NEW REGENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 372, 5 June 1928, Page 17

NEW REGENT

“TILLIE’S PUNCTURED ROMANCE” One of the most hilarious comedies ever seen in Auckland is now being shown at the New Regent Theatre, where “Tillie’s Punctured Romance” is delighting large audiences daily. “Tillie’s Punctured Romance” is the title of an old comedy made 14 or 15 years ago, but the 1928 version is, if anything, more uproarious than the old laughmaker. Heading the list of comedy stars in the picture is Chester Conklin, W. C. Fields and Louise Fazenda, while other players of note include Mack Swain and Doris Hill. The story concerns Tillie (played by Louise Fazenda), who runs away from home and throws in her lot with a travelling circus run by Horatio Q. Frisbee (Chester Conklin), who employs as his ringmaster W. C. Fields. The glamour of circus life, however, wears off after a while, but Tilly meantime fells in love with the lion tamer. Also the ringmaster falls in love with the strong woman of the side shows, and everyone falls in love with the pretty trapeze artist. As a grand, patriotic gesture, Tillie persuades the owner to take his circus to France to entertain the American soldiers, and it is while the circus is there that the most dreadful things happen to it, including losing the lions. The war ends and the comedy ends in a wild melee of lions, actors, love affairs and laughs. Fields gets the strong woman, Fazenda gets the lion tamer—and Chester still has what’s left of Frisbee’s Mammoth Circus. On the stage will be presented Dance-o-mania, a brilliant show of dancing and music, with a pageant tracing the history of dancing from Adam and Eve to the present day, in eluding Yvonne Arlen .and Colin Shorter demonstrating present-day cabaret steps. Leslie V. Harvey plays Dvorak’s “Humoresque” and Sinding’s “Rustle of Spring” on the Wurlitzer organ, and the Regent Operatic Orchestra, under the baton of Arthur G. Frost, plays a burlesque on Lemare’s “Andantino.”