PLAZA THEATRE.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20730, 15 December 1932, Page 3

PLAZA THEATRE.

"MAXFAIR NIGHTS." Based on tiie career of one of London's most notorious night-club queens, ■ fair Nights," which commences on Saturday at the Plaza, brings to the screen something that will bo in the nature of an education for the average l\ r ew Zealand audience. Isobel Elsom, who is featured ;;.s the woman who epens a night club to givo her two daughters, the chance in life of which a dissolute father has deprivod them, has l'Oen called the Ruth Chatterton of the London stage. Comparisons in this case are not odious, but merely a mutual compliment. Sbe has that assurance and infinite charm that speak of a great rte.ge personality—an aitiitry that comes only by years spent behind the footlights. She lives her role, and her fascination —whether she is in tears or laughter—is always an integral part of her. As Evelyn Dean, sho values her daughters' happiness far more than Government regulations, and in the running of a gambling night club she flouts the law to carry out a parental duty; the children do not know from where the money comes until their mother is sent to gaol, and then they carry on the club legitimately. But always, when the facts of their mother's transgressions are brought to light, there is a social barrier. The vicissitudes of a struggling woman breaking the law for no reason other than mother-lore are moving, but the film i 3 removed from "straight" emotional drama by an abundance of action.