Word: realisms
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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Explosion is about two men, one a villain, one a hero, who want the same girl. The hero gets her. Like all German films, this one has bright sparks of photographic realism, lighting in this case the smoky darkness of a coal mine. But these sparks flicker and die along the grey and interminable fuse of the story which leads, at last, to a nonexplosive climax...
...widely-heralded war picture, "Wings", which opened Monday evening at the Tremont Theatre, lives up to its reputation. There are plenty of thrills, and there is plenty of "realism" and an element of tragedy, all of which help to make the picture successful in being what is purports to be. But even though war in the air is a subject that has not been worn out, there is much to the picture that recalls the "Big Parade" and "What Price Glory" too strongly to be effective. And unfortunately "Wings" outdoes either of the other two in the amount of slush...
...Noel Coward pours two cocktails into his two leading ladies; pours into them a bottle of champagne; pours into them liqueurs. At the middle of the champagne bottle they are quietly but firmly intoxicated; at the curtain they are swirling drunk. Mr. Coward accomplishes this genteel disintegration with impudent realism. Estelle Winwood encourages his impudence with important blurts and wabbles, including the removal of her shoes. To Fay Bainter, is allotted the task of growing more dignified and lady like with every gulp. All this consumes the second act. A first tells how these impeccable and bosom friends had girlish...
...question can hardly be said to be the "melodrama of New York's under world" which the program sets it forth as being. It does deal with crooks, and in this case the efforts of a group of them to go straight, but it is considerably removed from the realism which surrounded such pieces as "Crime". But in the one feature which makes so many mystery and "crook" plays unendurable, "Tenth Avenue" redeems the faults of all the others. The comedy stretches are funny. The wisecracks inserted from time to time to relieve suposed tension, are exceptionally good, in addition...
Perhaps the chief elements in this work which give it a claim to eminence among contemporary dramatic productions are its striking individuality and its thoroughly consistent theme of inevitable tragedy. Added to these elements is an unusual realism in the delineation of the minor characters, all of which, by the way, are played with great native ability by their negro interpreters...