"DESIRE,"

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 31, 5 August 1936, Page 5

"DESIRE,"

Regent Theatre on Friday.

A brisk pace, breezy dialogue, inspired situations, flawless acting, and lavish proauction combine to lift the Paramount fiim "Desire" tar above the ordinary run of romantic comedies. It will start on i-'riday at the Regent1 Theatre. Exhilarating is the only word that propeny describes the story, the acting of Hiariene Dietrich and Gary Cooper, and the work of Ernst Lubitsc'h, who personally supervised the -proauction. Once again me liupish Lubitsch turns what might easily have been censorable situations into subtly sophisticated entertainment. Call it charm, good taste, intelligence, or a blend of all three, the famous "Lubitsch touch" continues to be an intangible quality as~'dimcult to describe as a shrug of the shoulder or a lift of the eyebrow. - And so. it is that "Desire" stands as Miss Dietrich's best j Hollywood film to date. While retaining all her pristine glamour, she reveals a hitherto 'unsuspected sense of humour. And "Desire" also shows Gary Cooper to be an actor with ' as great a flair for light comedy as he has for drama—a subtlei-and~sure pjayerwho knows the value of restraint and when to employ it. "We have seldom seen better acting," comments the British "Film -Weekly." "Technically it is flawless. Yet, like all really good acting, it is so good that it does not for. a moment remind you; of acting. Frankly,'we would not have believed that Gary Cooper had it in him." The lovely -Miss Dietrich, costumed: in a series of • wonderful gowns, ; plays an adventuress who steals ■ ■ a.- pearl 'necklace in1 Paris and races.1 off with it to her accomplice (John ■ Halliday) across the border. Driving, the same way v holiday bent, is Gary Cooper, as an engineer from Detroit. To escape detection from : Customs officials at the border, the beautiful. bandit slips the necklace into the y.ourig man's, poc: ket, with" the intention of getting it back later. The way she gets it ba:k', the daring, romance which follows-be-tween the two, arid ; the manner in which the heroine finally decides that life in Detroit is preferable to crime on the Continent, go to make up one of the most exhilarating stories of this or any other season! But no detailed synopsis can convey adequately the piquant humour and smooth polish.of a film whose director proceeded on.the theory "that his audience has some imagination too.