STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 870, 14 January 1930, Page 15

STRAND

HAROLD LLOYD TOMORROW The current programme at the Strand Theatre will have its final screening this evening. This includes “The Greene Murder Case,” the talkie thril- | ler based on the S. S. Van Dine story, also a number of enjoyable short talkie items. Tomorrow Harold Lloyd’s first talking comedy, “Welcome Danger,” will be presented. Talk about your high-tension excitement! There is nothing so electrical in effect upon the principals as preview time at the Harold Lloyd studio. Like a prize fighter and his backers awaiting the gong for an opening championship battle, the comedian and his staff are keyed to a high fettle as they await the verdict of the audience before whom the picture is about to get its “try-out.” This was especially true of “Welcome Danger,” Lloyd’s first sound and dialogue picture. which comes to the Strand Theatre tomorrow. It was virtually a new field the comedian was invading. It took him back to the days when he was trying out “Grandma’s Boy,” which was his first feature-length comedy. The public wouldn’t accept five-reel comedies, he had been advised, yet “Grandma’s Boy,” was not only accepted, but broke box-office records everywhere, and established Lloyd in the first rank of screen stars. “Welcome Danger” was hailed as another step forward in talking pictures by all the audiences who saw it previewed. It gets back to the old style pf picture making, with speed, action, thrills and romance, mingled like only Lloyd can mix them. The dialogue and the sound blended perfectly with the action, in many spots lifting the picture clear above anything Lloyd has ever done before. Harold Lloyd has a new series of ripping mystery stunts in “Welcome Danger”—good for a thousand thrills, and innumerable laughs. And, of course, there’s a breath-taking romantic background which makes the hilarious story all the more stirring. “Welcome Danger” is one of the best films Lloyd has made. Barbara Kent is his charming leading lady and Noah Young, Charles Middleton and William Walling add to the gaiety. “Welcome Danger” is Lloyd’s greatest triumph. An exceptionally enjoyable supporting programme will be presented. Emma Dunn plays the mother role in “Side Street,” formerly titled “Forty Ninth Street,” the Radio Picture which boasts the appearance for the first time in any one picture of the three Moore brothers —Owen, Tom and Matt. Frank Sheridan will play the role of father in this production, which is to be directed by Mai St. Clair. Mother roles have been played by Miss Dunn for years, with marked success. On the stage she starred in “Old Lady 31” and played in “Buddies” and “Peer Gynt.”

Victor McLaglen has been besieged by stamp collectors in persons, by telephone and by mail since the story was printed that his fan mail comes from all parts of the world. McLiaglen has correspondents in China, Africa, Ceylon, Bombay, the Fiji Islands, Tahiti, South America, Germany, France, England. The amateur philatelists are not interested in fan mail, bun they are eager to have the foreign envelopes.