putterings 296 < 297 > 298 index
right out of thin air
As a picture show it runs from moderately to ridiculously bad. The shots of daily routine in Leavenworth and Alcatraz may be on the level, but they form the background for a puttering melodrama. When a happy ending is finally evolved from a tale of extortion, father love and convict feuds, it is pulled right out of thin air. It got a big laugh from the audience yesterday.
Howard Barnes, N Y Herald Tribune, p16, O 14 ’37
re : Alcatraz Island, 1937, William McGann, dir., Crane Wilbur, screenwriter, in Motion Picture Review Digest 2:52 (December 27, 1937) : 3 : link
—
William McGann (1893-1977)
IMDb : link
wikipedia : link
melodrama
derived from Greek μέλος mélos, “song, strain” (compare “melody”, from μελωδία melōdia, “singing, song”), and French drame, drama (from Late Latin drāma, eventually deriving from classical Greek δράμα dráma, “theatrical plot”, usually of a Greek tragedy).
wikipedia : link