Rotund the Shows

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 980, 24 May 1930, Page 14

Rotund the Shows

LIFE IN 1940 STRIKING FILM OF WAR AND PEACE “HIGH TREASON” AT LONDON “I-ligli Treason,” the first Gaumont.British all-dialogue film, which was shown at the London Theatre yesterday as the first British film under the new policy, indicates that British producers are learning to adapt themselves to the requirements of this new form of entertainment, and on the whole Mr. Maurice Elvey has done Ills work well. In some ways he has been more ambitious than Mr. Hitchcock, the producer of “Blackmail,” for while Mr. Hitchcock showed us the London of today, Mr. Elvey has endeavoured to visualise the London of 1940. i a strange London it is, with a double-decker bridge at Charing Cross, with television in daily use, with the newspapers entirely superseded by the broadcasting service, with airships flymg overhead, with helicopters rising vertically from the roofs of city buildings, and with the blowing up of the Channel tunnel as a casus belli between the two great camps into which the world is divided. The 1940 age is evidently to be a purely mechanical one. Even in the night clubs the danl* 101 ” 0 than automatic nguies, and the jazz music is provided by mechanical means.

There are' so many trappings in High Treason” that the plot is apt to

be swamped at times, but there is quite an exciting- story o£ the leader of a great neace movement with more than 20,000,000 members who shoots the “President of Europe” at the moment he is to broadcast to the world the news that the European States are at war with the Atlantic

States. The Old Bailey is still standing in 1940, and the peace leader is duly convicted of murder after a trial in which the summing-up of the Judge is included in the day’s broadcasting> programme. The film ends on the prisoner’s remark: “I am content,” as

he points out that two lives will be laid down to save thousands of others. As the talkie, like the silent film, must apparently have a love interest, it is to be found in the affection of a commander of the aerial forces for the daughter of the peace leader and in the stern struggle between duty and inclination. The whole thing is admirably acted, alike by the principal players, Miss Benita Hume, Mr. Basil Gill, Mr. Humbertson Wright, and Mr. Jafheson Thomas, and by the largo army of “supers” who add to the excitement' by being drowned in the Channel tunnel, by being buried in bombed buildings, and by dancing to the mechanical music of 1940. One of the principal complaints against some talkies that have reached this country up to the present is that they give the impression that film actresses have roofless mouths. This certainly is not the case with Miss Benita Hume, whose voice records as well and as faithfully as that of Mr. Basil Gill, whose elocution might well be taken as a model by other actors for the speaking films. The new programme at the London Theatre also included some most enjoyable short talkie featurettes, all of them British.

RIALTO, NEWMARKET Two unusually entertaining films make up the new talkie programme to be presented at the Rialto Theatre, Newmarket, for a short season commencing today. The first attraction is “The Wolf of Wall Street, a powerful drama of a stockbroker, starring George Bancroft. Olga Baclanova has the role of his wife, and Paul Lukas and Nancy Carroll appear in minor roles. The second feature will be “Barkened Rooms,” a tale of spiritualism based on Sir Phillip Gibbs’s novel and starring Evelyn Brent and Neil Hamilton.

PLAZA TWO BIG COMEDIES WWi Glenn Tryon at the helm, Dames Ahoy” will sail into the Plaza Theatre today; bearing - as riotous a cargo of fun as has been consigned to the screen in many a long day. Tryon plays the part of an American sailor in this rollicking tale of a sailor ashore. Assisting i him are Otis Harlan and Eddie Gribbon, all three being women-haters from the drop of the anchor. How Tryon

stick his head in the noose of matrimony in order to free his old pal ■ Otis from a similiar predicament furnishes material for a picture that is one burst of merriment from be-

ginning to end Plelen Wright makes her screen debut as the leading woman of “Dames Ahoy.” Miss Wright, who has charm and talent of a rare order, is expected to go far in pictures. Most of the scenes of “Dames Ahoy” are laid at a breach resort. The adventures of Tryon and his sailor friends in looking for a blonde with a strawberry birthmark on her leg are hilarious in the extreme. How Tryon unwittingly wins a dancing contest, carrying the prizes of £IOO, a bungalow and a bride, is another subject for uncontrollable laughter. The / second big attraction on the new programme at the Plaza Theatre today is “The Taming of the Shrew,” the hilarious farce based on Shakespeare’s well-known comedy. Both Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks are the stars in this special talkie comedy.

AEOLIAN ORCHESTRA

The first concert of the 1930 season by the Aeolian Orchestra will be held in the Lewis Eady Hall on Tuesday evening next. In addition to. selections by the orchestra, under the acting-conductor, Mr. G. T. Lee, there will be solos and duets by Miss Lillian "Woods, soprano, and Mr. Lambert Harvey, lyric tenor.

“THE GREAT GABBQ” VENTRILOQUIST FILM COMING The star, of "The Great Gabbo" is Otto, the doll used by the ventriloquist. This picture, coming to. the Majestic shortly, is yet another story of the stage, but its dress- saasKaasms

Ing rooms are in- I habited by people I who seem to be I made of flesh and I blood. i Betty Compson. ] the undoubted pos- j scssor of personal- I ity. and a talented | dancer, shares with Erich von Stroheim ! the honour of making the picture live. E And Otto is uncann

•f'-iiu utuj in goou. He is the only human thing about the Great Gabbo, and so clever is the illusion that the audience thoroughly appreciates the emotional effect which he has on the girl. Von Stroheim’s acting is a pleasure to watch, and his voice suits the part of the ventriloquist. The whole performance is out of the ordinary, and the dancing in the gorgeous colour scenes of the revue is delightful. Particularly noteworthy is the vast spider’s web, on which the grace of the girls is fascinating. This, by the way, is reminiscent of the dance by Ivy Schilling and Fred Leslie in 1914.

ORGAN RECITAL Mr. Maughan Barnett, city organist, will give a recital in the Town Kali tomorrow afternoon, when he will play works by Bach, Mendelssohn and tVolstenholme, andantino by Sibelius and an attractive* marclj by LefebureWeby. r