“THE GORILLA”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 268, 2 February 1928, Page 17

“THE GORILLA”

PRINCESS, TIVOLI AND EVERYBODY’S Combining the last word in chills with the last laugh in merriment,- the picturisation of Ralph Spence’s famous mystery-comedy, ‘‘The Gorilla” will be shown" at the Princess, Tivoli and Everybody’s Theatres to-day. This is the show that rocked Broadway for a year. In Its film form it has been changed somewhat in order to offer a new mystery tangle to those who tYU h U e Se Y n the staKe Presentation. . lla t a great, many have seen it is due to the fact that during the last tnni-/ ea i S eight stage companies touied America and Great Britain scoring a sensational success evervwhere Weird and novel settings, and exceptional lighting effects, are said J: ™ a “ e the screen version of ‘‘The Gorilla even more “spooky” than it was on the stage. Charlie Murray and Y rc : Kelsey, as the two celebrated sleuths, Mulligan and Garritv who hear all, see all, and know nolhing’ provide the comedy. The cast in support of Charlie MurEf y a ,2 d , Fred Kelsey includes Alice Day TuUy Marshall, Walter Pidgeon, Claude Gillingwater, Gaston Glass Brooks Benedict, Aggie Herring, Svd Crpssley, and John Gough. ' An interesting note in connection with the screening of “The Gorilla” was that the utmost secrecy was observed by all concerned in the production. Members of the east were kept unenlightened os to what the ending of the picture would be like until the last part of the last reel. Mr. Sm3ll the producer, kept the last three pages of the script in his personal safe, and permitted no one but himself, director Santell, and James T. O’Donahoe, who prepared the script, to see it. Following the completion of the screening, Mr. Small directed that no one was to make public the solution rf the mystery. ,

“White Gold,”" starring Jetta Goudal, will also be screened to-day. The plot, laid in the sheep country of Arizona, involves a single psychological event that transpires in the course of IS hours. Garrett Fort, the scenarist, and William K. Howard, the director, found it necessary to write the script as the scenes were photographed. Reactions to situations, with an attempt to unfold the plot through the registering of thought on the film, is the basis for this startling technique that director William K. Howard employed. Kenneth Thomson is leading man.