BIG COMEDIES AT LYRIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 847, 16 December 1929, Page 15

BIG COMEDIES AT LYRIC

Tho?e who thoroughly enjoyed the full-length screen oomedies that were made a year or so ago will enjoy the current programme at the Lyric Theatre, which includes two of the best of these pictures. They are “Ladies Night in a Turkish Bath,” an uproarious tale of youthful embarrassments, starring Dorothy Mackaill and Jack Mulhall, also “Now We’re In the Air,” one of the most amusing of the series of amusing comedies made by Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton.

More than 3,500 extras were working on pictures at Fox Movietone City in Beveriy Hills and the Fox studio in Hollywood during a seven-day period recently. Moreover, according to Dave Todd, assistant casting director these figures could be eclipsed if he had time to look them up. “Married in Hollywood.” Oscar Strauss's operetta, which is being transferred to the screen by Director Marcel Silver, used 1,800 extras during the period, with all types Included, from peasants to aristocrats. Benjamin Stoloft. directing the ‘Girl From Havana.” used 150, while Kenneth Hawk’s “Big Time.” with Lee Tracy, used 250 theatre patrons and back-stage atmospheric types. Three hundred airplanes, pilots, mechanics and other flying field attaches were employed in “The Sky Hawk"; and David Butler, director of “Sunny Side Up,” the De Sylva. Brown and Henderson musical play co-featuring Janet Oaynor and Charles Farrell, used 1.100 New York East side types.

That Warner Bros, have added another brilliant achievement to the history of Vitaphone was the consensus of opinion following Hip recent premiere in New York of the alldancing. ail-singing, ail-teclinicolour special. "Gold Diggers of Broadway.” The pictorial splendour, the tuneful songs, the plausible storv and the excellent cast all came in for a share of ]. raise.