CRYSTAL PALACE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19979, 14 July 1930, Page 5

CRYSTAL PALACE.

"THE CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD."

Musical comedy-drama will not pass into the limbo of forgotten things; not, at any rate, while such pictures as "The Captain ol the Guard" are produced.. This story of the French Revolution, with a host of great his torical names in its oast, with Rouget de l'Tsle for hero, and the Bourbon.; Court and the Peoples' Tribunal and the tumultuous streets of Paris, for a background, comes to the screen by way of an American film producing , company, and it might be a Drury Lane production. "The Captain of the Guard" opens a season at Crystal Palace Theatre to-day. It is a romantic musi cal play, based on certain facts of history, a lot ol it frankly and beautifully romantic, and all of it is a magnificent flourish of brave deeds, dark deeds, gallant men and pretty women. John Boles has the part ol Rouget' de d'lsle, who wrote "La Marseillaise," and was a noble turned revolutionary. Boles brings his de l'lslo up from the south as a debonair, dashing captain of guards. He is n«ver pompous, wooden, or effusively romantic. He fights, Bingß, ana makes love with eager facility. B ilea brings a light-hearted touch-and-go about his gallantry that keeps romance from becoming soapy, and makes swashbuckling agreeable even to these times. Laura la Plante p?aysa daughter of the people, a black-haired la Plante who reveals an astonishing flair for fiery drama, fierce revolutionary sentiments, and a. vast capability of. giving her love to the captain of the King's Guards. Sam d« Grasse, who has played Talleyrand, and Richlieu. and Mazarin, and all the other rulers 67 French Kings, is himself Majesty in "The Captain of the Guard," and Evelyn Hall is "the Austrian." Lionel Belmoro Danton, or Murat or Robespierre, and there is a slender touch of humour now and then by a valet, or an innkeeper or a recruit that is not amiss. For once a musical play of the screen is not dominated by the chorus, tlie ballet, or the wardrobe mistress, although every* hing about the externals of the picture is solid and good. It isj as it should be, a fine boot-and-saddle drama of Paris in the year 1789. The box plans are at The Bristol.