ST. JAMES THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 278, 20 August 1938, Page 16

ST. JAMES THEATRE

* “The Broken Melody”

When the Australian talkie industry was just starting, it showed a tendency to specialise in emotional, rather , oldfashioned melodrama in the style of “’The Silence of Dean Maitland.” Then came a period when vigorous open-air stories claimed its attention —such as "Tall Timbers,” "Rangle River,” and "Lovers and Luggers”—and it really looked as if tlye Australian industry might develop a type of entertainment with a distinctive, national flavour. Howeyer, in "The Broken Melody,” the Cinesound production which began yesterday nt. the St. James Theatre, the studio has gone back to the beginning with a naively theatrical story which, I think, only too plainly reveals the Australian film industry’s lack of experience in dramatising the adult emotions.

Compared with the efforts of Hollywood and most of those from England, “The Broken Melody” is amateurish. Whether it is fair to judge an Australian film by world standards is a moot point; the producers apparently invite such comparison. At the same time it is obvious that a great deal of enthusiasm and hard work has been lavished upon the production, and has made more of the trite story and the stock characters than might have seemed possible. With its familiar theme of the young musician who becomes famous, forgets his sweetheart at home, is involved with a tempestuous foreign prim a donna, hut eventually returns for a reconciliation with his sweetheart and his family, the story of “The Broken Melody” covers a lot of ground; ranging from Sydney to London, across most of Europe for the composer’s triumphant tour, and finally back to Australia. Lloyd Hughes does his best to make the hero’s role convincing; if he does not always succeed, it is mainly the fault of the story- and the stilted dialogue. The

heroine's character is also developed according to formula; she, too. makes good on the stage and. taking the prime donna’s part in the hero's opera when the star turns tem-

peramental, sav e s | the show on its first night. At the begin-

ning Diana du Cane is all at sea with the emotional demands of her role, but she improves somewhat for the finale, and sings well. Alec Kellaway, Frank Harvey. and Rosalind Rennerdale have other leading roles, mostly comic. In some of the settings one can see the canvas and plaster where one should be seeing, rock, but most of the scenery is convincing.