PLAZA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 679, 3 June 1929, Page 14

PLAZA

“THE SINGING FOOL” ‘‘The Singing Fool"’ has now commenced the fifth week of its Auckland season, and many thousands of Aucklanders have laughed and cried with that clever entertainer. A 1 Jolson. It is not the novelty of the talking picture alone which is responsible for this success. More is it the fascination, both in voice and action, of A 1 Jolson. recognised as America’s foremost entertainer, who is the leading figure in the production. ‘The Singing Fool” is designed to give Jolson full play for the talents which have hitherto been .exclusive to the footlights-. Until the climax of the film he is waiter, cabaret entertainer and idler by turns. Only at the last docs he become the black face comedian, and then the role is so cleverly acted that the emotional appeal of the actor is at its zenith. He sings to an audience which catches his inspiration and sees through the incongruity of the grease paint. The comedian, the idol of the cabarets, has lost his child, and his fitting choice of a number is “Sonny Boy.” Betty Bronson and Josephine Dunn appear in the leading feminine roles. There is a splendid programme of supporting talkie subjects, including songs by Giovanni Martinelli, numbers by Mischa Elman, the violinist, a burlesque of opera players by the Howard Brothers, an overture by the New York Philharmonic Society, and a setting of a monastery cell is used for the remarkable offering of a quartet of cowled friars