PLAZA AND TIVOLI

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 489, 19 October 1928, Page 15

PLAZA AND TIVOLI

CIRCUSES AND POLICEMEN A celluloid circus has come to town! Regular performances, elephants, lions and tigers, trained seals and educated ponies, acrobats, clowns and side-show freaks. If ever a piettire deserved to be called a “circus story,” the First National attraction shown last evening at the Plaza and Tivoli Theatres, “Three Ring Marriage,’* is the one. It shows circus life, with every sort of intimate glimpse behind the scenes and into the lives of all kinds of circus people, throughout practically its entire footage. However, the plot and love story are something quite apart, and the actions of the featured players, Mary Astor and Lloyd Hughes, would entertain, even /without the glamorous setting. Miss Astor plays in the role of a very modern girl who is so intent on getting the man she loves that she leaves her wealthy father, and follows the .hero into the circus. They both become performers, and lie still resists her. and she still pursues. Enter the villain, acting circus manager, played very well indeed by the polished screen actor Lawford Davidson. He is in the toils of crooks and gunmen, and tries to get the heroine’s money, and incidentally herself, to “square” them. Then the hero awakes, and things “pop” dramatically in all directions. Many new faces appear, for the performer, side-show people, and others, are real “big-time” circus folk- Among them two remarkable midgets, a giant and a fat lady, have important parts. “The Shield of Honour” is the title of the second attraction. Tho entire picture is a glorification of the American arm of the law, the policeman. Ho is shown at work and at home, and the picture brings home vividly the dangers and hardships to which the policemen of the metropolitan city force are subjected. Some of the most thrilling fight and fire scenes ever filmed provide the elemental ciimaxes of the picture, with an additional drama added by a thrilling battle between two airplanes. Both Neil Hamilton and Dorothy Gulliver, who carry the love interest, give excellent performances, with Ralph Lewis, the veteran character actor, in one of the greatest characterisations of his career. Musical numbers by Mr. Howard Moody’s Symphony Orchestra include: “Henry's Made a Lady out of Lizzie” (O’Keefe): ’Three Songs” -(Brahms); Le Caid” (Thomas); ’ltalian Symphony” (Mendelssohn): “Rio Rita” (Tiernay): "Tip Toes” (Gershwin); “Poupee Valsante” (Poldini), and "Le Soir” (Gounod).