STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 768, 14 September 1929, Page 17

STRAND

“THE BLACK WATCH” David Rollins, Fox Film player, to whom one famous reviewer referred as "the boy every mother would like her son to be,” plays the role of a young English subaltern in * ,r Llie Black ■Watch,” Victor McLaglen’s first alltalking picture. The role is that of brother to "Captain Donald Gordon King,” of the “Black Watch,” the nickname of the famous 42nd Highlanders, and Rollins in the picture, is the youngest member of the regiment. At the outbreak of war McLaglen is ordered on a secret mission to India. With the “Black Watch” departing for France, the elder brother commissions the vounger to carry on in his place and uphold the family name. “The Black Watch,” the current attraction at the Strand Theatre, has added new directorial honours to John Ford's prior achievements, including "Four Sons,” "The Iron Horse,” “Hangman’s House” and “Napoleon’s Barber," a few of the two score suecesses he has made. The story is one of love and adventure, intrigue and romance. Myrna Loy heads the supporting cast which includes Lumsden Hare, Roy* D’Arcy. Mitchell Lewis, Cyril Chadwick and Walter Long. The talking and singing features which make up the remainder of «ie programme include an all-talking comedy, “His First Lesson,” a new Fox Movietone News, a Fox Variety Travelogue and songs and dances by Randolph’s Royal Hawaiians.

Maurice Chevalier, idol of the French stage, first learned to speak English from a fellow prisoner in a German hospital camp during the war. This man was Norman Kennedy, a British private, who remains today one of Chevalier’s dearest friends. Chevalier and Kennedy were prisoners during 26 months of the conflict. Chevalier having been captured when wounded and left for dead in front of the French lines during the first battle of the Marne,