PLAZA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 715, 15 July 1929, Page 15

PLAZA

“THE TERROR” “The Terror,” as a stage play, has held the imagination of Londoners for over three years, and now Warner Bros, has made it into a talkie which, in gruesomeness, shivers, shocks and laughter, far exceeds the original. Boy Lei Buth directed, and he has not stopped at guiding the antics of the cast, but has insisted that settings augment the ghostly thriller, in every way possible. Del Ruth also directed the building of the apparently century-old English manor house which is the locale for the story. The “ancient” mansion has sliding panels, vast smoky glimmering fires, and an underground torture chamber suggestive of the dark ages where the people take part in spooky seaces, sitting with joined hands about the great table in the cobwebby room, haunted by the grisly “Terror” itself. May McAvoy plays the daughter of the aged doctor who keeps the house as a “rest cure.” She is the especial object of the attacks of “The Terror,” and is tossed between knives, shadowy clutching hands, weird suitors and shaky, panic-stricken ladies—the most uproariously ludicrous of whom is, of course, Louise F'azenda. Edward Everett Horton plays the part of a tippling and terrified lover, and the cast includes Alec B. Francis as the aged doctor, Holmes Herbert, Mathew Betz, John Miljan, Otto Hoffman, Joseph Girard and Frank Austin. All of the short talkie features, which are also being shown, are of a very high standard. There are two violin solos by Albert Spalding, several charming folk songs by Isa Kremer, the Russian prima donna; jazz by Roger Kahn's New York Orchestra; songs and music by the Four Aristrocrats; and all-talking comedy about the fire brigade, and, finally, a U.F.A gem and Empire News.