STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 756, 31 August 1929, Page 19

STRAND

“SPEAKEASY” J ust as tiie Fox Movietone production, "In Old Arizona" brought the ‘■wide open spaces" to the screen with such, startlingly real effects, so does the latest all-dialogue Fox Movietone spectacle, "Speakeasy,” bring the life of the city to the screen. There is no doubt but that the picturisation of this theme will set a new mark of perfection in the production of talking pictures. There is no subject so enthralling, so full of drama, pathos and humour as the city. There is no method of reproducing those qualities in a manner so realistic as Fox Movietone. “Speakeasy," now at the Strand Theatre, is laid entirely in New York City, and Benjamin Stoloff, director with his company of actors and technicians spent several months in New York fuming the exact locations described in the story At the Fox Movietone studio in California the interiors of those loca- ; tions were constructed for use in the i production. America’s newest in- i stitution, the famed speakeasy, is shown in all of the glamorous detail attendant to its operation. !n “Speakeasy” one sees and hears the inner workings of that class of people generally referred to as “the underworld.” One sees and hears them th e y a-rc, shorn of ail the theatrical ‘frills” that in the past has characterised the gangster. One sees Madison Square Garden, Broadway, the Battery, the subway, the eJevated, the great mass of people, the wad, screaming traffic, and also hears it. With this as a background the story unfolds. The lines are spoken by experienced stage actors. Portraying the leading roles are Lola Lane and Paul Page, recently recruited from two of New York’s most successful plays. Henry B. Walthall, long recognised as one of the world’s greatest actors, gives a strong characterisation of a difficult role. The supporting programme at the Strand includes a Fox Movietone News incorporating a speech by the Right Hon. Ramsay MacDonald, an aJltalking comedy by Arthur Stone and Marjorie Beebe, and songs by Gertrude Lawrence.