MAJESTIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 837, 4 December 1929, Page 17

MAJESTIC

“SMILING IRISH EYES” Dozens of dancing girls sn a spectacular chorus number, accompanied by catchy melodies, provide a stage presentation in Colleen Moore’s “Smiling Irish Eyes,” that is quite as elaborate and entertaining as any Broadway revue. “Smiling Irish Eyes,” which is the big attraction at the Majestic Theatre, is a 100 per cent, talking and singing First National-Vitaphone picture, and this stage episode is remarkably realistic. It was arranged by Larry Ceballos, who obtained a splendid reputation in New York as a stage director, through his productions in Irving Berlin’s “Music Box Revue,” George White’s “Scandals’* and several shows for Ziegfeld. Colleen Moore makes her debut in dialogue in “Smiling Irish Eyes,” and sings several songs written especially for the production, including “Darlin’, My Darlin’,” “A Wee Bit o’ Love.” “Then I Can Ride Home With You,” and “Smiling Irish Eyes.” The theatre episode of the picture is brief, most of the story having Ireland as a background. James Hall is Miss Moore’s leading man in “Smiling Irish Eyes.” The supporting programme of talkie items includes songs by John Barclay, baritone; Margaret McKee in a novelty whistling act; and the latest edition of the Fox Movietone News. The settings of “The Ghost Talks,” Fox Movietone all-talking feature farce comedy, which the Majestic will show on Friday, are unusually well done. They are worked out to the finest detail, and permit of unhampered movements to all the players—which fact indicates the higher state of development that the talking film has reached. In this production the range of scenery and action are as unlimited as in any silent motion picture, while the advantage of all the players speaking their parts is, of course, manifest. The picture opens with a train arriving, and the swishing steam and ringing locomotive bell are recorded with the utmost realism. After a brief space the scene shifts to a hotel lobby, and one feels, in viewing the setting, as if he were actually in a hotel lobby, so natural is the effect with all voices and sounds reproduced. Then, the outside of the supposedly haunted mansion is a masterpiece of the scene arranger’s art. The house is just bound to be haunted, judging from the eerie look it has from the outside. And when the players involved in the ghost episodes get inside, and begin their laugh-provoking reactions to the unusual stimuli of the spooks, one is quite sure that here is the nearest approach to a spooky dwelling.