The New Pictures

Ever Since Eve (Warner). "Marion Davies, the screen's supreme comedienne, has found her gayest vehicle in Ever Since Eve, which provoked spontaneous applause in the sedate Radio City Music Hall yesterday.

"Not only Miss Davies' best comedy, it is the high spot in this season's light fun.

"Supported by five of Hollywood's mightiest cutups, the dainty blonde star clowns delightfully through lively, sparkling, hilarious situations which are distinguished by their brisk pace, their smart dialogue. . . ."

This description of Ever Since Eve, published by William Randolph Hearst's New York Mirror the day after the picture's Manhattan premiere last week, was written by the Mirror's able cinema critic, Bland Johaneson. Since Hearst readers have long been accustomed to such eulogies of Cinemactress Davies' efforts on the screen, the fact that Ever Since Eve, far from being a high spot in the season's light fun, was actually a new low in its star's uneven career did not constitute news. What did constitute news about the picture--which distressingly exhibits Miss Davies as a stenographer who hides her good looks under a dark wig and glasses in order to reform a young novelist (Robert Montgomery) who has fallen in love with her --was that it may be the last occasion for such painfully insincere reviewing. Reported disappointed with box-office receipts of the pictures Cinemactress Davies has made since Hearst's Cosmopolitan Productions moved to their studio from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1935, Warner Brothers have announced no Davies pictures on their schedule for next year. Cosmopolitan Productions has announced no new affiliation. Another Dawn (Warner). First love of dreamy Julia Ashton (Kay Francis) is an aviator who disappears at sea. That loss she mourns until she meets and marries Colonel John Wister (Ian Hunter), who takes her back to his small British Army post in central Arabia. Second in command is Captain Denny Roark (Errol Flynn) for whom, as cinemaddicts will easily anticipate, she burns at first sight. Only satisfactory way out is for the noble colonel to fly away on an Army mission and dutifully disappear in the desert.

Trapped in so painfully trite a triangle, Another Dawn'?, cast coolly do their theatrical best. Ian Hunter, in what is apparently an air-conditioned oasis, is properly stoic. A raging sirocco does not discourage Miss Francis from exhibiting her usual sweeping evening gowns and Grecian neckline. Typical shot: Errol Flynn athletically clearing some dunes of a large number of hostile Bedouins. You Can't Beat Love (RKO). Only effective method of waking up Lawyer Jimmy Hughes (Preston Foster) in the morning is for his browbeaten butler Jasper (Herbert Mundin) loudly to dare him to get out of bed. Once up, he joins a gang of ditchdiggers on a dare, swings pick & shovel in white tie and tails with Jasper in anguished attendance (see cut). He is dared to run for mayor by the incumbent's daughter Trudy (Joan Fontaine). Thereupon ensues a harmless set of political antics, most notable consequence of which is that Playboy Jimmy is finally dared to kiss Trudy.

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