Cinema: The New Pictures: Aug. 22, 1932

Night Mayor (Columbia). Using one of Mayor Jimmy Walker's favorite puns for a title is not the only means by which this cinema manages to make unmistakable the resemblance of its hero, Mayor Bobby Kingston, to Manhattan's famed executive. Mayor Kingston (Lee Tracy) wakes up one morning to find that his political activities are the subject of an unfriendly investigation. He dedicates a bridge from a microphone in his bedroom, starts for a city board meeting, ends up backstage at a musical show where he demonstrates a dance routine to a chorus girl named Doree Dawn (Evalyn Knapp). Presently occurs the party at which the chorus girl squabbles with a young admirer, endears herself to Mayor Kingston by comforting him when news about the investigation makes him morose. Unlike Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who last week did not interest himself in Mayor Walker's domestic behavior (see p. 10), the Governor in this picture shows a vaguely paternal disapproval for Mayor Kingston's extra-marital entanglements. When the Mayor recklessly goes to meet Doree Dawn in an Atlantic City hotel, only the quick action of his manager saves the situation. The manager effects a speedy reconciliation between the chorus girl and her first admirer. The mayor mournfully marries them. Only New Yorkers with very special inside knowledge know how closely this plot adheres to Mayor Walker's friendship with Actress Betty Compton, who suddenly married Cinema Director Edward Duryea Dowling last year and left town (TIME, March 2, 1931). Most neatly timed of the topical cinemas which Hollywood has recently furnished, this one is also one of the least instructive, most diverting. More vulgar than Mayor Walker, Mayor Kingston has himself measured for a suit in the presence of guests. Less able than his prototype, Mayor Kingston cannot tie his own black tie. Before his valet does it for him, he startles his master by saying: "Please lie down. I used to be an undertaker."

War Correspondent (Columbia). If the journalist in this picture wore a patch on his eye instead of a sling on his arm, Hearst-Reporter Floyd Gibbons might have good grounds for a libel suit. Correspondent Franklin Bennett (Ralph Graves) chatters rapidly into microphones while covering Sino-Japanese hostilities and has several even more unpleasant traits. He is a craven poseur who romanticizes his newsgathering exploits hoping that his public will consider him a hero. The antagonism between Ralph Graves and Jack Holt which has been maintained through several recent pictures is more bitter than usual in this one. Holt is a thick-skinned aviator who sells his services to whichever warlord pays him best. He is supporting the girl (Lila Lee) whom Graves wants to marry. When a warlord named Fang, whose army Holt has deserted, kidnaps her, it gives Holt a chance to do his first good turn in seven reels. Graves a chance to show that he is not a coward all the time. A silly but kinetic melodrama, War Correspondent is distinguished by the presence of the most revolting Chinaman who has ever appeared in cinema. Fang (Tetsu Komai) is so horrible that his prisoners begin to squeal and jabber as soon as they look at him. His table manners are such that when he gobbles the hindquarters of a pig he seems to be a cannibal.