NEW REGENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 562, 15 January 1929, Page 13

NEW REGENT

“DRAG NET” AND “BEAU BROADWAY” They offered him £I,OOO a month if ho would leave them alone. The girl he was mad about offered him her love if he would throw away his detective lieutenant’s badge, turn against society, and join with the underworld crooks. It was wealth and the love he wanted more than anything else against honour. George Bancroft, as DetectiveLieutenant “Two-Gun” Troian, has that decision to make in “The Drag Xet,” the Paramount picture now being shown at the New Regent Theatre. The choice he makes, and the terrific dangers he encounters in adhering to his decision are pictured in thrilling fashion in this pulse-quick-ening melodr«ima of the eternal battle the man of the law wages against the crooks of the underworld. Joseph von Sternberg, the man who directed that stirring drama, “The Bast Command,” is the director of “The Drag Net.” Evelyn Brent portrays the girl, and William Powell the gang leader. Others in the cast are Fred Kohler and Leslie Kenton. With a sparkling vehicle that < utranks their previous screen triumphs in smartness and sophistication, Lew Cody and Aileen Pringle resume their co-starring teamwork in “Beau Broadway,” the second picture on the Regent Program me. In bringing this inimitable pair together again in comedy-drama, assisted by Pleine Conklin, Metro-Gold-wyn-Mayer has surrounded them with ; an environment that displays their talents to the utmost and cements 1 their bid for popularity as fllmdom’s ! most famous mixed comedy team. The story, writen especially for the Cody-Pringle team by Malcolm St. Clair, the Tex Rickard of the films, who also directs the picture, has a swiftly-moving plot laid in the colourful background of the sporting world. In the comedy moments Cody and Pringle reach new heights and the interloping scenes of drama are handled with a delicacy and tenderness that grips the heart strings. The scene in which James J. Jeffries, former world’s champion, is shown as a veteran fighter who faces, death with a smile, has a “punch” ail its own, but the tears are quickly smiled away with characteristic Cody-Pringle deftness. Most enjoyable music by the Regent Operatic Orchestra, under the baton of Arthur G. Frost, completes the entertainment.