Better Films

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 862, 4 January 1930, Page 21

Better Films

SWIFT TALKIE PROGRESS Stage Influx Improves Acting THE closing months of the old year have witnessed an increasingly-swift Improvement in the quality of pictures, and there is every indication that 1930 will provide talkie fare of unprecedented quality. A review of the changing conditions at the- principal film centres indicates strongly that producers are reaching new standards, while, on the other hand, histrionic powers are being rated on a much higher plane.

» LARGER number of stage actors are being seen in pictures, a fact that has raised the standard of acting considerably and has done away with doll-faced ingenues. The women of the stage are not so pretty as the picture actresses, but they make up in acting power and beauty of expression what they lack in mere prettinessu There is an example in Claudette Colbert, who appears in “The Lady Lies,” a wise and artistically made picture. Miss Colbert, a well-known artist of the American legitimate stage, has a certain sort of beauty—people who havo seen her on the stage say she is very beautiful, but on the screen it does not come through completelyHowever, her speaking voice is lovely, she has magnetism, intelligence and the art of impersonation. DEATH INTERVENES Ruth Chatterton, of course, is al-

ready well established in Hollywood and is making pictures steadily and with steady improvement. Jeanne Eagels, unfortunately, died after making only two talkies, one of which, “The Letter,” has been seen at Auckland’s Regent. “Evidence” brings more stage folk to the films. It has Pauline Frederick as its star, and with her are Lowell Sherman, William Courtenay and Conway Tearle, a brilliant quartet. The story of the picture is interesting and gives opportunity for these excellent actors to do their best. BRITISH TALKIES Comparatively little has been heard of British productions since the sensation caused by “Blackmail,” but they are by no means inactive for all that. The recruiting of such people as Margaret Bannerman and others practically world-famous will have its fruits in the New Year. It is in its army of thoroughly competent players that Britain holds her motion picture strength, and it will not be the fault of circumstance if her producers fail to turn the talkie situation to their account in the New Year.