“THE HOLLYWOOD REVUE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 903, 21 February 1930, Page 16

“THE HOLLYWOOD REVUE”

HUGE CAST IN NEXT REGENT PICTURE “The Hollywood Revue,” Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s big musical motion picture spectacle which is, in reality, the screen’s first revue, will have its first showing in Auckland at the New Regent Theatre next week. The new talking-singing-dancing production is said to have the most imposing cast ever assembled for a photoplay. “The Hollywood Revue” differs from “The Broadway Melody,” Metro-Goldwyn’s other singing and dancing production, in that it is distinctly of the revue school of entertainment rather than of the musical comedy type, consisting of songs, dances, skits, tableaux and “blackouts,” with no connecting story. It is said to be patterned after the more ambitious Broadway stage revues, and to illustrate effectively the possibilities of the audible screen for this type of production. In the cast of “The Hollywood Revue” are .most of the prominent players at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio. Marion Davies, John Gilbert. Norma Shearer, William Haines, Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore, Buster Keaton, Karl Dane, George K. Arthur, Marie Dressier, Conrad Nagel, Gus Edwards, Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy and Gwen Lee all appear in the new picture, in addition to the trio featured in “The Broadway Melody”—Anita Page. Charles King and Bessie Love. Their talents are supplemented by such stage luminaries as the Bronx Sisters, Natacha Nattova Cliff Edwards (Ukulele Ike), Jack Benny, the Rounders and the Albertina Rasch ballet. Twenty original song numbers were prepared by the large staff of writers and composers now under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for the new song and dance production. Several of these, notably “Singin’ in the Rain,” “Orange Blossom Time” and “Your Mother and Mine,” have already become the popular numbers of the dayin Los Angeles, where “The Hollywood Revue” recently had its opening at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and is the singing film sensation on the West Coast.