STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1011, 30 June 1930, Page 15

STRAND

“LITTLE JOHNNY JONES” Viewing New York night life as a. man ten feet tall might see it, is a novel experience in store for film spectators who will see “Little Johnny Jones” at the Strand Theatre. This innovation was intx-oduced into the First National and Vitaphone alltalkingl version of th 2 greatest favourite am ng George M, Cohan’s musical comedy hits by Director Mervyn Leßoy. He elevated practically all of his cameras to a height of ten feet for filming sequences of New York City night; life, race-track crowds, cafe throngs and chorus-girls. Normal camera height is sft Sin. Other odd elevation shots have also been used, including some from below the normal level and some directly over a night club crowd. Leßoy believes that striking photographic effects enhance the dramatic interest and the entertainment value of a screen story. Eddie Buzzell is featured in the title role of “Little Johnny Jones,” and Alice Day enacts the heroine. Edna Murphy, Robert Edeson, Donald Reed and Wheeler Oakman are among other favourites in the cast. “Little Johnny Jones” is a dramatic love story, with many thrills in the racing sequences. It is not a musical comedy recorded on film. However, Buzzell sings two of the familiar song hits of the Cohan musical version, and several others which have been specially written for the picture. A splendid programme of shorter talkie featurettes is also being shown.