AMUSEMENTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 June 1931, Page 3

AMUSEMENTS.

€VSRYBODYB PICTURES. f "CAtC OF THE FLESHi” A singer cannot be great until bis heart has been broken.” This oft-repeated formula lor opor a tic fame is. the has s of one of the most poignant romances Ramon N avarro has even given the screen, in “Call of the Flesh,” now playing at the Princess Theatre. The new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture is the drama of a : youth who pays for operatic lame with his heart, whose sacrifice on ibe altar of public adulation leads to tragedy, and whose realisation that love is stronger than fame proves his ‘‘Open Sesame” to happiness. Directed by Charles Brabin, who gave the screen m . “The Bridge of San Luis Rey,” the •• | story is laid in Seville ancl Madrid. CNovarro sings opera arias in the opera scenes, and catchy popular numbers V in the other schemes; he and Renee Adoree do a Spanish dance together—and finally 1 he and Dorothy Jordan' figure in a dramatic magnitude. Novarr; starts the role as a light-hearted youth • and ends it with one of the greatest dramatic characterisations. Uorotny Jordan is delightful as the little convent girl whose love he wins, and Rene" Adoree plays the fiery Spanish dancer. Ernest Torrence provides clever character work as the singer’s aged tutor, once an opera star himself, to whom operatic triumph is a religion. Incidentally Torrence and-.• Mathilda Comont playing gnother old opera s’nger, provides some extremely funny comical v . touches, in,.the. plot. Nance O’Neil is a compelling figure as the Mother Sup.'jeriorrand Russell Hopton is convincing jfjli-as -tlie' herofncls”brother. Spectacular settings; the market place, the : fiesta,, the gi-'eat.opera at Madrid, are • i ,‘' )eeii, rand, .the dramatit; highlights include Novarro’s heartbrenk'ng sacrifice of -his sweetheart “to save her soul” and Renee Adoree’s sacrifice that re- •> • - , , r . unites the lovers. The music by Herbert Stbthart arid Clifford Grey is specially‘worthy of note, as is the impressionistic photoplay of Merritt Ger--stad