DANCER IN “SALLY”

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1048, 12 August 1930, Page 15

DANCER IN “SALLY”

COMING TO THE ST. JAMES In the front row of the chorus in “Sally,” Marilyn Miller’s First National and Vitaphone picture at the St. James Theatre this week, is a girl who has the most marvellous memory for dance steps in Hollywood. She is Frances Grant, who has danced in choruses diretced by Larry Ceballos, famous terpsichorean instructed for several years. Ceballos merely asks Frances to dance a certain step the leading lady did in a musical show on Broadway five years ago, and the little miss can reproduce it without hesitation. She is a “walking dance library” for the maestro, and he keeps her with him wherever he happens to be working. Ceballos directed, many big musical shows on Broadway before going to Hollywood to stage dances for the motion pictures. He directed all the dances in “Sally,” the all-dialogue, alltechnicolour picture which is based upon Marilyn Miller's most successful stage show.

Marilyn Miller, Broadway’s brightest dancing beauty, makes her first film appearance in “Sally,” which has been filmed entirely in technicolour, and which excels the stage play with its all-colour spectacle. Added to this magnificence are the poignant moments, the entrancing love story, wherein Miss Miller demonstrated that not only is she a beautiful dancer but also a clever actress.

Leading New York daily critics select each year the ten best pictures. In naming “Sally” as his choice, Morda.unt Hall, of the New York “Times,” makes particular reference to the “dainty dancing and pleasing singing” of Marilyn Miller. Hall goes on to say: “Sound reproduction is excellent and the dancing spectacles never so lengthy as to be tedious.”

A powerful drama of the Hussion Revolution is, “Song of The Flame,” which has been hailed everywhere as being extraordinary impressive by reason of its magnitude and lavish sets, as well as a sweeping epic treatment of an exciting period of history. Alexander Gray and Bernice Claire are the romantic leads in a love story of great simplicity and appeal, while Noah Beery has one of his most powerful roles in this spectacular screen operetta.