PARAMOUNT THEATRE.

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 120, 16 November 1929, Page 14

PARAMOUNT THEATRE.

2 It is interesting to note how the talking •picture directors constantly find new ways of Jattacking; technical stage, problems. There is «a talky? technique for drama, another for comedy, and etill another for nielojdramas and thrillers. Consequently those who Jsaw. "The Terror" performed on the local .stage by the. Maurice Moscovltch company will race this Edgar Wallace thriller presented with .many differences of detail and many - additional- touches in the screen version given for Jthe first .time last evening at the Paramount «Theatre, -and given with great success. On She stage'plot the irrepressible gossiper about murders was a" woman; on the screen Jhe is a man—perhaps.for voice-carrying fea,Bons—and Is played by' John Mlljan. ,A pet 'toad is introduced to play about supernaturally »ln. strange places, also to play the ghostly organ ;-by jumping, on the keys. Another thing difficult, on the stage but easy on the screen Is a jview from overhead of the hands laid on the stable at the spiritualistic seaoce where, in the Sdim dark, a-non-ghostly hand murders Soapy iMarks. Soapy (played by Otto Hossman) -is <;as much . a feature of the screen as of the j;stage version, but is slightly over-acted. Perhaps the; best technical trick of the director 5 (Roy del Ruth) is to show a. fight in the dark ••between 'the disguised detective . (who is the Jhero) and "a criminal bearing a torch; the saudience;does nobsee much of the lighters, but Jthe torch cleverly., performs such' gyrations in «the black space as to . simulate a desperato £ battle. Edward Kverctt Horton plays the t, detective-hero with a wonderful combination jof. dash and humour. May M'Avoy,- as the ; heroine, . has always . looked her parts, and ■■now she:has *shown that she can speak them Jas well;-and her scream must be one of the ■ mast penetrating that a sound studio ever [recorded.: Louise Fazc-nda has ihe comedy i lead on .the female side. From the point of ; vlew of vocal recording and reproduction, "The Terror,", as reproduced at the Paramount, is |one of the best of: the all-dialogue pictures. , Thevsupporting items were of a good standard, I and one ■of them,, a group. of male vocalists .in a submarine "set," was outstanding in the : way of singing reproduction; rarely has a , bass voice come through so distinctly and with such impressive effect.