DRAMATIC FRENCH STORY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 583, 8 February 1929, Page 15

DRAMATIC FRENCH STORY

, LOVE AT MIDNIGHT BILLIE DOVE AT PLAZA AND TIVOLI Those French novelists of a more or less sensational character who dealt in mystery and romance, such as Emile Gaboriau or Fortune 'du Boisgobey, had a trick which is seldom employed nowadays, but which was most effective. They presented a cause celebre, a critical situation, a given problem. Then they went back, sometimes for years, and in detail recounted the events leading up to this moment. This done, the culmination, the denouement, was appended and a rounded whole was presented. This method is seldom used in motion picture, but in “Love at Midnight” it is employed with great skill. Tliis picture was shown at the Plaza and Tivoli Theatres last evening. In this First National picture starring Bi]lie Dove, an officer is found murdered in the cabin of the captain of a French cruiser. The captain is held and brought to trial. There develops an indication of estrangement, a probable affair on the part of the wife, and still another officer of the ship. Then the story goes back to the night preceding the World War and the happenings of that eventful ten or twelve hours are presented. When the whole thing is cleared up, the scene shifts back to the court and the captain is found not guilty and the wife is forgiven for her part and her true nature is shown. The mystery is not too deep so that it makes a pure crime story of the film. On the contrary, this is a secondary thread, and the great love drama involving one woman and three men takes the central position. Yet always there is a strong suspense maintained. The second picture on the programme is a Charlie Murray comedy, “Do Your Duty.” From the start of the picture till its conclusion there is no cessation of fun or dramatic thrill, as, for instance, when the redoubtable Charlie and *his Scots friend, played by Lucien Littlefield, are iDcked in a vault in a jewellery store and succeed in capturing a gang of crooks. Murray, always to be depended upon for providing plenty of merriment, is tit his best as a cop. Y'ears ago he made the Keystone cop famous. To-day he is a more refined version of the peace officer but just as funny.

Doris Dawson, as ingenue lead, is charming. She is Murray’s daughter, and is to marry a young policeman played by Charlie Delaney. The wedding is in a police station and is almost disrupted because Murray fails to show up. But he gets there at the finish, having redeemed himself by capturing the crooks who had framed him earlier in the story. At the Plaza Theatre, Howard Moody’s Symphonic Orchestra played “Youth Triumphant” for the overture, and the incidental music included the selections “La Gioconda,” “Coppelia,” “La Boheme,” the suite “At the Play,” and the musical comedy “Princess Caprice,” “The Pearl Girl.” At the Tivoli Theatre Miss M. Anderson’s orchestra played “La Traviata” for the overture, “Domino Rose” for the entr’acte, and the following selections: “The Girl from Brazil” (Romberg), “II Guarany” (Gomez), “Fantasiestucke” (Gade), “Elegia “Appassionata” (Ivettenus), “Ascanio” (Saint-Saens). “Love Song” (Flegicr), “Vers la Lumiere” (Gabriel-Marie), “The Sicilian Vespers” (Verdi), “Endure to Conquer” .(Baynes).