STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 782, 1 October 1929, Page 15

STRAND

LAST DAYS OF “BLACK WATCH” Old and new songs are delightfully and logically interwoven in the alltalking production, “The Black Watch,” based on the story, “King of the Khyber Rifles,” which will shortly cloge its long season at the Strand Theatre. “The Black Watch” is another directorial achievement of John Ford’s, and stars 'Victor Mcßaglen, with a supporting cast of 20 of the most capable players in filmdom and with Myrna Boy the sole feminine member of the personnel. Of the old numbers played and sung during the progress of the picture may be cited “Blue Bonnets Over the Border.” “Wha’ Widna Fecht.” “For Charlie” (the official marching song of the “Black Watch”), each number played by the Bagpipe Band, which figures largely in the various scenes of the story. Other numbers are "Annie Baurie,” “Auld Bang Syne” and "Boch Bomond.” The theme song of the picture is called “Flower of Delight,” and was written by William Kern ell.

“The Black Watch,” however suggestive of war its title may be, is not a war film. Almost all of the action takes place in the ageless East, and the theme is one of love and intrigue, passion and adventure. In “Coquette,” her first all-talking picture, which will come to the Strand on Friday, Miss Pickford adds another title to her long scroll of screen honours. Known always as the “girl with the perfect photographic face,” she now proves that she is “the woman with the perfect screen voice.” In this picture her. tones range from the light, resiliency of the youthful and gay, episodes, to the deep and throbbing maturity of the dramatic scenes. As the little coquette. Miss Pickford runs the entire gamut of human emotions, and her voice echoes harmoniously her many moods.