THE REGENT.

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 133, 2 December 1929, Page 5

THE REGENT.

Anyone who may have gone to the Regent iheatre on Saturday night (change of bill night) expecting an average programme must have received a pleasant surprise. The programme is one of the best yet, judged either from the standpoint of the clever main picture, or from the standpoint o£ excellent supporting items, 'fast Company" is a delightful comedy, full of psychology and subtle i points, with hardly a cheap line in it, and ranking among the most humorous and richly human things that the talking screen has provided. Evelyn Brent's excellent acting and clearly registering voice—touched at times by la little too much nasality—are well known, but people who have only seen Gallagher and Oaliie as a duo in short comedy turns will hardly realise how brilliantly these two comedians carry a play which calls for delicate interpretation, and which is very much more than a "mere baseball skit. Jack Oakie has the bulk of the work as Elmer Cane, a baseball prodigy whose marvellous exploits are part of a superb self-confidence, and that selfconfidence also expresses Itself in a colossal and entirely innocent self-conceit. With all his egotism, Elmer is lovable, a big boy. It is not a sensational plot, but It is brilliantly worked out, in the style of true comedy, with much light and shade that cannot be conveyed ill print. Another notable thing about the programme is the quality of the musical reproduction. The orchestral side of sound programmes is sometimes weak, but critics of "canned music" who attended the Regent on Saturday night well have been surprised at the excellence of the overture ("Ivan Caryll Memories," a pot-pourri) and the entr-acte ("Bees' Wedding," with its melodious buzzing). Finely reproduced also was the work of the Spitalny Orchestra, including a jazz version of Tcuaikowsky's "1812." Raymond Griffith is seems to be that of an asthmatic or an 16----cipient t.b., and as such there is built round him a clever little dialogue comedy, "The Sleeping Porch," in which the husky voiced actor is seen sleeping outside amid falling snow, "like Byrd at the South Pole." The happiness of this allusion is forgotten when ;tn escaped convict breaks in, to the mournful accompaniment of the dirge-like alarm siren at the neighbouring gaol; everybody In this sketch, including the siren, performs exceedingly well. In the musical cartoon "Smiles," the little dancing time-keeping ball is at Us best. It may be added that the Spitalny Orchestra turn is brightened by some very choice dancing by the dainty Chester Hale girls, including clogs by Miss Peggy O'Neill. The Pathe Sound News contains snow scenes in colour, along with a Yellowstone geyser and a ! pelican rookery. The Japanese fencing is quaint. The programme has not a dull moment.