CRYSTAL PALACE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19975, 9 July 1930, Page 8

CRYSTAL PALACE.

"SLIGHTLY SCARLET." The art o£ making perfect talking pictures, is evidently being rapidly, learned by Hollywood. "Slightly Scarlet," the latest presentation at the Crystal Palace Theatre, is technically. »» good as anything else that has boon seen in Christchurch. It is almost as good aa a good play, with the reservation that its histrionic defects aro compensated by'its wide rango of action —a range that would be impossible ■within the limitations of a stage. "THE CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD." Opening at the. Crystal Palace Theatre-nest week is "The Captain of, tho Guard," . a screen musical drama, written jound the exploits and adventure of Rouget de I'lsle, the royalist captain who afterwards became ono of the most rabid revolutionaries in Franco. . Th.> picture was originally titled "Tho Marseillaiso," for tho national song of the French is tho themo song of tho drama, and much of tho action revolves around the composition and singing of the forbidden anthem. "The Captain of tho Guard" has ' more than the pleasant virtue of originality to commend it. Boot-and.-saddle drama is always excellent fare when it is accompanied by vigorous song and jdubic, and when it ie swept along by fine crowd scenes. This picture teems with high, lights, among them being the storming • of the Bastille, the march on Paris of the Marseillaise mon, the singing of the revolutionary hymn be do i'lsle Kef ore King Louis. and his court, and many other brave -bcgugs. John Bolea has tho part of <Io I'lsle, who is a captain iu the King's Guards, aud u ho, by a miserable trick,played-by tho Itoyalists ou his lady love, is persuaded to join- the ranks of the rebels, baura la Plants is the. leading lady, a fiery daughter of the people. The bos plan opons at Tho Bristol to-morrov.