MAJESTIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 191, 2 November 1927, Page 15

MAJESTIC

“TOPSY AND EVA” Side-splitting laughs, giggles, guffaws and smiles and a few really tender moments throughout “Topsy and Eva” mark the film as a pleasing innovation and an inspiring tribute to the producers and director. It is safe to say that nothing and no one so droll and comical as Rosetta Duncan (“Topsy”) has been seen here in many seasons. For sheer vivacity and inspired buffoonery she has no peer among her sex. Her every movement, unconscious as it may seem, is the beginning of a laugh. In contrast to “Topsy's” black-face make-up is the angelic, doll-like Viovian (“Eva”), who is the pivotal point around which Rosetta builds her infectious comedy. Undoubtedly one of the funniest scenes in the picture—and one of the cleverest ever filmed—is the graveyard sequence where “Topsy” wanders among some live ghosts at night. By a deft stroke of artistic direction, Del Lord has given the scene the quality of suspense. Little “Eva” is dying and “Topsy,” who is hurrying to her bedside after escaping “Simon Legree” is caught in the cemetery. Preceding the main picture is an appropriate prologue, “Cottonfield Melodies,” staged by the Majestic Quartette. Among the popular old plantation melodies rendered, are “Old Black Joe,” “Carry Me Back to Tennessee” and “Kentucky Home.” The musical programme rendered by Mr. Wliiteford-Waugh’s New Majestic Orchestra is exceptionally strong. Many plantation melodies are included in the incidental music rendered. “Sounds From the Sunny South” (“On the Old Plantation”) is specially featured as an interlude. Other musical gems are: “Rememb’ring,” fox-trot (written by Duncan Sisters for ‘ Topsy and Eva”); “Flight of Bumble Bee” (Rimsky-Korsakoff); “Kentucky Babe,” “Old Folks at Home,” “Chicken Reel,” “Mighty Lak a Rose,” “Poor Old Joe,” “Darkies’ Jubilee.” “Bama Coon,” “Spinning Song” (Mendelssohn). “American Sketch,” “Down South,” “Berceuse” (Jocelyn), “Funeral March of a Marionet” (Gounod), “In the Gloaming,” “Scenes Bearnaises” (Broustel), “Minuet de Manon” (Massenet), “Coquette” (Arensky), “Tell Me More” (Musical Comedy Gerswhin), . “Momento-Capriccioso” (Weber). The supporting pictorial programme includes the Majestic News, of the latest topical events and world news, a New Zealand scenic, “Lake Kanieri,” which has been voted as “the best yet a beautiful English scenic, “Rambles Around Rickmansworth,” and a screamingly funny comedy, "Suite Homes.”