BRITISH FAVOURITES IN BRIGHT TALKIE

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 29, 25 January 1935, Page 16

BRITISH FAVOURITES IN BRIGHT TALKIE

----e Betty Balfour With Gordon Harker in "My Old Dutch" LBERT CHEVALIBR’S famous song is brought to life once more in the talkie version of "My Old Dutch," the Gainsborough (Gaumont-British) production which is to have simultaneous release at the Civic Theatre, Auckjand, and the State Theatre, Wellingion, this week, "My Old Dutch," too, brings back Betty Balfour, the popular jittle English star who won. herself millions of admirers by her Cockney portrayals in the "Squibs" series of sUent films.

In "My Old Dutch" she starts as.a girl of eighteen, sprightly and full of life, and she ages grecefully with the assistance of marvellous make-up. Co-starred with her is Gordon Havker, as Hrnie, a real Cockney charac. ter full of pugnacity, but having the traditional "good heart" of hig type Yet another brilliant artist is Michael Hogan. |Mr, Hogan wrote a good deni of the Cockney dialogue for the film in addition to playing the role of Bert, Betty Balfour's filin "husband. The evergreen Florrie Forde, yvaudeville star, plays the role of Aunt Bertha, and delights in the "’appy *Ampstead" sequence with «a sparkling rendition of one of the numbers that made her famous, "The Old Bull and Bush." Glenhis Lorimer, a Gaumoni‘British baby stat, hag her first big part in pictures, while Mickey Brantford. former player of juvenile roles, has 2 vig break in the picture as Jim, An interesting story attaches to the original silent film version of "My Old Dutch," scenes from which are shown on the screen of an 1893 cinema that is the ‘scene of one of the comedy sequences of the Gaumont-British talkie of the same name just produced. The Silent version was,made by Ideal. in 1915, and was. wricten round Albert Chevalier’s.song. Chevalier then used the film story as a basis of a stage play. Ultimately .the question arose as to who owned the story. rights. But before a decision was reached Chevalier died, and the Ideal Company waived all rights in the story as a gesture. te Mrs. Chevalier. In the original version the leading: roles were played by Ohevalier and Florence Turner, roles played in the present film by Betty Balfour and Michael Hogan.