NATIONAL AND LYRIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 35, 4 May 1927, Page 15

NATIONAL AND LYRIC

“TWINKLETOES” “The Unknown Soldier” and “Off The Highway” close their run at the National and Lyric to-night. Tomorrow at both theatres First National will present for the first time one of the screen’s most finished character actors, when Tully Marshall plays the father of Colleen Moore in that star’s “Twinkletoes,” a screen version of Thomas Burke’s classic of Limehouse. The star never appeared to better advantage, nor in a more dramatic, gripping and colourful story than in “Twinkletoes.” Her love for a Limehouse pugilist and for her father, her combination of innocence and sophistication, and her golden curls give us a new and doubly fascinating Colleen Moore. A throng of strange, colourful characters from the pages of one of Thomas Burke’s most famous Limehouse stories appears with Colleen Moore. Chinese and Malays, Hindus and Lascars, and Cockney costermongers; exotic holy men and thieves and thugs; dregs of London and flotsam of the seven seas, plying curious trades and pursuits in the narrow, crooked streets along the Limehouse waterfront, all are shown. There are hundreds of picturesque characters whose names as actors do not appear on the screen, but in roles no less colourful than the noted players of Miss Moore’s supporting cast. Opposite her as leading man is Kenneth Harlan as the champion pugilist of London. Gladys Brockell plays one of those warped, passionate creatures of the slums. Warner Oland is suave and oily as the Quayside Theatre manager. Tully Marshall, as “Old Pot and Pan”; Julanne Johnston, as a dancer; Lucian Littlefield, as a wonderful old tippler; giant John Kolb, as a longshoreman; round out the cast. On the same programme will be shown “Love’s Whirlpool,” a tense, pathetic drama with a romance that strikes a new light in the history of the underworld. James Kirkwood and Lila Lee are in the leading roles.