Word: machina
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Functioning as a kind of hobo ex machina, Bob Burns arrives by freight train in a town resembling Emporia, Kans., takes up residence in the county jail at the invitation of the kind-hearted constable (Irvin S. Cobb). Finding confusion in the affairs of the town newspaper run by Martha Allen (Fay Bainter), he ends it by putting things right between Judy (Jean Parker) and her hotheaded boy friend (John Beal), unmasking the town crook (Lyle Talbot) and building a radio station. Principal cinema attribute of the late Will Rogers was to make it seem that Right not only triumphed...
...falls down here partly because of the niggardly sum that is to be invested, and partly because of the uninteresting people who are to invest it. Crosby sings songs that we vaguely remember hearing a few months ago, and wins the coveted fortune by the most preposterous "deus ex machina" we have seen in some time. The picture is hardly to be recommended on its own merits, but those who sit through it will be interested by Fox Movietone's All-American selections. We can hardly believe that Clint Frank is such a good player...
...with the Countess, kills himself so she can escape. The Countess and A. J. board a river boat for the border and it looks as though their troubles are ove r until the Countess falls ill. At the border, the American Red Cross enters the proceedings as deus ex machina. Marlene is popped into a sickbed. A. J. dodges one more firing squad, boards her hospital train as it pulls away from Russia...
Euripides thought of that. Uncle Phil was his dells ex machina...
...Silver Streak (RKO) shows the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad's streamlined train as a capable deux ex machina in a melodrama of the rails. The Silver Streak, according to this picture, is the design of square-jawed young Tom Caldwell (Charles Starrett),* in love with the daughter (Sally Blane) of a railroad president. By refusing to try the train, B. J. Dexter (William Farnum), an obdurate and stupid tycoon, precipitates a broken heart for his daughter and a case of infantile paralysis for his son, Allan, an engineer at Boulder Dam. This makes it necessary for The Silver Streak, with...