Jackie Searl) arrive in the Peck household, Horace turns out to be a juvenile sneak & pedant. Bill Peck's gang refuses to accept him. Aunt Lily blames Bill for their antipathy. Manfully, Bill decides to run away from home, but when he does so his eccentric old friend Duffy (O. P. Heggie) brings him back.

Nearing the end of his fabulous career as a child actor, Jackie Cooper*, now 9, according to the Motion Picture Almanac, but so mature that gestures with his tongue will soon seem idiotic, makes Bill Peck a lovable urchin, sure to appeal to all chronic admirers of juvenile pictures. For making Peck's Bad Boy enjoyable also to less susceptible cinemaddicts, small Jackie Searl deserves the credit. A brat whose thin, disdainful, pasty face has made him villain in so many films that he has been called the Boris Karloff of his generation, he acts with his customary blood curdling restraint. When Bill Peck returns after running away, Horace merely cocks one eyebrow and says "You back?" He does it so offensively that audiences cheer when Bill Peck blacks his eyes.

A Lost Lady (First National). That last week's major murder case was named after An American Tragedy was due less to Author Theodore Dreiser's novel than to the moving picture of it. A Lost Lady will not give the U. S. public a favorable impression of Willa Gather. Adapted from one of the few authentic masterpieces in U. S. fiction, it is a collection of stock situations which resemble neither the original nor anything else, except previous Hollywood false alarms. Worst shot: Barbara Stanwyck gardening in high heels.

Power (Gaumont-British). About the only theme on which the cinema is able to express a definite opinion is the virtue of tolerance. The misfortunes of Jews in Germany supply an apt text for sermons on this subject. An adaptation of Lion Feuchtwanger's famed novel Jew Suss, Power lacks both the clarity and the subtlety of its original but it is not, like A Lost Lady, needless vandalism. Angry and outspoken, it derives force from its sincerity and amounts to an elaborate parable of which there are two reels too many.

Joseph Suess Oppenheimer (Conrad Veidt) is an 18th Century ghetto-upstart who becomes financial adviser to Karl Alexander, Duke of Wiirttemberg. Part bad, Jew Suess does not hesitate to pimp for his protector even when it means betraying the girl he loves. Part good, he uses the influence which he obtains for benevolence to his race. When Karl Alexander drives Oppenheimer's daughter to suicide by trying to rape her, it is more than his political servant can stand. He ruins first the Duke and then, heroically, himself, thus providing Power with a conclusion in which Director Lothar Mendes photographs an outdoor hanging with an enthusiasm for his subject reminiscent of Whistler's portrait of his mother.

Pleased by Conrad Veidt's biting impersonation and at the message in Power, Hollywood producers may nonetheless feel less admiration than alarm. Despite its obvious faults (a wandering scenario and lethargic pace), the picture's opulent settings and confident style are further evidence that in the last two years British studios have become a serious menace. Good shot: Karl Alexander's Duchess (Benita Hume) receiving in her bathtub.

*Not to be confused with Jackie Coogan (The Kid) now 19, a freshman at University of Southern California, still rich, who currently appears in gossip columns with Cinemactress Toby Wing.

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