AMUSEMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 261, 4 November 1929, Page 9

AMUSEMENTS.

REGENT THEATRE.

"Glorifying the Wire-Walker" might be suggested as an alternative title for "Dangerous Curves," Clara Bow's second talking picture, which opened at the Recent Theatre on Saturday evening. Richard Arlen has the role of Larry Lee, the world's best wire-walker, and Clara Bow appears as Pat Delaney, another circus performer whose ambition is to do an act with Lee. There are several splendid sequences of wire-walking in the film. Nearly all the scenes arc or wonders performed up in the top of the tent, fifty feet from the ground, and there is an exceptionally fine shot of Lee's crash from the wire to the. sawdust ring beneath. When the story opens Miss Bow is seen as a member of a troupe of equestriennes, while Lee has two partners, Toni and Zara, with whom both men are in love. It is the realisation that Zara really cares for Toni that brings about Lee's" fall. He quits the circus, intending never to return. A clever piece of persuasion by Pat brings him back, and they plan a. wire act together. Then Pat's hopes have to withstand a heavy blow when Lee decides that to do the act he must have Zara back again. Another outburst of temper and a fit of despondency followswhen Lee learns that she still loves Toni. In his fury Lee becomes too drunk to perform, and Pat, still unwilling to give him up, takes the wire in his place. There, fifty feet above the crowd, she slips and glides, every moment expecting to crash, while the audience thinks it is merely part of the act. It is Lee's realisation that she has risked her life for him in taking his place that brings a happy ending to this entertaining circus story. . Miss Bow and Arlen make a splendid co-starring team, and there are several other good performances, especially those of Kay Francis as Zara Flynn and Anders Randolph as Brock, the circus proprietor. With the film there is a well-selected budget of supporting numbers. A short revue is presented by a collection of well-known performers, including the Locust Sisters, Johnny Marvir., Roseraarie Sinnot, and George Dewy Washington, the negro baritone, who sings "On the Road to Mandalay." An entertaining novelty is a song-cartoon, "My Pony Boy." A Patlie Sound News and a Pathe Audio Review are the other picture numbers,