NEW REGENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1003, 20 June 1930, Page 17

NEW REGENT

“THE VAGABOND KING’’ On© of the most successful operettas of recent years, the glamorous "The Vagabond King,’ has been converted to the majestic magnitude of the talking screen, and win be seen and heard at the New Kegent Theatre today. Dennis King, who established the original thrilling title role, will be seen and heard in the same part in the picture, which is all-singing, talking and 100 per cent, technicolour. In the year 1463 the vagabonds of Paris are on the verge of revolt against their weak king, Louis XI. (O. P. Heggie), because he seems to be making no attempt to defend Paris from the Burgundian army, which is camped outside the city gates. Heggie's grand marshal, Warner Oland, is a traitor secretly in league with the Burgundians. He plots the murder of Heggie and of Heggie's beautiful royal niece, Jeanette MacDonald. Oland’s ruffians attack Jeanette, but she is saved by Dennis King, leader of the vagabonds, who falls in love with her. She tells him that her love will go to the man who saves Paris from the Burgundian besiegers His astrologer tells Heggie that a man from the gutters will redeem Paris. Going in disguise to the tavern of the vagabonds, Heggie hears Kin? singing songs insulting him, and he sees him apparently killing Oland in a duel. He orders the arrest of King and of Lillian Roth, a girl of the streets who loves King. Convinced by his astrologer that King is tbe man who can save Paris, Heggie tells the singing ruffian that he can do one of two things—go back immediately to bis vagabonds in their tavern, or be King of France for one week and be hanged on the seventh day. Thinking of the regal Jeanette, King chooses to become temporary monarch. King, resplendent in court attire, reveals his true identity to Jeanette. Then he leads the vagabond army, singing their thrilling "Song of the Vagabonds,” into a terrific battle with the Burgundians. The tattered Parisians win. In commemoration of the song in “The Vagabond King,” "Only a Rose.” every lady in the dress circle this evening will receive a fragrant rose as a souvenir.