Big Film Deal

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 532, 8 December 1928, Page 15

Big Film Deal

Paramount Films for National Theatre

MR. W. E. KIRBY, Auckland manager of tlie Paramount Film Exchange, has intimated that arrangements have been completed with the directors of the National Theatre to show Paramount films from January 5 next.

rpHK National Theatre was recently altered, redecorated and newlyfurnished for use as the Embassy. On the abandonment of the vaudeville policy by the late lessees a few months ago, the name of National was reverted to and first-run picture programmes presented. An imposing list of big feature pictures is scheduled for release by the Paramount Company during the coming year, and will all be shown at the National. The first and perhaps the biggest of the new pictures is “The Legion of the Condemned,” a spectacular aerial photo-play that is hailed as the companion picture to “Wings.” ‘The Legion of the Condemned” was made by the same director who made “Wings,” incorporating all the lessons and experiences gained from that great work. The story is entirely different

from “Wings,” although with a war background, and tells the breath-tak-ing tale of a band of war-flyers of all nations whose only honourable discharge was a death certificate. Fay Wray and Gary Cooper are the stars. Another Paramount special to be shown at the National will be “Forgotten Faces,” declared by the London “Daily Mail” to be “a picture that has power, truth to life, vitality, pictorial crispness and beauty.” The cast includes Clive Brook, Mary Brian, William Powell and Baclanova. “Forgotten Faces” is a grim underworld story of a woman whose sins found her out, and of a father whose love for his child demanded the great sacrifice. Backed with the resources of such a huge concern as the Paramount Film Co. there is every indication that the National Theatre has entered on a new dfca of prosperity.