THE STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 67, 10 June 1927, Page 13

THE STRAND

“THE MAN UPSTAIRS” “The Man Upstairs,” starring Monte Blue and with Dorothy Devore in the feminine lead, is to be screened at the Strand to-night, and, if the critics may be believed, is a most successful entry in the comedy-melodrama class. It is an intelligent combination of those two unquestionably successful recipes, thrills and laughs, adapted by E. T. Lowe, jun., from Earl Derr Bigger’s memorable story, “The Agony Column.” All the cleverness and innate narrative merit of the original story has been retained and accentuated and enhanced by its presentation on the screen. It is quite properly a tale well fitted to the peculiar medium of moving pictures. The surprising yet Logical twists and ingenious situations in its plot are a constant and unfailing source of suspense an dentertainment throughout the picture. The locale is London and an ancient ghost and gloom-ridden castle near it. The time is the present. Besides Mr. Blue and Miss Devore, we find Helen Dunbar, Eve Southern, John Roche, Heinie Conklin, Stanley Taylor, Otto Hoffman, Carl Stockdale and Arthur Thelaso in the cast. The theme is the endeavour of a young American not to lose in London a girl to whom he is a stranger but to whom he hopes, in some inoffensive and legitimate manner, to gain an introduction. All his advances are met coolly but he resorts to the stratagem of having a “personal” ad. inserted in a newspaper, and the girl, questing adventure, replies. A hotel murder carries their adventure through a maze of mystery.