NEW REGENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 383, 18 June 1928, Page 15

NEW REGENT

DOUBLE FEATURE BILL The programme being - presented at the New Regent Theatre this week comprises two big - pictures, each dealing with an entirely different theme, yet each first-class entertainment on its own. The first picture stars that beautiful actress Esther Ralston in “Love and Learn,” a happy comedy of modern life. Miss Ralston plays the role of a very modern young lady, who is confronted with a very modern problem. The Blake household is threatened with a split. Robert and Ann threaten one another with a separation, and it is into this atmosphere that their daughter Nancy, finds herself plunged, one day on her return from a trip. As neither father nor mother will give way, she decided to find a way. If she is only able to keep her father at home till he has his regular bout of hay fever, it is certain that he will not want to leave or lost his wife. A chance remark by a servant offers a way. She will look for trouble, and keep on looking for it till that time. So she sets out. Her first attempts with a member of the police force are not at all successful. However, when she backs her car right into the police station she certainly does start trouble, and enjoys the chase of a lifetime. Needless to say, in their anxiety over their daughter, the parents forget themselves and live happily ever after. The second attraction is of the romantic historical type, and has as the leading star that popular actor Richard Dix. The picture is entitled, “The Gay Defender,” and tells of the heroic exploits of Joaquin Murrieta, early California’s most dominant figure. The story revolves round the villainy of unscrupulous gold prospectors, which turns a languid aristocratic youth into a terrorising, nightriding Robin Hood. His single-handed bravery stamps out oppression, and wins him back both hacienda and sweetheart. Dix portrays the Mexican bandit, with Thelma Todd as his American heroine, and Fred Kohler, ‘'wolf of the screen,” as the villain. The musical programme is supplied by Arthur G. Frost at the Wurlitzer, who was accorded an excellent reception on Saturday night. Mr. Frost also directed the Regent Operatic Orchestra, whose overture, “Slavonic Rhapsody” (Friedman) won great applause.