NEW REGENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 783, 2 October 1929, Page 17

NEW REGENT

“MADAME X” “Madame X.,” perhaps the stage’s greatest drama of mother-love, and incidentally credited with being the first courtroom drama in history, has come to the talking screen, a rejuvenated and certainly much more interesting drama than in its older form. The Regent Theatre’s all-talking version of the famous olcl play, with Ruth Chatterton in the title role, and Lionel Barrymore as the director, presents an older drama in a very glamourous new dress. It retains all the drama that made the original practically a classic of the stage, but it presents it in the new, swiftly moving structure of the screen. It is literally a blend between the style of the silent drama and the stage—its tempo that of the silent picture, with its rapid action and kaleidoscopic changes of locale. The dialogue, too. is different —shortened and concentrated to match the action. It is, in effect, a concentrated essene of drama. Ruth Chatterton, as the ill-fated heroine, is superb. Rising to the heights of dramatic emotion and the depths of despair by turn, she gives a performance that is literally a revelation as to what can be done by an artist with this new medium of the screen, and Lionel Barrymore’s deft direction of every scene is echoed in the subtle little influences that fairly grip the audience.

The cast is a perfect one. Lewis Stone, as the stern husband, and Raymond Hackett, as the son, have the two most important male roles, and young Hackett, in the dramatic courtroom scene, surpasses his great role on the stage.

The talking, singing, and dancing featurettes which make up the remainder of the programme include songs by Johnnie Marvin, gramophone recording

artist; selections, songs, and dances from Joe Spitlany’s Band: another revue by Gus Edwards in natural colours; and, finally, a Pathe Audio Review.