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After three weeks of the says-you-says-ME policy Keith's offers a most refreshing antithesis in "The Four Devils". This picture takes the not too hackneyed subject of the circus as its theme. Murnau, director of "Sunrise", here too handles distinctively even such commonplaces as a fight by means of skillful photography; and his shots of the naturally more promising trapeze acts are excellent. For about two-thirds of the film the emotional moments are smoothly presented, with the gaps in slow-moving scenes filled in by the musical accompaniment; but as soon as the dialogue begins, and the Movietone records Charles Morton's body-shaking sobs as short, shrill, barks, the screen sadness produces an equal and opposite reaction, and the audience laughs. That temporarily destroys the soothing effect of Janet Gaynor's voice and the generally superior acting of the cast; but before the end, peace is restored, and one is able to appreciate the picture again. Nancy Drexel and Barry Norton do well as the running mates of the other couple, and Mary Duncan, as the baroness who nearly breaks up the quartet, performs her villainies royally.
The rest of the show is only fair. Roy Frazee's organ specialty barely gets by. The animated cartoon is all right if you like that sort of thing; and "The Girl Scout Trail" can be heartily recommended to incipient Girl Scouts.
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