HUMOUR AND MAGIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 276, 11 February 1928, Page 15

HUMOUR AND MAGIC

NEW REGENT’S GREAT BILL Thipk of a Chinaman. The mental picture is of a little wizened specimen, obsequiously ing you a mystic symbol which represents a quantity of soiled linen, or again, methodically and unenthusiastically handling the golde?i and rosy fruit in his shop window. Then have a good look at the giant Kwong Sing Wah and his troupe at the New Regent Theatre this week. Mental pictures collapse .with a crash, and from the ruin arises a glittering show of physical and mental superlativity, mixed cunningly with Celestial magic. Kwong Sing Wah is an iconoclast; after seeing his show one can never have the old tolerant half-humorous regard for the vegetable man at the end of the street. lie brings strength, humour, keenness cf thought, daredevilry, sensationalism and magic into our conception of his countrymen. This is a great troupe, a complete vaudeville show of 10 turns in itself. The Chinese are acrobats, balancers, jugglers, prestidigitaters, athletes, contortionists, comedians, and stunt experts, and they combine perfectly, so that the spectators have hardly time to draw breath. Beginning with demonstrtaions of legerdemain, the bringing of rabbits, bowls of water, and fruit from underneath empty cloaks, the Chinese work up to a climax where one man makes his dive through two hoops of glittering knives and a ring of fire. Towards the end Kwong Sing Wah proves his strength by balancing all the other members of the troupe in mid-air. The setting for the act is gorgeous and artistic. After all, there is no picture like a comedy; American humour is one of the most pleasant exports of the United States, and this week the New Regent management has gathered two films which are crammed full of it. “Tell It To Sweeney” is Kwong’s rival on the bill, and the fact that it features Chester Conklin is as good a label “limitless laughs.' But Chester is helped with a delightfully funn3 r story, and an original one to boot. He appears as the fussy and loving driver of Isobel, the branch line queen of a railroad company. Isobel has not the strength she once had, but Chester coaxes* her along at a good 20 m.p.h., arid has time to tend the roses in the boxes by his cab-window. The through express driven by “Canonball” Casey nearly takes Isobel’s breath away, and a tremendous enmity springs up between the engineers, although the influence of Chester’s daughter brings about a truce. Then Isobel is put out of commission and Conklin volunteers to become a stoker on the express. There follow some of the most laughable scenes ever photographed the “wrastlin” match at the picnic, the breaking of the record to Oxford, thanks to Isobel’s timely help. The thrills are thick in “Tell it to Sweeney,” out the picture never forgets in its most dramatic moment that it is a comedy. Conklin and Bankroft made their debut as a comedy duo, and Auckland will hope the partnership lasts. “Dr. Quack” is another funny film featuring Jimmy Adams, who in the original role mixes arsenic with headache powders and almost ruins his matrimonial bliss.

The Wurlitzer became full of the warm south with Arthur Frost playing old plantation melodies. “When You and I Were Seventeen” was a romance in waltz time. Maurice Guttridge, the Regent operatic orchestra following his fingers perfectly, gave a delightful programme of incidental music.