NEW REGENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 684, 8 June 1929, Page 14

NEW REGENT

“ALIAS JIMMY VALENTINE” Good screen plots, like good stories or plays, do not age, but are certain to win the same commendation from audiences of the future as those of today.. This is certainly' the case with "Alias' Jimmy Valentine,” now at the New Regent Theatre. Sustained popularity of striking or unusual dramatic themes is proved by efforts of picture companies to make successive versions of the same story. “Alias Jimmy Valentine,” which is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film containing dialogue, has been done on the screen before, and was remarkably successful as a play and novel, but this is its introduction to the medium of Movietone. In the added realism thus obtained, and in many other respects, according to the thousands of people who have already seen it, the new film is a very distinct entity. William Haynes, whose forte, as all picture fans are aware, has been a series of light comedy-dramas on the order of “West Point” and “Telling the World,” turns to a different type of role in “Alias Jimmy Valentine,” that of an extremely clever safebreaker who honestly endeavours to go straight. The star has an unusual supporting cast in “Alias Jimmy Valentine.” Leila Hyams is the leading lady, Tully Marshall and Karl Lane play the part of companion safe-crackers, and Lionel Barrymore is the detective who engages in an exciting battle of wits with Haynes. As fitting accompaniment for such an outstanding picture there are a number of excellent singing and talking pictures. These include “Songs of the Roses,” a revue of songs and dances in natural colours, a gazette, entertaining vaudeville sketches by “Bob” Nelson, two songs by Johnny Marftn, the well-known I-I.M.V. recording artist, and several selections by Barnado de Pace, the wizard of the mandolin.