REGENT

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21578, 14 September 1935, Page 12

REGENT

"ALL THE KING'S HORSES" There are many entertaining and extraordinary'' situations in "All the King's Horses," an amusing musicalcomedy romance being screened at the Regent Theatre. But the most extraordinary feature of a very interesting film is the double role played by Carl Brisson. If it is a genuine double role appearance throughout the film, then it is an unusually successful essay at rather a.difficult and risky film contrivance. Brisson, playing sometimes side by side with his double, acts as a matinee idol and then as a bearded king of a small European state who loses his wife until he cuts off his beard. Brisson's fine, appealing voice might, under an unwise direction, been used over-much in a story which could have given scores of opportunities for those tuneful interruptions of song which are part and parcel of good musical comedy. But here his voice, used with restraint, pleases even more because of the few times we hear it in romantic numbers, some of whicn are popular enough to have been whistled on Christchurch streets even before this film got here. A comparatively new and very glamorous young star, Mary Ellis, who can also sing delightfully, plays the queen to the bearded king, and later to Carl Brisson when he takes the king's place temporarily. She has an impetuous abandon about her acting which might make her as famous as many another star who has built up a reoutation more on restraint than on a'brmdon. She is lovely, and her work is original and charming. The etory has been ingeniously contrived to provide something new in intriguing romantic situations. The king cuts his beard off to please .his wife, who has left him temporarily because the king attends too much to the affairs of state and not enough to her. Carl Brisson takes the king's place while the king goes to Vienna to be taugm how to win the queen back. The queen returns before she should and the remarkable likeness of the innocent usurper leads to the most delicate complications. It is very amusing; the singing is entertaining and easy to listen to; there is good dialogue and much pretty dancing, witn striking scenery and ensembles.

The supporting films include one very striking feature—a colour travelogue of Guatemala, where the new colour technique reaches a high standard of perfection. The film gives a new angle on the romantic history and apparently pleasant life of Guatemala.