Cinema: The New Pictures: Feb. 23, 1931

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Winter Garden, Manhattan, in the Passing Show of 1023. She was born on Tenth Avenue, Manhattan, and her real name is Nancy La Hiff; she worked into show business by smart acting in amateur nights at vaudeville theatres. "Ducky," protested Mrs. La Hiff nightly, "is it necessary for you to kick your limbs so high in Mr. Shubert's shows?" Nancy Carroll continued to kick high. After three weeks in the chorus she was given a leading role. She made her way in Hollywood because she was intelligent. She is married to Playwright John Kirkland (Frankie & Johnnie) and has a four-year-old daughter. Few girls from Tenth Avenue have learned to talk and behave as smartly as she can. Last week she was in Cuba, planning soon to go to Europe, where she has never been. Some of her pictures: The Shopworn Angel, The Devil's Holiday, Laughter.

Mutterliebe, Heimatsklange, Gretel und Liesel (German Independent Companies). In cities like Manhattan, St. Louis, Chicago, the German population is large enough to give capacity business to the little theatres which show such all-German pictures as these. Mutterliebe is a story of mother-love overlaid with Teutonic sentiment but built with less logic than most German stories; it tells of a woman so anxious to give mother love that she kidnaps a little girl. Heimatsklänge is a travelog showing pretty views of Rotenburg, Dinkelsbühl, Wertheim, and Fussen; it is synchronized with German folk music. Gretel und Liesel is a good comedy about two sisters, one neat & kindly, the other shrewish, with a plot to give the kindly one a dowry.