THRILLS AND LAUGHTER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 679, 3 June 1929, Page 15

THRILLS AND LAUGHTER

“ALIAS JIMMY VALENTINE” REGENT’S LATEST “TALKIE” Safes! Combination locks! Bombs! A handsome burglar and burglars i not so handsome! Cunning detectives and a pretty girl! Splendid material for a splendid picture!! “Alias Jimmy Valentine,” Auckland’s latest “all-talkie” picture, which opened at the Regent Theatre on Saturday, is surely one of the most thrilling “crook” melodramas ever filmed. The plot is simple yet continually exciting, and is full of opportunities for comedy touches. Jimmy Valentine. the handsome young cracksman, who opens safe after safe and laughs at the police, is at the climax of his career when the picture begins. By sandpapering his fingertips he makes them so sensitive that he can feel the click of the tumblers falling into place as he turns the dial of a combination lock and so he robs countless safes without leaving a trace. But Boyle, a detective, although he has never been able to obtain definite proof, knows Jimmy’s method of working and suspects him of several robberies. To deceive him Valentine opens an express company’s safe and places a time bomb inside it. When the bomb explodes, half an hour later, he is in the nearest police station telling the constable that he has just been held up in the street. The alibi, of course, is perfect, and when, a few days later, one of his confederates telegraphs from a little country town that there is a safe there easy to open and full of money, he goes down without any qualms. But ho falls in love with the daughter of the bank president and, determining to reform, enters the bank as a clerk and in a few months’ time rises to the position of cashier. In the meantime, however, Boyle has been working steadily, and has at last obtained definite proof of Jimmy’s i complicity in the express company’s j robbery. How he confronts Jimmy with his proofs and how Jimmy bluffs him into believing that he is not Jimmy Valentine at all but a perfectly respectable person named Bee Randall is a wonderfully amusing scene. The bluff is successful and Boyle is about to depart when . . . Ah! but that’s telling. An amazing climax to an amazing picture. There are many humorous scenes in , the film. The old joke of the crook and his confederates in church and the confederate’s inability to forget his skill as a pickpocket is repeated with so many novel touches that it seems as fresh as ever. There is a delightful scene in the police station when Jimmy is describing how he has been held up and is all the time waiting for the alarm when his bomb explodes. Probably the most amusing of all, though, is the scene in which he bluffs Boyle—a masterpiece of acting. William Haynes is the ideal Jimmy Valentine, and Beila Hyams makes a bewitching daughter of whom any bank president might be proud. As Boyle, Bionel Barrymore gives exactly the picture that one always imagines of an American detective, and Karl Bane and Tully Marshall as the confederates are excellent. The speech and synchronised sound are clear throughout, and the speech increases tremendously the power of the climax. There are several fine | musical and vaudeville items by fam- | ous American artists in the suppertj ing programme, and a charming tech- , nicolour dance number, which brings ! great applause from the audience.