THE PLAZA AND TIVOLI

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 438, 21 August 1928, Page 14

THE PLAZA AND TIVOLI

“LIFE’S CIRCUS” A story of a prize-fighter’s son who was brought up as a dancing instructor is told in Reginald Denny s latest success, “On Your Toes.” to be shown again this evening at the Plaza and Tivoli Theatres. Denny plays the effeminate role with skill and although “On Your Toes” is a different style of picture from most of his others, it is nevertheless highly enjoyable. The plot tells of the search by a prize-fight manager for a champion. He finds a promising pupil in Elliott (played by Denny), but he is prevented from boxing by his grandmother, who has refrained from telling the boy of his father’s career. The grandmother arrives at the training camp just before the fight for the championship. After a lot of skirmishing around to keep the truth from her, Elliott gets into the ring. Grandmother hears he is a fighter and arrives when the crowd is boo-hooing him for not fighting. She tells Sullivan to tell Elliott his father was Young Evans. Heartened by this knowledge, Elliott wins and takes Mary in his arms with everybody happy Frank Hagney, who is also in the cast of “On Your Toes,” enacts the part of the world’s champion heavyweight boxer, and in the fight scene for the championship he and Denny give a remarkably realistic exhibition of prize-fighting for the screen audiences.

In the supporting cast are Barbara Worth, the leading lady; Hayden Stev enson. Mary Carr, Gertrude Howard and George West. An intensely dramatic story of the private lives of three circus performers, entitled “Life’s Circus,” is the second feature. This gripping story tells of two brothers, trapeze artists, who hated one another, but forgot their troubles in their common pity for a girl who was brutally tortured by her father. The inimitable London comedian, Bert Harrow, will appear again this evening with his enjoyable string of jokes and anecdotes. He sings a number of humorous songs and keeps the audience thoroughly anAised all the time he is on the stage.