All-Talking Film Programme Presented in London Theatre

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 526, 1 December 1928, Page 23

All-Talking Film Programme Presented in London Theatre

TIIE new Piccadilly Theatre, London, .saw the birth in England of an “all-talking cinema programme. People who came to criticise stayed to praise and to applaud the magie curtain from which the stars of the United States sent their voices, their idiosyncrasies—almost every little detail o their personalities.

With your eyes open or closed, you could feel that you were in the presence of living artists (says the “Daily Chronicle”); you could sense the very soul in some of the music, particularly that of stringed instruments, that came from the rr #-— ery stage where there were no performers in the flesh. Vitaplione showed us what “talking pictures” really are, and what a power they are going to be in the near future. The unbelieving heard and saw, in perfect tone and synchronisation, the cross-talking of comedians, the wonderful banjo-playing of two cheery young men who cnattered and smiled at you as though they were really there, and the somewhat ineffective but perfectly reproduced “turns” of three sisters; tlie contortions, quips, and incidental music of a jazz band; and the singing of Martinelli, the dramatic tenor of the New York Metropolitan Opera.

Finally we liad the New York play, ; “The jazz Singer,” with A 1 Jolson, the idol of Broadway, and May McAvoy in the principal parts. In the audience were many well known theatrical m and cinema people. There was one who saw what he described as “the writing on the wall.” “This is going to deal a deathblow sooner or later to touring,” he- said. “It will never kill the bigger theatres, though.” He was the least cheerful person to whom I spoke. Mr. C. B. Cochran, for instance, does not think that the “talking picture” will ever compete with the stage. In his view, it misses the point of personal contact. There were others who declared that it i would not even hit the silent picture.