Western Talk

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 660, 11 May 1929, Page 27

Western Talk

ALL-SPEAKING PICTURE

“In Old Arizona” at the Strand

AX all-talking picture from the first scene to the final ■r» close-up, “In Old Arizona,” now at the Strand, is one of the most interesting examples of the speaking film vet heard in Auckland. It proves that a AVhstern of the old-time type is ti*ansformed by speech and made an entertainment of up-to-the-minute interest.

“In Old Arizona” is perhaps the nearest approach to an actual play yet offered on the Auckland screen. This because the characters speak throughout and explain all action with their dialogue. Yet the picture is far more than a play in its scope. The action travels indoors and out, upstairs and down—

, anywhere the ■ book requires i them to be. And S everywhere they | move the microj phone has picked [up their voices, quickly, clearly, ! and naturally. ; It is a unique : : experience, this ' enjoyment of a | real Western or ; tile familiar type. > reproduced and refreshed by i speech and sound. !

tuiu auuuu. Dorothy Burgess, a charming little actress, is in the leading feminine role, while Warner Baxter and Edmund Lowe play opposite her. Lowe is an exceptionally capable star, and it is interesting to watch him finding his feet as a worker in talkie productions. Incidentally, “In Old Arizona” was the first all-talkie to be made by Pox on the famous Movietone principle. Yet it has the advantage of many experiments with various . pictures in which sound lias been used and talking introduced at intervals. The story of the play is an episode

from the notorious history of the “Cisco Kid,’ a killer of men, and a breaker of women’s hearts who roamed the south-west in the bad old days. “In Old Arizona” has been called “The Covered Wagon of Talking Pictures.” It is certainly that, for besides being an excellent film photographically and from the point of view of direction and cast, it is a talkie pioneer.