"THREE LIVE GHOSTS."

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 134, 3 December 1929, Page 5

"THREE LIVE GHOSTS."

Among the Broai./ay hits that have been acquired by tho movies for reproduction with sound is "Three Live Ghosts," the all-talk-ing production, which will be on exhibiiton at the Grand Opera House and the Regent Theatre on Saturday. R Is played before a series of picturesque backgrounds, including tho famous Scotland Yard (London's police headquarters), the mansion of a millionaire peer, the slums pf Whitechapel, the World War front during the heat of battle, and London Town at the time of the Armistice celebration. Commented upon as "brilliant" by the Press when it began its long run as a. play, "Three Live Ghosts" is said to be considerably greater entertainment as a motion picture. The Frederick Isham hit was transferred to the talking screen by Max Marcin. Under his supervision the production has been directed by Thornton Frteland, whose early stage training made him an ideal helmsman. While as a play "Threo Live Ghosts" had but a mere handful of people in the cast, its talking picturisation required a cast of some 4000 people. The stir and thrill of a nation on Armistice Day are said to have been vividly re-enacted by this large cast, who, nevertheless, in nowise aifect the original intimacy and appeal of tho story. The comedy of the play suffers nothing through these changes. Tho complete and minute adventures of the three soldiers who returned to London Town, und found they were listed as "dead" aro told with all their original pathos, humour, and drama. The merry chase they lead detectives as one and then another of- the three steps on the toon of the law, is told with all the colour and dash of the play, heightened by the greater latitude of treatment permitted by the motion picture camera. Many actors new to the screen, but famous to the Broadway stage, appear in the picture. There are Beryl Mercer and Charles M'Naughton, who play their original stage roles in the picture; Robert Montgomery and Joan Bennett, the young Broadway headllners who appear as the lovers, and Shayle Gardner, Hilda Vaughn, Harry Stubbs, Jack Cooper, Nancy Price; Jocelyn Lee, and Tenen Holtz. .