ST. JAMES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 923, 17 March 1930, Page 15

ST. JAMES

“THE DESERT SONG” “The Desert Song,” Warner Bros.’ latest Vitaphone novelty—a complete screen operetta, with music, songs, choruses, dances, dialogue—is scoring a magnificent success at the St. James Theatre. It is a novelty, but an enchanting one, and points the way to still greater triumphs for talking and singing pictures—the production of entire grand operas upon the screen. “The Desert Song” retains all the charm, colour, action, romance and tropic love of the stage production, but greatly enhanced by the motion picture camera's power of motion. The desert scenes were made in a desert and not in front of painted backdrops. The desert castle of the Caid, .with the splendours of its Oriental architecture, would fill several stages. The story gains in dramatic power and picturesqueness because of the natural backgrounds. Warner Bros. were fortunate in being able to select a cast of such excellent singers, most of whom have had both stage and screen training. John Boles, tenor lead, sang the same role in the stage presentation of “The I Desert Song” and has been a screen I leading man for several years. Carj lotta King, lyric soprano, is a concert j and radio artist of note. Their voices i register perfectly on Vitaphone, are j true in tone and sweet in quality, i Marie Wells and Robert E. Guzman also give splendid singing perform--1 ances. Others in the excellent cast are John Miljan, Edward Martindel, I Myrna Loy, Jack Pratt, Otto Hoffman and Del Elliott. The large chorus is well trained and possesses fine singing voices. Roy Del Ruth’s direction is splendid, and the photography is magnificent.