PLAZA AND TWOLI

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 643, 20 April 1929, Page 15

PLAZA AND TWOLI

“SYNTHETIC SJJ*” There is certainly nothing synthetic about the entertainment offered in “Synthetic Sin,” Colleen Moore’s newest comedy, which is now at the Plain* an d Tivoli Theatres. On the contrWy. it is decidedly <vf the 100 per cerSt* nature, as the? mirth of a large 1 audience clearly indicated. A clever story, an excellent cast and Colleen’s bubbling personality have been woven into a picture that ranks ' among the most humorously entertaining films to be seen in months. “Synthetic Sin" is a double triumph for saucy Colleen as the star, and William A. Seiter as the director. Possibly the most amusing of many laughable sequences is one in which Colleen’s apartment is invaded by thugs and gunmen in the midst of a gang war. Believing her friends have played a joke on her, Colleen refuses to take the desperate characters seriously, and treats them with the moat amusing lack of respect, despite their weapons and threats. Miss Moore makes a particular hit in the burnt-cork and ridiculous garments of Topsy, in which she gives a burlesque of a classic dance that is a superb bit of comedy not only decidedly funny in itself, but excellently worked into the progress of the plot. Antonio Moreno acquits himself well in the romantic lead opposite Miss Moore, while others conspicuous by their good work are Montagu Love and Gertrude Astor. Rex Beach never wrote a more romantic, exciting novel of Alaska in gold rush days than “The Michigan Kid,” the film version of which is the second feature of the programme, with Conrad Nagel and Renee Adoree costarring. Nagel enacts the role of a famed gambler and Miss Adoree of a girl from the States. The story is essentially a romance. Another of the breezy “Collegians” pictures and excellent music from Mr. Howard Moody’s Orchestra completes the entertainment at the Plaza. At the Tivoli Theatre, Miss M. Anderson’s orchestra plays the overture “Wildflower,” and the following incidental music: “Rose Marie" (Friml). “Betty” f Rubens), “So Long Letty” (Carroll). “Serenata” (Tarenghi), “The Girl of the Golden West” (Puccini), “Song of the Brook” (Lack), “Chanson | Melancholique” (Collinge).