CRIMSON PLAYGOER

Laboring far in the wake of more prominent political satires and trailing leagues behind its pennant-winning cousins comes the current offering at the University, "The Phantom President," and it comes not as a stirring triumph in moving picture production but rather as the last-feeble whisper of a once glorious theatrical type. But it has George M. Cohan. The presence of this dean of Broadway's white lights cannot make a poor picture good, but it can more than satisfy the greediest publicity manager of Hollywood and furnish ample opportunity for the exercise of his pre-view talent. Little need be said of the spider web which ironically enough must develop at times into a stout hempen rope, that gives excuse for the presence of George M. Cohan. And it does not content itself with a single exhibition of its star but must with unparalleled magnanimity, offer him to the audience twice, once as T.K. Blair, the nominee for the presidency of the land, and again as the mountebank who is hired as a double to make up for the lack of sex appeal. The audience won't tire of its favorite and the producers haven't used him over-abundantly. The double exposure escapes the cleverest eye and the exposition of two characters will hold the attention of the most indifferent. And they've put in Jimmy Durante to gush forth exuberantly and to smother his tormenters with aspirates. Claudette Colbert still possesses her cultured charm and poise but falls to convince one that she recognizes the meaning of the electoral college. All in all a shadowy theme, which often descends into a musical revue, is graced by the presence of Cohan and rescued from as dreary a fate as that of "Washington Merry-go-round" by its very vivacity, not its consistency.

The companion picture "Hat Check Girl" can lay its only claim to being a presentable moving picture in the person of Miss Sally Eilers. The "Girl of the Perfect Profile" has undergone a metamorphosis, whether natural or artificial it is not for the Playgoer to say, that produces a creature so nearly like Dorothy Jordan as to confuse the unfortunate spectator caught in the profusion of charms. Ben Lyon proves himself an admirable drunk but a suit brought by Robert Montgomery on the grounds of plagiarism, should be forthcoming.