NEW REGENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 983, 28 May 1930, Page 18

NEW REGENT

“NOT SO DUMB” COMING Ruth Chatterton, charming romantic actress who graduated from the Broadway stage to the new and more popular medium of the screen, is at the New Regent Theatre, in her fourth production within a year, “The Laughing Lady.” This Paramount comedy-drama is based on a stage success by the British playwright, Alfred Sutro. Miss Chatterton is supported by Clive Brook and more than a dozen character actors recruited from the Broadway stage. Her earlier releases were “The Dummy,” “Madame X,” and “Charming Sinners.” Victor Schertzinger, director of “Redskin” and “Nothing but the Truth,” was the director of “The Laughing Lady,” which is accompanied by several excellent supporting items. “The Bishop Murder Case,” coming to the Regent on Friday, is described as being the greatest mystery murder ever screened. The cast includes Basil Rathbone, Leila Hyams. George Marion and Roland Young. The story concerns Philo Vance, the scientific detective who is called in when Joseph Cochrane Robin is found dead with an arrow in his heart, and with a note couched in nursery rhyme stuck in the post box of Professor Dillard, signed “The Bishop.” A second murder occurs shortly. Johnny Sprigg is murdered en route to keep an appointment w?th Belle, whom he has •written that he has an important clue. A black bishop from a chess set is laid in his hands. At about the same time a black bishop is dropped as a warning before the door of Mrs. Drukker. whose sickroom overlooked the archery range where Robin was murdered. Later Drukker is killed in the park, and Mrs. Drukker dies in her room from heart failure. Arnesson had a perfect alibi for murder number one. but suspicion begins to fasten on him; also upon Pardee. One night, however. Pardee is found dead over his chess table, with a black bishop perched on a fantastic house of cards. Just when the chase seems hopeless Philo Vance suddenly makes a hurried trip back to the Dillard house. In a series of sequences leading to the denouement the onlooker is carried forward to the final dramatic unveiling of the murderer.