REGENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1059, 25 August 1930, Page 15

REGENT

“THE BAD ONE”

“The Bad One,” starring Dolores Del Rio, is the current attraction at the Regent Theatre.

As the Y ivacious “Llta,” whose duty is divided Detween humouring her admirers into fatuous advances—for the sake of the wine they drink —and talking them out of those advances at the crucial moment, Miss Del Rio has a role that is even more puissant and robust than the “Charmaine” she played in “What Price Glory,” the first time she teamed with Edmund Lowe.

She trades jokes and winks with the roughest and best of the motley crew who spend their idle, drinking hours in her cafe, apparently makes love to them, entertains and dances for them, and above all remains a free agent in the love game until a swaggering American Don Juan of the seas plumbs the depths, of her heartThe plot swings into fast action the moment “Lita” gives the American one of her many keys reserved for her too-amorous wooers. 'The keys fits an empty room, of course, and the would - be-Romeos meet in disappointed groups, all but the American, who does find her room in another house and gains entry by climbing in through the window.

Amusing situations follow when the girl, who has steeled her heart against love, meets the man whose record as a lady-killer is traditional on all the seven seas.

From sheer comedy “The Bad One” dips into serious drama at the end when “Lita” sacrifices herself to voluntary confinement in an island penal institution to bo near the man she has wronged. Bright talkie supports complete an excellent programme. For the children during the school holidays there is a special morning session at 11 a.m., when Charlie Chaplin’s great comedy, “The Circus.” is screened. “The Circus” is regarded as Chaplin’s funniesj comedy and should bo thoroughly enjoyed by the children.