“ROSE MARIE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 548, 28 December 1928, Page 13

“ROSE MARIE”

DELIGHTFUL REGENT FILM Take a budget of beautiful melodies, string them together on a thread of simple plot, garnish with pretty scenery, and present with a medley of W’eirdly-fascinating dances. The result is “Rose Marie” —the musical play. Take the same plot. Lengthen it. widen it, and embellish it with a dozen exciting outdoor thrills. Pack it. with adventure, decorate it with glorious scenery, and spice it with that which makes the world go round. Offer with original melodies. The result is “Rose Marie” —the picture. When the Regent billed the film version of the popular theatrical production. wiseacres may have shaken their heads and doubted the possibility of a successful adaption. They will doubt no longer. The principal offering on the new Regent programme given for the first time last evening is a “Rose Marie” transformed into a beautiful Red Indian romance of the outdoors —an exciting story of the picturesque North-West Mounted Police and the rivalry of a trooper and a trapper for the hand of an Indian fawn. It is as if the characters of the stage play have been lifted from their place of painted canvas and set in the very heart of the bush-clad mountains, where they act their parts with a background of rock wall, living river, and tumbling falls. Naturally enough, the limitless freedom of the motion picture camera presents opportunities for fresh and thrilling action in a score of new circumstances, and an extension of plot that weaves the tale into a strong and striking fabric. Mere is the story of “Rose Marie,” the picture: When Jim Kenyon, a trapper arrives at a trading post, Rose Marie, an Indian girl, falls in love with him, but he is arrested as an outlaw by Sergeant Malone of the North-West Mounted Police. Jim escapes, but Rose Marie’s father prevents her from following him, and forces her to marry a half-breed. When the two are starting on their honeymoon, their canoe capsizes, and they are saved by Jim. The three are joined in a lonely hut by Malone and Black Bastian, his outlaw captive. The climax arrives when Bastian kills Malone and wounds Jim. A terrific struggle follows, but the brutal outlaw is finally subdued. There follows the death of the half-breed bridegroom from injuries received in the capsize on the river, and Jim and Rose Marie are left to face life afresh. * Photographically the production is superb, while the interest is ably sustained at an increasing tempo throughout. The cast includes Joan Crawford in the name-part, Mouse Peters as Malone, James Murray and Creighton Male. “Half the battle” of the “Rose Marie” presentation is its music, and the performance of the Regent Orchestra last evening was admirable. Mr. Maurice Guttridge and his colleagues were in top-notch form and their work lent a touch of final completeness to the screening. Next on the new programme was the now famous novelty interlude— Schistls’s Wonderettes, a marionette performance on entirely new lines embracing several astonishing examples of stage magic. As a holiday turn this could hardly be bettered and its reception last evening left no room for doubt. Last, but not least, came a group of excellent supporting pictures—comedy, cartoon and news budget. Matinee patrons are enjoying “A Trip to the Moon,” Beryl Nettleton’s special Christmas pantomime. DIXIELAND CABARET Dixieland Cabaret was the scene of another very successful dance last evening, when the officers of the Danish Scientific Expedition ship Dana j were the guests of the management, j Another big dance will be held this j evening, when there will also be an j exhibition of 1929 dances by Miss Margaret O'Connor, of Wellington, and her 1 company.