ST. JAMES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 917, 10 March 1930, Page 15

ST. JAMES

"THE DESERT SONG” Quite the most delightful comedy scenes in the history of the talking picture take place between Louise Fazenda and Johnny Arthur, the two funsters in the all-star cast in “The Desert Song,’* the Warner Brothers’ Vitaphone production which has made screen history as the first operetta to be transferred to films in its entirety, and which may be seen on the screen of the St. James Theatre. The fair Louise, transformed into a ravishing blonde by means of a golden wig, plays the part of Susan, and Arthur is Benjamin Kidd, an eccentric newspaper correspondent who is captured by a marauding Riff band under the leadership of the mysterious Red Shadow, and who is reduced to abject terror before he is finally released as harmless. Subsequently Susan and Bennie wander for two days over th<=desert mounted on a procrastinating donkey which is only induced to move in a forward direction by a wisp of hay suspended a few inches in front of his nose. Other prominent parts in “The Desert Song” are played by John Boles, Carlotta King, Myrna Loy. John Miljan, Marie Wells, Jack Pratt. Edward Martindel, Robert E. Guzman, Otto Hoffman and others, in addition to a magnificent chorus of 100 voices—a veritable triumph for the Vitaphone. Roy Del Ruth directed this enormously successful musical play. The programme at the St. James I also includes two other talkie items, Inn orchestra overture. “Poet and Peasant.” and an all-talking comedy by George Jesse!.