TALKIES & VAUDEVILLE

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 53, 26 November 1930, Page 6

TALKIES & VAUDEVILLE

Films and the stage combine forces with very entertaining results at the Grand Opera House this week, where the Humphrey Bishop Company are on the same bill With the feature film, “A Dangerous Paradise.” The picture is a Joseph Conrad melodrama, with love, hate, murder, and robbery making lively play in a South Sea Island retreat which the author dares to cull Sourabaya (which is quite a respectable Javan city). There Alma, a little bit of female jetsam, Who plays the violin in a low-down cabaret, is pestered with the attentions of a rascally mob, including the dago conductor of the band, and the oily proprietor of the go-down. The Humphrey Bishop Company consists of dancers, singers, comedians, and musicians, who give a delightfully snappy entertainment, in which never a moment is wasted. Comic relief is provided by Maurice Barling, a versatile clown, who makes a laughing hit in a burlesque of Al Jolson singing “Sonny Boy,” and is also very amusing as the drill sergeant in the military finale, which lakes the musical form of the march song from “The Love Parade.” Another excellent character actor, singer and dancer is Arthur HMmsley. who sings some silly verses in Lancashire dialect very cleverly, and is exceedingly good as the coster in the sketch with Thelma Trott. The company possesses a sterling baritone in Walter Kingsley, who (in costume) sings “The Cobbler's Song,” from “Chu Chin Chow.” and that fine ballad, “Salaam,” with Fred Webmer (tenor), and Maurice Barling, Mr. Kingsley indulges in some trio trivialities. Thelma Trott is a serviceable soprano, Blaine Maye p smart comedienne. Of special quality is the throW-about dance of Desiree and Montigue. which commences with a leap from a rock, by the first-named. Desiree’s aerial arabesques are distinctly graceful and bewitching. Mention should also be made of the violin playing of Margaret Blackburn.