Cinema: The New Pictures: Oct. 26, 1931

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Honor of the Family (First National). There are two kinds of duels in the cinema. When the hero and the villain get up early to go at each other with pistols in a clearing, it is an out-of-door costume play, containing horses, marching soldiers and in all probability "La Marseillaise." When they strip to the waist and fence with sabres on a parquet floor, with a lady waiting to see who will win, it is an indoor costume play and the excitement is of a slightly less ennobling sort.

In this picture, the villain has been trying, with the aid of his female accomplice (Bebe Daniels) to hornswoggle an old baron (Frederick Kerr) out of his estate. The baron's nephew (Warren William) arrives just in time to save the estate, steal the accomplice, fight the duel. Frederick Kerr is a disagreeable old man; when he hears the clash of swords, he says: "I hope they kill each other." He is disappointed. Best shot: William—a new romantic hero, recruited from the Broadway stage, who walks on his toes, has a high nose, a loud laugh, a reverberant thigh for heroic slapping—impaling his adversary.

The Beloved Bachelor (Paramount) is an agreeable little comedy showing the predicament in which a man may find himself if he falls in love with his ward. Paul Lukas, the only actor in Hollywood who can speak with a foreign accent without seeming to be a roue, handles the situation with delicacy. He sends the ward (Dorothy Jordan) to dwell in an apartment of her own, gallantly continues his preparations to marry a lady (Vivienne Osborne) who has not yet divorced her husband. When the lady decides not to divorce her husband after all, it gives Lukas a chance to affect a grief he does not feel. He hides his head in his hands, murmurs, "I am doing my best to control my true feelings." Then the ward, who has been in love with Lukas ever since the picture started, breaks her betrothal to a young collegian whom she had been parading to spur her foster-father's affections. Lukas gives her a polite but not paternal embrace. Good scene: a penthouse in Naples where Lukas and Jordan have breakfast together.

The Spirit of Notre Dame (Universal). There are three axioms for football pictures. This one obeys them all so implicitly that it defeats the more important axiom that every story should contain some element of surprise. The hero calls his roommate, "You old baboon, you." He betrays the team to satisfy a personal grudge against a teammate. He atones for this error by kicking the field goal which wins the big game by one point with no seconds to play.

The Spirit of Notre Dame was made, in part, on the campus of Notre Dame and it is adroitly dedicated to the memory of the late Knute Rockne who had planned to act in it. Several celebrated Notre Dame football players appear briefly—among them, Frank Carideo, last year's quarterback, and the members of the 1924 backfield (Don Miller, Elmer Layden, Jim Crowley, Harry Stuhldreher). A few shots of real football games give the proceedings occasional authenticity and the football coach (J. Farrell MacDonald) who is meant to resemble Rockne does it surprisingly well.