"IS ZAT SO?"

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19180, 10 December 1927, Page 7

"IS ZAT SO?"

AN INGENIOUS COMEDY, EVEEYBODY'S, MONDAY

Tho screen version of "Is Zat So?" will, head next week's programme, at Everybody's Theatre, with Edmund Lowe and George O'Brien'in the leading roles, that of a prize--fightor and his manager, who are great lions of society, good fellowß, and good scouts, who do their good deed every day. Now the greater of these is Edmund Lowe, who is a fine actor and comely to look upon; George O'Brien is a good fighter, but Lowe it is who makes "Is Zat So?" as amusing and human as it ie. Patrous of tho legitimate theatre will remember that it was a very "new" order of entertainment this play, a new plot with an ingenious twist to its complications and unravellings, so the film play is every whit as complicated and ingenious. It is low-brow, frankly ho, slangy, sporty, racy, a good robust American play, good-humoured and likeable. Moveover, the critic of the "New York Telegraph" reported that "strong men wept and elderly gentlemen seemed liable to have their double chins melt . . . cheered and applauded an evening of enthusiasm," and it takes more than a good comedy to makn New York laugh so hard as that. But thero U something very promising about the story of a prizefighter ar.d his manager in polite society, and tho ethics of American comedy allow them to perform many cheerfully incongruous and otherwise impossible antics that even a bruiser and his boss would not do in reality; but when these "effects" are introduced purely for the sako of art and amusement, one does not cavil at these entertaining people, nor at the things they do. There are plenty of thrills in the story, which abounds in adventure and melodrama of a good, round quality, and there is likewise a surfeit of everyday human interest, as the producer calls good, old-fashioned romance. Kathiyn Perry and Doris Lloyd, with Messrs Lowe and O'Brien, attend to that. "Is Zat So?" will undoubtedly come to be regarded as one of th* best comedies to bo screened in Chriatchurch this year.

The supporting feature on the bill is Raymond Griffith's picture, "Time to Love." in which he has the assistance of William Powell and the new young Russian player, Vera Voronina. In the past, this popular and novel star, Griffith, has been cont-ent to five plent.y of Ray Griffith and don't mind thfc story, but he has corrected that fault in "Time to Love," and has presented his admirers with a first-rate comedy drama of the blissfully romantic type. AI3O, William Powell, one of the best actors in the profession, Rives something to the droll and flighty proceedings that stabilises the entire picture. Tho etory is very new, immensely thrilling, and enormously funny, with spiritualistic mediums, marriage contracts, irate parents, balloons, and near-sighted parsons all very much mixed up, only to be extracted from their different dilemmas in the Inst reel. Tho Select Orchestra, under Mr Albert Bidgocrl. will piny a special musical urogrnmme. The box plans tire now open at The Bristol Piano Company, where seats may bo reserved..