PLAZA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 772, 19 September 1929, Page 17

PLAZA

“THUNDERBOLT” TOMORROW l This evening sees the final screening at the Plaza Theatre of the amusing all-talkie comedy, “The Home Towners," starring Lipris Kenyon, Robert Edeson and Gladys Brock well, also the supporting short talkie features. Tomorrow the Plaza will present another powerfully dramatic all-talkie starring that great actor, George Bancroft. This is “Thunderbolt,” Bancroft’s second talkie, and a picture which has made a great name overseas. "Thunderbolt” is big. tense, suspenseful drama, drawn on the background of the underworld of New 1

York’s Harlem, j that great negro i belt where fsensa- | tion - seeking Broadwayites go | to dance shoul- ! der - to - shoulder j with the inhabitants of the black metropolis to the beat of staccato jazz. Its climatic scenes occur in the strangely In-

triguing and exciting death house at Sing Sing. Its big moments are bigger than anything Auckland audiences have ever seen. Its surprising twists are the surprising highlights of real life. Richard Arlen, the likeable youth who thrilled audiences as the lieroaviat*>r of the famous “'Wings,” and Fay Wray, Eric von Stroheim’s lovely heroine in “The Wedding March,” support the star. There is a wealth of character material in the splendid cast and. altogether. "Thunderbolt” is a picture the audience will have to remember long after they see it. An excellent supporting programme of short talking and singing features will also be presented tomorrow. As a result of experiments with “Made X” and “The Green Ghost,” Lionel Barymore has perfected the first “sound lap dissolve” in which voices carry into new scenes and fade out. Further experimenting has resulted in his being able to follow his actors with microphones and cameras at the same time in moving scenes and perfecting the first device by which camera, microphone and lights are all moved simultaneously for “follow i shots,” -