STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 933, 28 March 1930, Page 14

STRAND

“THE LOVE PARADE” The current programme at the Strand Theatre, which is headed by George Bancroft in “The Mighty,” will have its final presentation there today. Maurice Chevalier, the famous Parisian musical comedy star, who scored a distinct per-

sonal triumph in his first talking picture, “Innocents of Paris,” makes his second appearance on the auidible tecreen at the Strand Theatre tomorrow in Paramount’s lavishly produced musical extravaganza. “Tho Love Parade.”

Beautifully pho- _. _, tographed, hand- Maurice Chevalier somely mounted and featuring a half dozen songs destined to be hits of the season, “Tho Love Parade” emerges as a distinctive picture, brilliantly directed and acted with great zest and evident enjoyment by the incomparable Chevalier and his fine supporting cast. “The Love Parade” is really an operetta, originally conceived and written directly for the screen. In no way does it attempt to be a stage production. It raises no barriers for itself to hurdle. “The Love Parade” is romance, comedy, song and dance, photographed against a stunning background, allowing the camera to function with full freedom and thereby imbuing it with delightful, unrestrained action that only imaginative direction and excellent acting can give it. “The Love Parade” is buoyant, unfettered, always original, a structure made to order for the dashing Chevalier and his beautiful leading lady, Jeanette MacDonald, a charming recruit from the New York musical comedy stage. The songs featured in the picture and sung either by Chevalier or Miss MacDonald are solos or duets, which include “My Love Parade,” “Anything to Please the Queen,” “Nobody’s Using it Now,” “My Dream Lover,” and “Paris Stay the Same.” There is also “March of the Grenadiers,” featured by a large chorus and “Let’s Be Common,” a comedy number sung by two supporting comedians, Lupino Lane and Lillian Roth. The music, all of it particularly tuneful, was composed by Victor Schertzinger, who wrote “Marcheta.” The lyrics were written by Clifford Grey and the screen play by % the wellknown Guy Bolton. Ernst Lubitsch directed “The Love Parade.” Widely known as the director of “The Marriage Circle” and “The Patriot,” this famous German director brings that interpretation of this picture that makes it one of the outstanding productions yet seen and heard on the talking screen.