DE LUXE THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 234, 1 July 1939, Page 16

DE LUXE THEATRE

“Hold My Hand” And “The Mystery Of Mr. Wong”

Though the story of “Hold My Hand,” which screens at the De Luxe Theatre, is out of the usual stock-pot, it is vigorously amusing, thanks to .Stanley Lupino, who could not be dull if he tried. lie gets wholehearted assistance from Fred Emuey and Sally Grey. Eddie, a lighthearted and slightly irresponsible young man, gets himself into very deep financial waters through trying to make money for his ward Paula with a white-elephant newspaper which she owns. Eddie’s fiiancee Helen has a father, Lord Milchester, who is in up to his neck in Eddie’s plans. As a last resort the two try to dodge their troubles by stealing Lord Milchester's diamonds, which —you've guessed it—they find to be only paste. To cap Eddie's misery Helen takes up a former romance where it left off when Eddie came on the scene. In the midst'- of the general depression Jane, Eddie’s secretary, brings in the glad news that a good offer to sell the site of the newspaper office has been made. This brings home to Eddie that it is Jane he really loves and this and all the other loose knots get tied up. This picture, in short, gives light entertainment with a minimum of brain fag. “The Mystery of Mr. Wong,” with Boris Karloff as the perfect sleuth, is a film about a stolen

Oriental jewel and two murders. It gets its effects by not very subtle stunts. There is an interesting romantie sideline with Dorothy Tree as the basis, but the chief excitement, as might be expected, comes from the inevitable complications to which the great detective’s investigations give

1 / i Boris Korlott'.

rise. About average of its kind.

REGENT THEATRE “Stolen Life” Outstanding on the two counts of acting and story,- with the acting of Elisabeth Bergner well in the lead, is “Stolen Life,” which continues for a second week at the Regent Theatre. It is Bergner’s film, and she imbues it with the sparkle and depth of her personality. The story is an unusual one,. centring around the fortunes of identical twin sisters; identical, that is, in physical appearance, but widely different in character.. Sylvina is a. selfish madcap, capable, in her own words “of being faithful to no man when he is away.” Martina is unselfish, steady, a woman with real depth of character. Sylvina pretty well steals Martina’g man from under her nose, marries him, and then bids him farewell as he goes on a mountaineering expedition into the heart of Tibet. While he is away the sisters go for a holiday in Brittany; Sylvina is drowned. Martina takes on her sister’s identity and goes back as his wife. From then on she discovers that a person who has stolen another’s life is “in for a sticky time.” In the hands of an .aetresg less accomplished than Bergner. such a plot could easily have become florid and extravagant. That it does not is a tribute to her artistry, as is the fact that in the earlier sequences, before the death of Sylvina, she does not cjice confuse the audience as to “who was which.” Sylvina and MarTina are as distinctly different personalities as if they had been played bv two different actresses.

Difficult to handle must have been the part of the husband who apparently did not know his own mind about which girl he really loved, but Michael Redgrave is convincing whenever he appears. This is not so often as it might have been, possibly because Dr. Paul Czinner, producer and director, in concentrating attention upon his talented wife,, did not give the rising Redgrave all the opportunity lie might. Perhaps it is not Redgrave’s fault that he can detect no difference between the handwriting of his wife and that of her sister.

Proving his worth and versatility in a quiet presentation of the father of the twins, a retiring, kindly Englishman whose failing eyesight does not prevent his discovery of Martina’s deception, is Wilfrid (“Dustman Doolittle”) Lawson. A neat fragment of character-acting is contributed by Danielle Mendaille as Old Pauline, q, Breton fisherman. “Stolen Life” is, altogether, a subtle film, fragments from which will crop up in the memory for weeks after it has been seen. Bergner is no hammer-and-tongs artist: She puts her work aeros# with a minimum of fuss, and outward show, and for that reason is all the more convincing. Even in playing the double, role, that nagging feeling that “this is still the same person” is quite absent.