“Moulin Rouge”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 364, 26 May 1928, Page 25

“Moulin Rouge”

Disappointing Film ; Eve Gray’s Debut "UNNECESSARILY GIRLISH" “Moulin Rouge; 7 the British picture in which Eve Gray, the Australian actress , made her screen dehut, was not altogether received with open arms hy the London critics. Here is what one writer says: The story tells of a young man who falls in love with his prospective mother-in-law, a stage star. Nevertheless, after his fiancee has been injured in an accident he resolves to overcome his feelings and marry her. The story is thin, undramatic, and could have been told adequately in half an hour of film. “Moulin Rouge’* lasts nearly two hours. Most of it consists of scenes of a revue and views of Paris, both of which would have been interesting in a news pictorial, but tediously pad out a wholly inadequate plot. The slight action there is unfolds itself without any particular ingenuity, chiefly in close-ups. Opening scenes, with no relation to anything that follows, provide a wholly un-called-for glimpse of the underworld. Later the heroine, a young girl, is shown in another tasteless sequence under the influence of drink. Again there is no dramatic excuse for this. Unnecessary Realism And after the accident befalls her other unpleasant scenes depict with quite unnecessary realism the operation she undergoes. The one wholly admirable thing about “Moulin Rouge” is the performance of Olga Tschechowa as the mother. This character has been well and convincingly drawn, and Miss Tschechowa magnificently and unerringly portrays the mature, practical revue actress, who, in contrast . to the lightness of her attire and her assumed recknessness on the stage, is chiefly concerned with her business and her daughter. The motor accident providing the climax is well produced; Forrester Harvey gives a delightful little study of a country bumpkin being led astray : by sirens; crowd scenes throughout i are effective. But the performances of both Eva l Gray as the daughter, quite unneces- • sarily girlish, and of M. Jean Bradin - as the hero, are disappointing. Miss Tschechowa has just signed a long-term contract with the British . film-producing company with which ! Mr. I. W. Schlesinger, the South . African cinema magnate, is associ- . ated. She is a Continental film star who has been in a large number of j German productions.