Dynamite
T. It: Dinamite; Scen.: Jeanie Macpherson; Dial.: John Howard Lawson, Gladys Unger, Jeanie Macpherson; F.: J. Pevere!! Marley; Mo.: Anne Bauchens; Scgf.: Cedric Gibbons, J. Mitchell Leisen; Mu.: Herbert Stothart; Int.: Conrad Nagel (Roger Towne), Kay Johnson (Cynthia Crothers), Charles Bickford (Hagon Derk), Julia Faye (Marcia Towne), Joel Mccrea (Marco, Lo “Sceicco”), Muriel Mccormac (Katie Derk), Robert Edeson, William Holden, Henry Stockbridge, Leslie Fenton, Barton Hepburn; Prod.: Cecil B. Demille Per Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer; Pri. Pro.: 13 Dicembre 1929; 35mm. L.: 3531 M. D.: 120′ A 22 F/S. Bn.
Film Notes
“As in the past, he [DeMille] proves himself to be a master of technical detail and a director who is able to elicit from his players thoroughly competent performances. Nevertheless, this offering is an astonishing mixture, with artificiality vying with realism and comedy hanging on the heels of grim melodrama. Even in the work of the performers, there are moments when they are human beings and then, at times, they become nothing more than Mr. DeMille’s puppets. The dialogue is a potpourri of brightness and banality and it was no wonder that the audience in the Capitol yesterday afternoon found humor in scenes that were intended to be serious. Most of this film holds one’s attention, but toward the end the incidents become a trifle too bizarre for one’s peace of mind. Both Mr. DeMille as the director and Miss Jeanie MacPherson as the author need a restraining hand to guide them, for the result of this audacious adventure becomes a hodge-podge, with characters behaving strangely and conversing in movie epigrams, whether they are at a country club, enjoying the queer series of sporting events, or in danger of death in a coal mine cavein. The chatter that threads its way through this photoplay can be judged by the avowal of the miner husband of the society woman that he loves her from the top of her silly head to the soles of her feet, and adding that he would like to crown her with a pickaxe. When three persons are presumed to be within a few minutes of death one of the men, a polo player, turns to the girl and asks what she’s worrying about! (…) Mr. DeMille and Miss MacPherson evidently thought it advisable to have some dynamite brought into the narrative. Hence the scenes down in a mine. Roger goes there with Cynthia, just to tell Derk that he is going to run away with his (Derk’s) wife. But fate and Mr. DeMille will otherwise. Kay Johnson shows herself to be an accomplished actress in her impersonation of Cynthia. Charles Bickford gives a splendid performance as Derk, Conrad Nagel, as Roger Towne, does not act up to his usual standard, especially in speaking his lines, all of which is probably the result of direction and the lines given to him”.
Mordaunt Hall, Cedi B. DeMille’s First Talker. A Noble Scoundrel, “The New York Times”, 28 dicembre 1929
CECIL B. DEMILLE FOUNDATION
Stanford theatre film laboratory
Preserved from a Cecil B. DeMille's personal 35mm nitrate print