THRILLS AND MELODRAMA

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1041, 4 August 1930, Page 15

THRILLS AND MELODRAMA

“THE WOMAN RACKET” NATIONAL’S FINE SHOW Chinese cafes, night clubs and Bowery gangster hang-out.s furnish the background for “The Woman Racket,” Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s new all-talk-ing picture featuring Blanche Sweet and Tom Moore which opened on Saturday at the National Theatre. As a photographic picture of cosmopolitan night life, this production retains all the piot’s exciting features without stamping the work with a “ten, twenty, thirty melodrama” feeling. Torti Moore is again cast as a policeman, a role in which he has long been familiar to movie-goers. This picture gives him his first opportunity to use an.amusing Irish brogue. Miss Bwn«*t also makes use of the sound development U> sing popular songs in the cabaret sequences. The story centres about a night club hostess who is torn-between her love of Broadway’s gaiety and the longing for marriage and a home. Miss Sweet, looking equally stunning in the luxurious gowns in which she entertains at the night club and the simple frocks worn in her Bronx flat after she marries the policeman, gives a finely studied performance. Moore as usual is excellent as the whimsical Irish cop. Comedy relief is injected by Tenen Holtz, as well as by Leo White,., y** the club manager and the French chef, and two interesting parts are played by. Richard Travers and Nita Mar tan as the two gamblers. Among the exciting incidents of the picture are the night club raid, the battle between police and gangster's, and the sensational rescue of the heroine by a fire department pulmotor squad. Spectacular dance numbers mark the night club sequences. A wonderful array of talking, singing and dancing featurettes was presented on the same progvamme. There was a mbst interesting . Metrotone News, a sound cartoon, songs by George D. Washington, an item by Francis White, the song, “The' Curtain Comes Down” and, best of all, a sketch by tji,e ever popular “Our Gang” of kiddies.