NEW REGENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 359, 21 May 1928, Page 15

NEW REGENT

“WAY OF ALL FLESH” “The Way of All Flesh,” now being shown by the New Regent Theatre, is the first American picture starring Emil Jannings, and this great Continental actor gives a wonderful performance. He plays the part of August Schilling, for 20 years a trusted servant of the bank, and living happily with his wife and six children. When Mr. Schilling is awakened by the alarm clock, one realises he sleeps soundly, but once he has looked in the mirror and stretched himself, his face is wreathed with smiles as he goes into the next room to awaken his children. They are put through the daily dozen, and it is delightful to watch the efforts of the younger ones in copying their father. The house, the ordered routine, reflects the characteristics of a man who, after 20 years’ service in the bank, realises that he has a position of importance. He is thoroughly satisfied with his lot in life. At breakfast at 7.30 on the tick, it is the father that smoothes out the little quarrels at the table. And after the day’s toil he goes to the bowling alley, and after a strenuous game does not take more than his accustomed two glasses of ale. This happy married life is shattered by a business visit to Chicago, where he falls into the hands of a scheming blonde. His once blameless life is marred, and when he accidentally loses his bank’s money and kills a man he feels he can never go back to his home. Instead, he drifts through life as a homeless wreck. Belle Bennett and Phyllis Haver play the principal female roles in support of Jannings. Leslie V. Harvey plays Handel's “Largo” and Mendelssohn’s “Spring Song” on the organ, and the Regent Operatic Orchestra, under the baton of Arthur G. Frost, plays “Evolution of Dixie.”