TWO OF THEM

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 943, 9 April 1930, Page 15

TWO OF THEM

DUNCAN SISTERS APPEAR IN TALKIE SPARKLE AT THE REGENT Theatre land's latest concession to the talking screen—the Duncan Sisters. Had one suggested, before films began to speak, that the Duncans would be seen and heard in Auckland early in 1930, he would have been greeted with impolite laughter. This because the clever sisters were (and still are) vaudeville “top-liners,” and it'is necessary to jingle much gold in luring topliners out of New York, let alone out of America. But talkies captured the Duncan Sisters together with the cream of America’s vaudeville acts. “It’s a Great Life,” like A 1 Jolson’s “Singing Fool,” and the Marx Brothers’ “Coconuts,” is a . show designed purely to exploit its principals. And as the principals are first-class artists whether singing, dancing, or being breezily funny, "It’s a* Great Life” comes fully up to expectations. It is a tuneful cocktail with a mellowing of pathos—as good an autumn evening pastime as the most case-hardened talkie-revue lover could wish for. The,performance of Rosetta Duncan is sheerly remarkable. As the elder “Hogan” sister, she is a show in herself, her vigorous comedy, clever singing and excellent acting making an instant appeal last evening to an enthusiastic Regent audience. Undoubtedly she is one of the finest comediennes of her type that has appeared in talkies and her amusingly forceful methods seem to suit the mechanical medium of production admirably. The younger sister sings and acts cleverly, more especially in the “on stage” sequences of “It’s a Great Life.” The supporting players give every assistance to the stars, particularly good performances going to the credit of Lawrence Gray and he who played Rosetta’s five-minute fiance. “It’s a Great Life” is well titled. It suggests, in one of those now familiar little musical screen tales about the ups and downs of stage careers, that life has to be taken much as it comes, with a lot of hard work and a good deal of personal sacrifice thrown in. We meet the Duncan Sisters in one of those modern American stores where, each morning, the staff sings a bright “sales” song about the customer being always right, and so forth, and where the day begins with a “Get together—pep, pep. pep!” talk. It is quite understandable that th** Duncans or, rather, the Hogans rebel at this, fall foul of the management, and find themselves earning their daily bread in vaudeville. Then come complications. One sister falls in love with a pianist who, perforce, must become part of j the act. The other sister quarrels inI cessantly and divertingly with the

young man, and the rift in the lute thus formed becomes of serious proportions. Finally the sisters part company. Then one falls ill and the other ruins her only chance of marital happiness by rushing to the sick bed. As the younger sister raves in the delirium of pneumonia there unfolds the glorious pictures of her imagination; the magnificence of a “big time’' theatre where, in a whirl 01 melody and girls, the Hogans capture Broadway. Then are introduced the outstanding scenes of the picture included in a technicolour sequence of great beauty. In it the dancing and general ensembles are of special merit. The Duncans sing “Following You,' the theme song, and one with a very catchy rhythm, “Smie, Smile, Smile.' and “Won’t You Be My Lady Love."' Rosetta is inimitable in “It’s an Old Spanish Custom,” and Lawrence Gray makes a success of “Sailing on a Sunbeam.” So the picture goes, with something of everything, but comedy predominating, and bright melodies wafting the laughter along. The supporting programme includea really funny' Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy knock-about farce, a “newsy’ Hearst sound and talking gazette, and several tuneful numbers by the Regem Orchestra.