ST. JAMES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1024, 15 July 1930, Page 15

ST. JAMES

“ROOKERY NOOK” ON FRIDAY

Groat entertainment is provided by “No, No, Nanette,” the First NationalVita phono production which will be shown for only a few more days at St. James.

Tho film, based on the musical comedy that achieved such a success throughout tlio English-speaking countries of the world, is an improvement in many ways on the stage production. The settings have been made more spectacular and the cast has been enlarged. Tho musical score, while retaining all tho popular numbers sung on the legitimate stage, has been augmented by many appealing new songs. Tlio humorous element, provided by Louise Fazenda, Lucien Littlefield and Zasu Pitts, lias been stressed by the producers. An English film reviewer, after having seen tho talkerisution of Ben Travers’s great stage play, “Rookery Nook,” which is coining next Friday to tho St. James Theatre, called it “the laughter epic of the age.”

The truth of the assertion patrons will be able to judge for themselves, but it was unanimously agreed by the large English newspapers that only the highest praise could bo worthy of “Rookery Nook.” Brilliant dialogue, perfect, English diction, wonderful acting and direction make this a superlative entertainment.

In these days of Broadway, Broadway and more Broadway a really funny film is a rare treat. but “Rookery Nook” carries a laugh in every line, and to bo able to sit in a picture theatre and contribute to the hearty peals of laughter immediatedly disperses all your worries and troubles. Even after the film has ended pleasurable thoughts of unforced merriment linger in the mind. Laughter! the finest tonic and practically tl\e one universal emotion that can unite and make one at peace with the world in general. GREY LYNN CINEMA “River of Romance,” the chief talkie on the current programme at the Grey Lynn Cinema, is a charming, romantic story with a setting of the Mississippi River in the days before the Civil War. Charles Rogers appears as an aristocrat who rebels against the fashionable code of duelling. Nancy Carroll and June Colly er appear as young women of the period, and Noah Beery as a rascally gambling den owner.

Interesting talkie shorts are also being shown.