AL JOLSON FILM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21518, 15 June 1933, Page 15

AL JOLSON FILM

ATTRACTION FOR REGENT Pathos and comedy are deftly blended in "Hallelujah, I'm a Tramp." which will have its initial presentation at the Regent Theatre to-morrow. It is notable for the return to the screen of A! Jolson, who will be remembered for his singing and acting in " The Singing Fool," one of tho first talking picture productions. "Hallelujah, I'm a Tramp," is a musical film, and the music and lyrics are an integral part of the story. Jbe dialogue is accompanied by an appropriate musical score. Al Jolson has an ideal role'as a gay and care-free tramp, | who sings his way through life. Tho leader of a strange band of tatterdemalions and eccentrics, Jolson has his headquarters at Central Park, New York, and makes a friend and confidant of the Mayor (Frank Morgan). Jolson's fellow-vagabonds are interesting characters. They are Eggehad (Harry Langdon), Sunday (Chester Conklin), Acorn (Edgar Connor), The General (Victor Potel), Orlando (Tammany Young), and Apple Mary (DoroWolbert). They might have steppe*l from the pages of an O. Henry short story. . By a dramatic coincidence, the leader of the vagabonds rescues the Mayor's fiancee from drowning and suicide. The girl suffers from loss of memory, and, in ignorance of • her identity, the tramp arranges for her accommodation at a tenement house. Finding a new interest in life, Jolsoii secures a position in a bank, but circumstance again alters the tenor of his existence. It would be unfair to reveal the dramatic denouement. But the film's chief attraction is undoubtedly its music and its songs. An outstanding supporting programme will include a Walt Disney technicolour cartoon, .. "Birds in Spring," and selections on tho grand organ by Knight Barngstt, who will play "Yesterday's Melodies." j