NEW REGENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 915, 7 March 1930, Page 15

NEW REGENT

“THE HOLLYWOOD REVUE’’ “The Hollywood Revue,” a real screen revue, was shown at the New Regent Theatre to a crowded house again last evening. Jack Benny, droll professional master of ceremony, introduced the acts, ably assisted by Conrad Nagel. Nagel gives an act of his own, too, bursting out in song, a love ditty that he sings to Anita Page, thereby proving himself one of the best songsters on the dialogue screen. Tho talents of Marion Davies get a better display, or should we say more of Miss Davies’ talents are displayed than ever before. She sings and does a tap dance that will strike envy to the hearts of many a professional tapdancer. Her act, titled “Tommy Atkins On Parade,” is certainly one of the highlights of the production. She effects her entrance through aii archway made by the legs of a chorus of six-foot soldiers, sings her song and then dances on top of a huge drum held aloft by the ensemble. Buster Keaton gives a novelty Egyptian dance; Norma Shearer and John Gilbert appear in a take-off on “Romeo and Juliet,” with Lionel Barrymore seen directing them. Charles King, Cliff (Ukulele Ike) Edwards, and Gus Edwards, inject their personalities throughout the programme in a series of numbers. Among (heir most amusing being a song. “Charlie. Ike and Gus,” which has a sequel, “Marie, Polly and Bess,” sung by the three actresses, who stray in and out of the production, shedding comedy and gorgeous fun at their every appearance, Polly Moran. Bessie Love and Marie Dressier. But this paean of praise has to end somewhere. Everybody who wants to be entertained, who wants to see the newest •step of progress the screen has made, who wants to be first at hearing the coming song hits, who wants to see a typical New York musical extravaganza for the price of a movie, who wants to give their eye and ear a treat and shed whatever cares and troubles they may have for one evening’s exquisite fun, should rush to the Regent Theatre and purchase a ticket for “The Hollywood Revue.”