"SUNSHINE SUSIE "

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21314, 15 October 1932, Page 14

"SUNSHINE SUSIE "

BRITISH FILM AT PLAZA SPIRIT OF GAIETY • , . Few talking picture productions hava equalled the simple gaiety so cleverly blended with catchy, tuneful music that makes its way straight to the heart, as ; v that which carried an Auckland audience away when "Sunshine Susie" was screened at the Plaza Theatre last evening. Charming Renate Muller, brimful of a personality that steps out of the screen as if it were a stage .set with living actors, is the centre of this bright comedy, and her slight Continental accent adds much to the instant appreciation which an English audience cannot but fail J, to accord her acting. The actual theme of the musical comedy is in keeping with the carefree spirit apparent from the opening scene, and Renate Muller's song, "To-day i Feel So Happy", heeds to be played but once to be remem. bered always. The brilliant acting in this epic British production is not based on a series of carefully planned dialogues and quick repartee—it is left to the ability of Jack Hulbert to give a characterisation of an elderly bank porter which is so serenely natural and at the same time so intensely amusing that he was able to reduce the audience to a state of helpless mirth, not only with his eccentric dancing, but also by the slightest variation of facial expression. Owen. Nares, as Herr Arvay, a director of the bank, enters into the blithe spirit of the comedy, while Klapper, his manager, played by Morris Harvey, is none the less important in the cast containing the brightest stars that the world of entertainment has in its fold. Susie, who arrives in Vienna ,from Germany with her luggage, an ideal, and an inexhaustible store of optimism in search of a job and fame, endeavours to obtain a job as a typiste at a bank. She encounters the porter Herr Hasel (Jack Hulbert) and as he is immediately subjudicated to her cheerful but indomitable will, he clears the way for her to obtain a position in the bank. She trips lightly back to her boarding house, singing "To-day I Feel so Happy," and the irresistible refrain is caught up from a window on the opposite side of the street, comes back again, and before a few seconds of happiness have passed an effective chorus has joined in. Susie's ideal' is to have a director's heart in her charge, but she does not realise that her ambition is in the first stages of fulfilment when Herr Arvay meets her in the office late one night Capturing his attention in . her net of happiness, she compels him to assist in completing tier work,' and, under the impression that he is a clerk, agrees to go out to dinner with him. The scenes in a Vienna cafe, with Herr Hasel solemnly conducting his pet choir and indulging in familiarities with his bank director, who is still incognito, are full of more natural humour than has ever been screened in Auckland previously. Herr Hasel eventually indulges in an eccentric dance in an ecstasy of joy, and brings gladness "to the hearts of all who are caught up in the spa6ms of laughter. The following day Susie realises that the ■ bank " clerk " is a director in disguise, and the later events leadirig up to tha". "happy ending" complete a chapter of the most refreshingly humorous film which has appeared on the screen in Auckland. The supporting programme of the entertainment last- evening included a visual education picture, " The Garden Spider," and another British production from the Twickenham studios, " Chin Chin Chinaman." '