THEATRE ROYAL TALKIES.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19691, 7 August 1929, Page 6

THEATRE ROYAL TALKIES.

♦ "ALIAS JIMMY VALENTINE'* TO-MORROW. To-night will be the final screening at the Theatre Royal o£ "The Mail I Love," which has proved so popular with Cliristchurch audiences. To-morrow's change of programme will be headed by "Alias Jimmy Valentine," starring Wiliiam Haines. From the time he is revea.ed as a wise-cracking crook who compietiey deceives half a dozen police departments until the tinai great moment when he is morally obliged to reveal his true identity, William Hames will rivet the attention ot the aud.ence on "Alias Jimmy Valentine." This most popular star makes his debut as a crook 111 this picture, and, surrounded by a notable cast, he dominates the gr.pping story from end to end. His admirers will flock to see "Alias Jimmy Valentine," and will pronounce it easily his masterpiece. The story reveals Haines as a whimsical sate-ci acker, operating by means of sandpapering his finger tips so that they can be made sufficiently sensitive to open any coinbnation, outwitting the citj s keenest sleuth, until he is reformed by love of a girl, when his sweetheart's little sister is accidentally locked in a bank vault and he is morally obliged to reveal his identity by freeing the child to save her life. Lila flyams, whom Henry Clive, a famous American artist proclaims the most beautiful blonde in America, plays the heroine, and Lionel Barrymore is seen as the detective who pursues the reformed hero to a dramatic climax. Howard Hickman plays the banker father of the heroine, and Karl Dane and Tully Marshall appear as Haines's accomplices. The drama is powerful, the romance charming, and there are several interludes of comedj that will convulse every audience. Haines's gifts as a comedian have ample opportunity in the comical country church scenes, in the scenes with the police, and in the episode of the photographic alibi when he survives the third degree. Star, cast, story, direction, production—drama, thrills, comedy— "Alias Jimmy Valentine" has them all 100 per cent. The supporting programme is claimed to be probably the strongest yet seen in this City, including as it does such worldfamous vaudeville stars as Bob Nelson, Barnado de Pace, Johnnie Marvin, and the Gus Edward' Revue Company. The box plan is now open at The Bristol Piano Company.