TWO FEATURES AT PLAZA

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 595, 22 February 1929, Page 15

TWO FEATURES AT PLAZA

CHORUS GIRLS AND TRAINS MILTON SILL’S GREAT ROLE In a role that is aptly suited for his known histrionic ability, Milton Sills scored emphatically with the audience at the Plaza Theatre last evening, when his latest picture, "The Crash,” was shown. It is a stronger and more forceful Sills who appears in this production a Sills who plays a difficult role with a restraint and firmness that make the audience live through the work-a-day world of the two-fisted, hard-fightin"-Irishman who rules a gang of labourers with his fists. “The Crash” cannot help but hold the interest from beginning to end Humour, satire, romance, pathos and stark drama follow in rapid succes,l4 Is tha -t rare type of picture that leaves the audience in doubt as to th e finish until the final fade-out. the central character, portraved bv Jlanaagan, boss of a railroad" relief tram, stationed in an isolated spot, high m the Sierra Mountains. Flannagan is a man’s man without frills until he meets the star of a cheap burlesque troupe that has been stranded. He sees something in the girl that no ono else ever has. and in spite of the small-town gossip and jeeis Irora his fellow workers, marries her. The drama of this strangely mismated couple trying to survive the meanness and heartlessness of a small town provides a theme that lifts it head and shoulders above the ordinarv movie plot.

Splendid performance is given by Thelma Todd, as the show girl. “Phyllis of the Follies,” a delightfully whimsical story, is the second big picture.

The story concerns a wealthy young society man who has a failing for Follies girls. He walks right out of one breach of promise suit into another mix-up, to the great consternation of his lawyer. Finally he falls hard for another Follies girl whom, he later learns, is the lawyer’s wife. She and her bosom companion, still another Follies girl, give him many hectic hours before he is finally cured. Edmund Burns has the role of the Lothario, and Matt Moore is the lawyer. Alice Hay is Phyllis, the Follies girl, who finally nooses the hero with an altar halter. Lilyan Tashman is the ex-Follies wife of the lawyer and Duane Thompson is the last-but-one Follies beauty on the hero’s list of entanglements.

The excellent supporting- programme includes the latest "Collegians” pictures, a gazette, and, finally, new music by Howard Moody’s Symphony Orchestra, which plays "The Vagabond King” for the overture. The incidental music includes the selections, “ B ® n ® of New York,” "A. Southern Maid'; suites, four characteristic waltzes, Ballet Suite, “The Judgment of Paris”; fox-trots, "My Heart Stood Still,” "Polly”; Morceau, “he Soir,” “JEtomance.” From Saturday next an added attraction at the Plaza will be exclusive pictures of the Aussie-Limerick race at Dunedin.