PLAZA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 875, 20 January 1930, Page 15

PLAZA

“TWO WEEKS OFF” Dorothy Mackaill and Jack Mulhall, co-stars of a score of silent and several synchronised feature pictures, made their first co-starring talkie debut at the Plaza Theatre in ‘ Two Weeks Off,” a First National V ltaphone picture. What Vi tap hone can do to add entertainment to a fir«t-rate comedydrama was aptly demonstrated in “Two Weeks Off.” Here is a splendid story made into a clever picture with hilarious dialogue and sound effects that add tremendously to its universal amusement qualities. As suggested by the title, the story centres around a summer vacation and its accompanying romance. Dorothy Mackaill, a clerk, and Jack Mulhall, a plumber, go to the seashore for a good time. They meet and fall in love, but Jack is mistaken for a motion picture actor, and the plot somersaults on itself, leaving as funny a mixup as has ever been pictured. A second big talkie being presented at the Plaza is “The Fall of Eve,” the hilarious talking-comedy which has been delighting audiences at the Civic Theatre during the past week. Ford Sterling, Patsy Ruth Miller and Betty Farrington are the stars in this tale of a man who tried to “pass off” his secretary as his wife, with surprising results, “THE HAWK’S NEST” AT LYRIC A new kind of underworld —that of a large city’s populous and mysterious Chinatown —furnishes the background of “The Hawk’s Nest,” starring Milton Sills, which is now at the Dvric Theatre. This first National Picture marks a distinct departure for Sills, who appears in the early part of the story as a disfigured war veteran with a make-up equally as good as anything Lon Chaney has achieved in recent years.. The story, which concern two underworld resorts operated largely to thrill tourists, is handled in unique manner by Benjamin Christensen, who achieves seme of the finest trick camera effects that have been seen since “The Last Laugh” and “Variety.” The air of Chinatown is symbolised as much by camera work as it is by actual Chinese architecture, the picture being given all the weird mystery of a “thriller” largely through such camera work. “The Fleet’s In.” a breezy comedy drama starring Clare Bow, is the second attraction. This is one of Clara's typical romances of two men and one girl, the men. this time being navy men.