REGENT THEATRE.

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 111, 6 November 1929, Page 5

REGENT THEATRE.

„™|Sl l lilllt, a Richard Harden, the film idol! er HoUsnood, and a philanderer with women's fearts, who la found murdered in his studio Is the question propounded and very cleverly •?,, e<?,, ln "ttlo-Studio Murder Mjstery," the all-talking production which is now being screened at the Regent Theatre. Slve suspects are detained by the police: Hardell's wife, who has threatened to end his philandering existence if he does not mend his ways; Ilelen Mac Donald, whose wings Harden has •Inged; the girl's brother, who has also j threatened to put a sudden stop to his careerBprke, .studio director, who suspects that his wife has been playing with the Harden fire: Helen's father, and the watchman, who was the last to see Harden alive. The police are baffled, suspicion points now to one, now to another, until the watchman Is about to name the murderer, but before he can speak his lips are sealed forever. ■ Nell Hamilon, Warner Oland, and Doris Hill have the leading roles, and receive splendid support from the rest of the cast, which Includes Frederic March, Florence Eldrldge, Chester Conklin, Eugene Pollette, lane Chandler, and Gardner James. Tho supporting subjects are. entertaining and wollj:hosen. "THE LETTER." There comes to the Ecgent Theatro on Saturday night what is described as ono of tho Biggest ■ dramatic successes tho talkio screen or ; stage has ever known, \V. Somerset Maugham's "Tho Letter." It is a story of life as It is lived by some of the white men and women In tho East. Tha stellar role is taken by a Broadway actress, Jeanne Eagels. .Leslie Crosbio (Jeanne Eagels) and her husband, Robert (Reginald Owen), live in a bungalow on a rubber plantation in tho country near Singapore. Ono evening Robert goes Into the city and Leslie at onco sends a letter to Geoffrey Hammond (Herbert Marshall), a dissipated bachelor. Tho arrival of the letter Interrupts a. love scene between Hammond and a. Chinese woman, Li-Ti (Lady Tseu Mci), and goes to the Crosbie bungalow at once. There he is shot and killed by Leslie. In Court leslie tells of tho shooting, of how Hammond tions on her, and of how she killed him in Belf-defence. ■ That evening Leslie's lawyer, Joyce (0. P. Heggie), a friend of tho family, learns that the Chinese woman who lived at Hammond's house Is in possession of the letter sent him just before the shooting. The letter is acquired. Leslie is released by the jury, and all go to the Crosbie home that evening to celebrate the victory. At the party Joyce is forced to tell Robert that his money is gone; that the trial rostv him, Rober, 10,000 dollars, his fortune. Robert demands to know why, and Joyce gives him the letter. Robert is crushed. Leslie then tells them that she has never loved Robert In all of their ten years of, married life; that she had been in love with Hammond, and that when she learned that- she Had been discarded by him for a Chinese woman, her rage knew no bounds. Hammond told her that they were through on the evening she sent for him and she shot him. Her alibi was tine of her own construction.- Robert tells her that, in spite of it all, he still loves her. Actual scenes of Singapore and the Orient are screened, including a fullsized bungalow located in the heart of- a rubber plantation; a Court room holding 200 persons; ». Chinese gambling house, the homes and offices of various colonial settlers, and scenes1 tit, brooding jungle and bustling street. Ihrouhout the picture tho jungle setting is •mphasised.