NEW REGENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 564, 17 January 1929, Page 15

NEW REGENT

“THE CROWD” THIS EVENING It was not until after the director, King Vidor, had filmed more than a million people in the congested manufacturing and commercial centres of America that he believed he had caught the proper spirit of “The Crowd,” his new 12-reel special for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, to be shown at the New Regent Theatre this evening. Most of these people were filmed at a time they were utterly unconscious of the fact they were appearing in a motion picture. With masked batteries of cameras, Vidor caught the immense theatre crowds of New York’s Broadway. lie filmed the noonday crowds of Fifth Avenue and Broadway, the exclusive shopping districts of New York, the great financial district, the docks and waterfronts. He got the exits of the towering skyscrapers as they discharged their tens of thousands of employees , for the night and from barges in the harbour “shot” the magnificent skyline of the busiest city in the world. At Pittsburgh, Penn., he used the thousands of employees of the world’s greatest steel mills and at Rochester, N.Y., worked against a background of the great kodak factories and the Eastman laboratories. “The Crowd” is Vidor’s first allAmerican story since “The Big Parade,” and was written by himself. Eleanor Boardman and James Murray have the principal romantic roles in the greatest human interest tale ever Screened. A story of complications, both humorous and thrilling, that happened to a party of people travelling in a railway carriage, is the theme of “The Girl in the Pullman,” which will also be shown this morning. Most of the trouble centres round a honeymoon couple who are forced to share an apartment with a mother-in-law, an ex-wife and an ex-suitor. Marie prevost is the girl in the case and Harrison Ford the chief male character. A magnificent organ interlude will be provided by Arthur G. Frost, who is also conductor of the Regent Operatic Orchestra. Mr. Frost will play “Plantation Melodies” with Dulcietone soloists and quartet. “MATINEE IDOL” AT LYRIC “The Matinee Idol,” starring Bessie Love and Johnnie Walker, is still being shown at the Lyric Theatre. The plot revolves around a company of “yokels” playing in a rather terrible Civil War melodrama which is touring the country under canvas. The performance is witnessed by the manager of a Broadway revue who is insearch of a novelty act for his show. He engages the company and brings it into New York. There the players meet with defeat, and after several humiliating experiences return to the tent. A clever love interest is woven into the plot, and several novel situations are introduced. The production is one which will be enjoyed by < the whole family. It gives a graphic picture of life behind the scenes and the adventures which frequently befall barnstorming players. The latest Rin-Tin-Tin picture, “Rinty of the Desert.” is the second attraction. POWER BOARD PICNIC The Auckland Electric Power Board’s annual picnic will be held on Motuihi Island on Saturday next. Steamers will leave the ferry wharf at 9.30 a.m. and 1 p.m. The full sports programme will be open to all. Excellent results have been achieved in the filming of the early scenes of Harold Lloyd’s first talking picture, to be produced for Paramount, "The Butterfly Chaser.” The comedian’s voice te*.* made on the Paramount sound stages registered exceptionally well, which was to be expected, as Lloyd bad spent many years of his life playing in vaudeville.