CELEBRATED BRITISH THRILLER

Evening Star, Issue 21080, 18 April 1932, Page 9

CELEBRATED BRITISH THRILLER

•77 PARK LANE' COMING TO REGENT Few, if any, British producing concerns have ever entered the field with a more promising effort than the Famous Players Guild, whose first talkie production, ‘ 77 Park Lane,’ is coming on Friday to the Regent. Three months were spent on the picture, which is an adaptation of a celebrated stage success._ No expense or trouble was spared in any direction, and, conscious of the new obligations placed on film producers since the talkies, Famous Players Guild arranged to produce the film in French and Spanish as well as in, One of England’s most perfectly equipped studios, the Nettlefold at Walton-on-Thames, was taken over for the whole production. Laurence Irving, a noted art director of filmland, was seated to design the sets, and the brilliant German camera man, Mutz Greenban m, was brought over from Berlin to officiate at the camera. It was a production staff of an all-round excellence seldom equalled in film history. _ The English cast was led by Dennis Neilson-Terry, one of Londons most popular young actor-managers, and Betty Stockfeld, the rising young Australian star who came to the do Lourville unit fresh from her unqualified triumph in ‘ City of Song.’ The supporting cast was headed by experienced and popular players ‘77 Park Lane was chosen for Famous Players Guild s first production not only because it was a very successful stage play, but because, in tlie making of a tn-lmgual talkie, a story was demanded that could be readily adapted to appeal to foreign audiences as much as Britishers -and . Walter Hackett’s play met this demand admirably. Also _it provided an obviouslv attractive vehicle for Dennis Neilson-Terry. whose recent success iu ‘ The House of the Arrow, in which he made his talkie debift, proved that liis drawing power is as great as a screen actor as on the stage. The stdrv of ‘77 Park Lane deals with the series of exciting adventures which befall the wealthy Lord Brent, who returns to the West Lnd from abroad on boat race night to encounter by chance at a coffee stall an unknown girl bv whom he is immediately attracted. His discovery that she is involved in a strange intrigue in a gambling den which turns out to be located in his town mansion m Park Lane, supposedly unoccupied; lus subsequent meeting with the crooks who aro installed in the illicit den, and his ultimate rescue of the girl provide a wealth of adventure and thrill, together with a generous amount of lighthumoured comedy.