REGENT THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 September 1939, Page 2

REGENT THEATRE

“THE GREAT WALTZ.” Magic melodies of Vienna amid a dramatic, romantic story of the musician who was the voice of the gayest city in the world, brings Luise Rainer, Fernand Gravet, and Miliza Korjus, Viennese opera star, to the screen in “The Great Waltz,” drama of the life of Johann Strauss, which opens tonight at the Regent Theatre. Not only the physical Vienna of the period but its spirit are caught in the romantic story of the Waltz King’s life and loves. Strauss’s waltzes and operetta airs are presented in spectacular sequences in the Imperial Opera, the Dommayer Casino, grand ball sequences, and the court of Emperor Franz Josef. The story deals, with the composer from the tjme he lost his position as a bank clerk and turned to music to his final honours in the Emperor’s court. His marriage to the sweetheart of his youth and his subsequent infatuation for a brilliant opera star who sends him back to his faithful wife, form the plot against which dazzling spectacle, ballets, and other glamorous incidentals bedeck the best-loved music in the world. Gravet, French star, plays Strauss, appearing throughout the story as a young man until the final scenes where he appears during old age, the Strauss best known to the world. Luise Rainer is appealing and powerfully dramatic as Poldi, the wife. Mme. Korjus, credited with one of the greatest voices in the world, has a fine flair for comedy, and makes Carla Donner, the singer, a glamorous figure. Musically the picture is outstanding. Symphony orchestras of 90 pieces, are recorded through nine separate sound channels in the largest recording task in screen history. Choruses of 100 voices figure in opera sequences and in the singing of “Tales of the Vienna Woods” and other songs lyricised by Oscar Kammerstein 11. Albertina Rasch presents a brilliant ballet in the Imperial Opera sequence.