MAJESTIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 853, 23 December 1929, Page 15

MAJESTIC

BRIGHT PROGRAMME “The Valiant” Fox Movietone special all-talking production, now at the Majestic, eclipses anything: so far serened in Auckland since the advent of the talkies. A brilliant cast of players is headed by Paul Muni and Marguerite Churchill, co-featured in the leading roles, the former as a confessed murderer sentenced to electrocution, and the latter as a girl who seeks to discover whether the convict is her long-missing brother, give characterisations that reflect their varied stage experience.

‘ The Valiant” proves an ideal medium for the delineation of the tragic situation in which an errant youth finds himself at the end of the trail, and of his ri£id determination to guard his family from pain and disgrace by concealing his identity to the end. “Forget Me Not,” the second feature, is a tender romance of Christmastide in a snow mantled village in Germany in 1754. It is an imaginative story of a boy and girl love in a toymaker’s shop, at the climax of which the toys become animated figures and continue the story to a happy conclusion, with a touch of symbolism which indicates that we are all dolls and puppets which reach a toymaker’s shop, some to be mended, and some to be cast aside.

The picture opens with the jingle of Christmas bells and voices, a little procession walking along with bobbing lanterns. A child is found in the arms of a frozen mother. The toymaker takes the little girl to his home. The clock strikes twelve while he is comforting her and his little son walks in. Both children smile. The scene fades. They are seen again—happy school children about ten years old. Again the scene fades, the leaves are falling: it is autumn. The boy and girl are about 18 or 19. A bird is singing. It is obvious the old man approves their romance.

A travelling French company comes to town. The boy falls in love with the leading actress. He builds a doll set to reproduce the entertainment. The girl helps manipulate the figures. They come "to life, and in the movements with song and music, which follow, the truth is revealed to him. They are happy. These roles are played by David Rollins and Nancy Drexel.

“Forget Me Not” is indeed a Christmas pantomime, with the added novelty of being presented in sound. The usual excellent supporting programme one finds at the Majestic is also presented with music by Mr. Whiteford-Waugh’s orchestra. At the matinees a special film, “The Circus Kid,” starring little Frankie Darro, is presented specially for the children.