CIVIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 889, 5 February 1930, Page 15

CIVIC

“THE TRESPASSER” One wonders—after seeing and hearing Gloria Swanson in “The Trespasser,” at the Civic Theatre —whether the star hasn’t introduced, in her first all-dialogue United Artists picture, a new era in audible films. Certainly Miss Swanson’s independently produced United Artists picture unfolds a technique that is new to the speaking screen. All of which amounts to the most pleasing sort of entertainment. Popular interest of course focuses on the fact that Miss Swanson talks —and sings. Miss Swanson’s voice is a delight to the ear. Had she never entered pictures, her stage voice would have guaranteed stardom in the legitimate theatre. In the new technique manifested in “The Trespasser,” one sees the hand of Edmund Goulding at work. There is suspense crowding suspense, with the plot always taking a turn contrary to that expected. The theme concerns a successful girl of the business world and her marriage to the son ii of a Chicago millionaire. It is not ' ! until the hero, Robert Ames, has mar- ! ried again, that he discovers he is the father of the heroine’s son. What happens when the invalid second wife insists that the heroine take her husband and go away with him; when the heroine refuses to do so, and eventually sacrifices her boy to the care of his grandfather, all provides an emotional crescendo that finds a happy solution in the last lines of the dialogue. A full entertainment of musical and dancing features is also presented. Mr. Ted Henkel’s Civic Unit Orchesera plays “The Blue Danube Waltz” as an overture, and on the stage a modern interpretation of Tannhauser. Fred Scholl at the grand organ pleases with his playing. His numbers are “In a Monastery Garden” and a comedy sketch on the derivation of names. Two of the most popular leading : male screen stars are cast in Para- ; mount’s picturisation of W. Somerset Maugham’s “Charming Sinners.” They I are Clive Brook and William Powell. “Charming Sinners,” which will show at the Civic Theatre on Saturday, has Ruth Chatterton, Mary Nolan and Laura Hope Crews in the cast. It is a brilliant domestic drama by the famous English author.