"The Prodigal” is New Lawrence Tibbett Film

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6626, 12 August 1931, Page 5

"The Prodigal” is New Lawrence Tibbett Film

In “The Prodigal,” which will open on" Saturday at the Palace theatre, Lawrence Tibbctt abandons his erstwhile swashbuckling lines and gay uniforms to appear for'the first time in a strictly modern role. Information is that: Metro-Goldwyri-Mayer, anxious to get away from typical musical comedy plots, selected an original story which contres about the question of divCrco in an aristocratic Southern family. This in no way deprives music lovers front hearing the Metropolitan Opera favourite sing, for the circumstances of the plot are such as to contrive various episodes in which Tibbett sings a variety of songs as a natural part of the gripping story. Tibbett will be seen as a prodigal son who has been Toaming the country with a. band of tramps. He stops off at his home to see his mother and for the first time becomes acquainted with his brother's wife, Antonia. Antonia is miserably unhappy with her tyrannical husband and is about to elope with a former lover. In his attempts to preserve the family integrity, Tibbett succumbs to the charms of the bewitching Antonia and finds himself in a compromising position. The unraveling of the situation makes for an extremely dramatic screen plot. In the sequences Tibbott sings “De Glory Road,” a number which he has made famous on the concert stage, while together with a chorus of several hundred voices he sings “A Child Is Born” and “Chidlins. ” Other songs sung at various points in the story are “Life is a Dream,” “Without a Song,” and a comic ballad called “Looks Like Pappy.” Much of the charm of this picture is credited to its picturesque locales, duplicating the langurous beauty of tho old South American plantation estates and colonial mansions. A colourful, fox-hunting scene is said to be a particularly artistic photographic achievement.

Half a hundred of filmdom's shapeliest girls will appear in Constance Bennett’s new starring picture." The beauties will be a major part of the decorative scheme during trie filmirig of that celebrated revel of the Paris art colony, tho Four Arts Ball. The chosen 50 are to be gowned in strictly original costumes typical of those worn at this brilliant and daring annual affair.

Production has started on the Gainsborough talkie, “Tho Man They Couldn’t Arrest,” adapted from the late “Seamark’s”, thriller. Hugh Wakefield leads. His work is a sequel to his splendid performance in ‘ ‘ The Sport of Kings.” Nicholas Hanncn, Gordon Harker, Dennis Wyndham, Marjorie Mars and' Garry Marsh are others in the cast. ’, .. • . . • •