“ The Magic Flame ”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 288, 25 February 1928, Page 23

“ The Magic Flame ”

ROMANCE OF THE CIRCUS

Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky

Ronald Colmai and Vilma Banky comprise one of the finest screen combinations of the day. “The AJagic Flame,” their latest feature for United Artists, has been secured by the Majestic Theatre by the Fuller-Hayward management. It will be screened shortly. This is a tale of the sawdtist ring, a romance of the circus which gives both artists full opportunity to display their screen talents.

rpnß opening sequence shows RonA aid Colman as Tito, the clown, and Vilma Banky as Bianca, the tightrope walker. Such a clown and such an acrobat! Who would suspect the cavalier Ronald of "The Night of Love” or the dashing engineer 01. • Barbara Worth” could don the makeup and transport himself into such a marvellous characterisation ? Colman is a rear clown; gesture for gesture, trick for trick, he might have spent his life on the sawdust or stepped through a blazing hoop in the ring of Burnum and Bailey. When he first makes his entrance it is as the clown, and there is no suspicion in the minds

of the audience, it is said, until he doffs his make-up that underneath the pipe clay exterior is the Romeo of Romeos. As this was the last picture Vilma Banky made before her marriage to Rod ."La Rocque, it is hardly surprising that she found “The Magic Flame” and brought a new atmosphere to her love-making. As Bianca, the little circus dancer, she is most attractive. The story opens in the circus where Tito, the clown (Mr. Colman) is in love with Bianca, the little trapeze artist. Bianca meets a wicked prince, travelling incognito, and of course the villain attempts a conquest. Spurned by the little circus dancer, the prince entices her to his room at the hotel, where he contrives to delay her past the hour of her performance in the circus. She escapes by a breath-taking leap from the window to the ground to find that Tito has gone in search of her.