REGENT

Evening Star, Issue 22450, 22 September 1936, Page 13

REGENT

A brisk pace, breezy dialogue, inspired situations, flawless acting, and lavish production combine to lift the Paramount film ' Desire,' which is at present at the Regent, above the ordinary run of romantic comedies. While retaining all her glamour, Miss Dietrich reveals a hitherto unsuspected sense of humour. ' Desire ' also shows Gary Cooper to be an actor with as great a flair for light comedy as ho has for drama—a subtle and sure player who knows the value of restraint and whento employ it. The lovely Miss Dietrich, costumed in a series of wonderful gowns, plays an adventuress who steals a pearl necklace in Paris and races off with it to her accomplice, John Halliday, across the border. Driving the same way, holiday bent, is Gary Cooper, as an engineer from Detroit. To escape detection from Customs officials at the border, the beautiful bandit slips the necklace into the young man's pocket. The way she gets it back, the daring romance which follows between the two, the manner in which the heroine finally decides that life in Detroit is preferable to crime on the Continent go to make up an exhilarating story. Following on his performance in ' Mr Deeds Goes to Town,' Gary C&oper again shows his ability for light comedy by his depiction of the young-Detroit engineer who sings unmusically, hugs himself over his unexpected conquests, and smuggles his cigarettes over the Spanish frontier. 'THE MARRIAGE OF CORBAL.' ' The Marriage of Corbal,' which will be commenced at the Regent on Friday, is the screen adaptation of Rafael Sabatini's novel, ' The Nuptials of Corbal.' This film, which deals with the days of the French Revolution, throws a new. light on. those troublous days. Whereas most films about the revolution have been concerned with Paris and the teeming action in that disrupted metropolis, this picture shows the efforts of a people's agent to promote the revolution in a remote southern village, where the rustics are really quite content with the humanitarian r,ule of their marquis, Corbal. This is an unusual and therefore very interesting view of the old subject; and the fact that the clash between the old order and the new is heightened by the love of the heads of the rival factions for the same girl gives it some dramatic vigour. Nils Asther, Hazel Terry, and Hugh Sinclair head a strong cast of characters.