"FIREFLY" FILMED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 128, 2 June 1938, Page 10

"FIREFLY" FILMED.

FOR ST. JAMES' SEASON

Jeanette Mac Donald, famed singing star [of "Naughty Marietta" and "Rose Marie," [when co-etaried with Nelson Eddy, has another partner in her latest film, "The Firefly," which is scheduled for release at St. James' Theatre at to-morrow's sessions. It is Allan Jones, a young singer who will be remembered for his part in 'A Night at the Opera." He is stated by overseas critics to make a complete success of his "Firefly" role. Several songs from the original Rudolf Fruar operetta are rendered by the pair. Among the outstanding songs are "Love Ie Like a Firefly," "Guannina Mia," "A Woman's Kiss," and, perhaps the best known of them all, "You Need Sympathy." The film has its locale in France and Spain, and the period dealt with is the Peninsular War. Miss Mac Donald appears as a Spanish singer .and dancer, the Firefly, who hates, like so many of her countryfolk, Napoleonic rule. She decides to lend her aid as a French spy. A fine supportofst in "The Firefly" includes Warren William, Billy Gilbert, Tom Rutherford. 'The Firefly" was adapted from the story by Otto Harbach by a well-known United States journalist and poet, Ogden Nash, and throughout there is ample evidenoe of deft technique in direction by i Rooert Z. Leonard, and on the production side by Hunt Stromberg.