NEW REGENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 591, 18 February 1929, Page 15

NEW REGENT

“FOUR WALLS” ‘•Four Walls,” the first brilliant starring - picture of Joan Crawford and John Gilbert, and a thrilling drama of the underworld, will be screened again this evening at the New Regent Theatre.

“Four Walls” offers John Gilbert his strongest role since he appeared in “The Big Parade.” As leader of an underworld gang, his life is a vortex of conflicting elements from defiance of the law to abiding romance and lurid drama, he

again finds scope fj for expressing the I full extent of his I genius. One min- f ute finds his fury | unleashed in deal- | ing with merciless fi foes without—the I next, he is srug- I gling poignantly I w i t h himself, I striving to build up I a new life clear of ■ the "Four Walls’’ *— of his j)revious existence.

livery man and every woman is surrounded with four walls all through life—the four walls of repression and convention, of desire or of fear —and they will find in the screen story of “Four Walls” something more than mere entertainment. * Joan Crawford sweeps everyone off their feet. Never has her leg:\n of admirers seen her in such an a firing role, in which she blends striking beauty with amazing talent. The role amply justifies the acquiescence to the insistent demands of her admirers to have her blaze forth as a star of the highest grade. Fut even this story and tliese brilliant stars are not all: “Four Walls” has a supporting cast of the very finest calibre, every member doing excellent work. As the “home” girl who offers the gangster she loves the choice of a virtuous and happy life, Carmel Myers essays a new type of role in which she rises to heights hitherto unattained. By long odds the best photoplay production of its kind shown here recently is “The Main Event,” a Bo Mille feature starring Vera Reynolds, which is the second feature at the New Regent this week. Several screen players of wide popularity are featured. They are Rudolph Schildkraut, Charles Delaney, Julia Faye and Robert Armstrong. The story deals with the love of a cabaret dancer for two pugilists. It is the skilful development of this theme that makes the picture exceptionally attractive. There are th.\ fling scenes galore, and the work of the dainty star often rises to gt’eat heights of artistry. The ring battle which concludes the story is one of the best ever staged. All who like virile screen entertainment will find “The Main Event” highly fascinating. New songs by those famous grand opera singers, Russo and Bradford, and ; new musical selections by Mr. Maurice Guttridge’s Operatic Orchestra completes the entertainment.