The New Pictures

Moonlight and Pretzels (Universal). The extraordinary thing about this musi-comedy is not that it resembles Forty-Second Street and Gold Diggers of 1933 in plot, pattern and environment; that it has the same type of dances, staged by Bobby Connolly, and the same type of songs ("Dusty Shoes'" for a finale instead of ''Forgotten Men"); or that its ingenue, Mary Brian, not only looks like Ruby Keeler but has obviously been coached to. speak in the same soft monotone. The surprising aspect of Moonlight and Pretzels is that it makes plausible Hollywood's profound conviction that repetition is the secret of success. It copies Warner Brothers' two hits even to the extent of being handsome and amusing.

Like its predecessors, this one starts off with George Dwight (Roger Pryor) frantically trying to put together a musi-comedy which displays a constant tendency to fall apart. Rival producers (the "Hobarts") try to buy the controlling interest. The leading lady (Lilian Miles) persuades a gambler friend (Leo Carillo) to foil the Hobarts by buying a piece of the show himself. He promptly loses it in a crap game and Sport Powell (Herbert Rawlinson), who wins it, unnerves Dwight by trying to make a pretty chorus girl (Mary Brian) the leading lady. A tiny vein of originality can be detected in the conclusion. Sport Powell gallantly gives the show to his chorus girl who, instead of playing the lead, gives the show back to Dwight, because she loves him. Then comes "Dusty Shoes."

Though it contains nothing so elaborate as the Gold Diggers' shadow waltz, and no songs likely to prove as catchy as those in Forty-Second Street, Moonlight and Pretzels has a little more authentic Broadway flavor than either. This and another advantage--that it cost Monte Brice and William Rowland, who produced it for Universal, only about $150,000--are probably due to the fact that it was manufactured not in Hollywood, but at Paramount's former (L. I.) studio which has been unused for two years.

Tarzan the Fearless (Sol Lesser). Although Japanese swimmers are by far the most efficient in the world, no one of them is likely to be elevated from his tank into the trees. The role of Tarzan in the cinema is reserved for U. S. paddlers like Johnny Weissmuller (for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) and Clarence ("Buster"') Crabbe, who are tall, ingenuous and shaggy at the ears. Crabbe has an advantage over Weissmuller in that he looks even less capable of speech. When he pats Jacqueline Wells on the chest in the last reel and says "That . . . mine. . . ." audiences should find this a feat of intellectual gymnastics even more exciting than his exploits upon vine-trapezes.

Tarzan the Fearless was originally intended to be the first four installments of a long Tarzan serial. Producer Sol Lesser thought so highly of his first chapters that he decided to release them at once. The picture shows Mary Brooks being kidnapped in the jungle, carried to a sordid cave where her father has already been incarcerated by a tribe of lecherous Arabians. A little ape tells Tarzan about this dastardly development. He rescues Mary first, then goes to aid her father and two other members of the party. The picture leaves Dr. Brooks (E. Alyn Warren) in danger on the ground. Tarzan, blubbering to Mary in his tree house, will have to save him in the next installment.

Voltaire (Warner) is an historical picture in the grand manner, with powdered wigs, conversations behind curtains, a package of letters from the King of Prussia and George Arliss in unbecoming knee breeches. Count de Sarnac (Alan Mowbray) is the greedy Minister of Finance to Louis XV (Reginald Owen). Because Voltaire (George Arliss) writes tracts denouncing his heavy taxes, the Count tries to bring him into disfavor with the King-- unsuccessfully because the King enjoys Voltaire's conversation and Mme Pompadour (Doris Kenyon) finds him entertaining.

When Count de Sarnac executes a rich bourgeois and confiscates his property, Voltaire has his daughter, Nanette (Margaret Lindsay), rescued and brought to his house by a captain of dragoons (Theodore Newton). This infuriates de Sarnac. He gets his chance for revenge when Voltaire writes a play based upon court doings and containing a last act in which Louis XV is executed by his subjects. The King orders Voltaire to the Bastille, dismisses Pompadour for having made him her acquaintance. Voltaire's situation looks serious until he learns from his secretary that de Sarnac has been selling state secrets to Frederick of Prussia. When de Sarnac comes to arrest him, Voltaire shows him a packet of verses which King Frederick has sent him for corrections, pretends that they contain damaging evidence against de Sarnac. When the King arrives to reclaim Pompadour, de Sarnac admits enough to cause the King to arrest him, pardon Voltaire, restore Pompadour, release Nanette and her captain.

Based partly upon the case of a Huguenot. Jean Galas, who was executed for murder in Toulouse and partly upon the case of an army officer who was beheaded for treason. Voltaire does not adhere to history at the expense of drama. George Arliss, who likes to be a kind, romantic, dignified old gentleman, makes Voltaire more whimsical than embittered but he gives a dextrously intelligent performance.

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