MAJESTIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 754, 29 August 1929, Page 15

MAJESTIC

“THIS IS HEAVEN” COMING This evening sees the final screening at the Majestic Theatre of the fine picture, “Lady of the Night,” which was made by 13. W. Griffith with full talking and sound accompaniment. Lupe Velez, Jetta Goudal and William Boyd are the stars. The bright supporting programme of talkies will also be screened for the last time this evening. As good a reporter as he is a technician, Alfred Santell has come to fame in Hollywood as the right man to wieLd the directors’ megaphone in pictures where atmosphere must be meticulously accurate and significant. The latest example of his peculiar skill in making moving pictures authentic without dullness comes to the Majestic Theatre tomorrow in “This is Heaven,” Vilma Banky’s latest starring production for Samuel Goldwyn, in which she is seen for the first time as a modern girl in modern America. First as a frigthened little immigrant at Ellis Island, then as a waitress flipping hot cakes in a metropolitan whitetiled restaurant, then as the fiancee of a handsome millionaire in disguise, Miss Banky acts a role which gave Santell every opportunity for using atmospheric detail effectively. His expert eye, which had caught all the thousand and one things which go to make up the life of the everyday New' Yorker, the dingy apartments, the subway crowds, the habits and mannerisms of waitresses, stood him in good stead. Vilma Banky’s voice is heard for the first time on the speaking screen in “This is Heaven.” Samuel Goldwyn’s “Hungarian Rhapsody” is one of the few foreign born picture stars to be able to keep her place in the screen firmament in this day of talking pictures. Stage training in Vienna before she came to this country and a naturally beautiful speaking voice combine to make her dialogue performances more than satisfactory. Most of the cast supporting Miss Banky in “This is Heaven” have had stage experience. James Hall, leading man, is a product of the New York stage, and Fritzi Ridgeway, with the most important character role of the picture, is a veteran of vaudeville and stock. SUBURBAN THEATRES The Prince Edward Theatre is showing “Love Never Dies” (Colleen Moore and Gary Cooper), and “The Woman From Luna” (Mary Astor). At the Grey Lynn Cinema the films are “The Kid’s Clever” (Glenn Tryon) and supports.