FINE DRAMA FOR REGENT

Evening Star, Issue 21784, 28 July 1934, Page 18

FINE DRAMA FOR REGENT

KAY FRANCIS GIVES MEMORABLE PERFORMANCE

Whatever type of picture Kay Francis plays in she is always bound to have a host of followers. Both'her artistry and feminine appeal combine to make her one of the most charming actresses on the screen, and in the ‘ House On 56th Street,’ at the Regent Theatre, she is at her best, for there is opportunity for her to show her skill in three types of parts. First, we have her as a chorus girl of 1905, twirling a parasol and smiling gaily across the footlights'. Then, as the wife of an influential American aristocrat, happy in her marriage; and later as a broken, disillusioned woman, who has served twenty years behind prison bars for a crime of which , circumstantial evidence only proved: her guilty. On leaving prison she becoines a card sharper, and as fate will have it she meets her own daughter, and in a scene that is powerful in. its intensity she prevents her child from becoming a gambler. The plot is a stirring one, and sympathetically one travels with the lovely heroine through her stormy passages, and smiles with her at her clever repartees. The story is based on the novel by Joseph Stanley, and the scene opens in the famous old Casino Theatre, where the “ Floradora ” Sextette of 1905 was charming the fashionable world with catchy melodies. Throughout the production there are flashes of the unusual, and it is directed in such a manner that no continuity is lost over. the span of thirty years joining the two halves of the picture.

Imaginative photography also adds to the finish of the show which at all times avoids the commonplace. Particularly fine are the impressionistic “ shots ” of modern New York, showing its marvels as they must appear to a person who has returned to the world after twenty years in gaol. Kay Francis moves through the action with her customary dignity and quiet charm, giving a sensitive performance in a role where an actress of lesser talent would have floundered badly. Ricardo Cortez, who supports the star, is another player who has rightly become popular through consistently fine acting. Gene Raymond, . the young actor who lately made# a “hit” in ‘Zoo in Budapest,’ also has an important part. He plays her husband, and is excellent in some charming love scenes. A polished actor, John Halliday, has a minor role which he lifts out of the ordinary. ‘ The House On 56th Street ’ is a fine entertainment which should not be missed by those who like good drama, excellently interpreted. A first-class supporting programme includes an Australian newsreel, a musical extravaganza ‘ Around the Clock,’ and one of those intensely, interesting studies. ‘ Strange As It May Seem.’ The latter film deals with a magnificent wooden statue of a Japanese artist produced" by the artist himself. It is a truly excellent piece of work.