“SOMEWHERE EAST OF SUEZ”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 636, 12 April 1929, Page 15

“SOMEWHERE EAST OF SUEZ”

SEA STORY AT PLAZA ALSO TALE OF NEW YORK JAZZ A man young- in calendar years but old in life's drab shadows; a girl of blunted sentimentality. These two adventures in life meeting in a cesspool of existence “somewhere East of Suez,” the stream we call Life carrying them, willy-nilly, into the desolate heart of a great sea. Alone—the boy and the girl attended by three companions—Hunger, Madness—and Heath. These two human beings, warm blood in tlieir veins, and the air of strange places within their lungs, discovering the existence of their souls. A man who had mocked the Godhead, sneered at law, and laughed at decency. A girl whose sum total of life was the varying prices men paid. . re around which is built the story of “Scarlet Seas,” shown at the Plaza and Tivoli Theatres last evening. Richard Barthelmess is the star—the man who strolled into the crater of madness and death, and emerged with an inner renaissance; the girl is Betty Compson. Ihe bulk of the picture was filmed at sea, which must have necessitated the chartering of a large fleet of vessels. The characterisation of the rough sailor is one to the Barthelmess liking. There is more than just action and the always fascinating background of the sea—there is a thought in “Scarlet Seas,” a thought that deals with the regeneration of a man’s soul. Barthelmess has never been seen to better advantage, and one can predict an exceptionally successful local run. The story of “Scarlet Seas” deals with Steve Donkin, a virile and different role as essayed by Barthelmess. who believed in neither God nor man. He roamed the Seven Seas and took what he wanted where be found it. When he shanghaied a girl from the questionable dive and took her to sea with him; when the ship burned and the two were left alone and adrift on a lifeboat; when death stared them in the face: and hunger tested his faith in life and himself; when a rescue (the strangest ever screened) was effected, and how he finally found himself; these are the high-lights of “Scarlet Seas,” which is entertainment from beginning to end. The second big picture shown last evening was “Naughty Baby,” a jazzy comedy-drama starring Alice 'White, who lives up to her reputation as the new “It” girl, and smiling Jack Mulhall. The picture tells of a hat checker in a big New York hotel, who set out in a borrowed dress and in a borrowed motor-car to “land” a millionaire. How she does it provides plenty of comedy and sustains one’s interest until the pnd. At the Plaza Theatre Mr. Howard Moody’s Symphony Orchestra played a selection of Sullivan airs for the overture, and the following incidental music: Selections, “To-night’s the Night.” “The Chariot Show”; suites, “Othello,” “On the Briny,” “Miniature Ballet”; morceau, “Cavatina.” “None But the Weary Heart”; fox-trots. ! “Naughty Baby.” “Dream House” and “Lovely Silhouette.”

George Fawcett has been signed by Cecil B. Be Mille to play the part in “Dynamite” originally assigned to the late Theodore Roberts. Fawcett, one of filmdom’s best character actors, was Roberts’s closest friend, and it is felt eminently fitting that he should assume the role vacated by the death of the “grand old man” of the screen. “Dynamite” is an original screen story by Jeanie Macpherson, and the cast to date includes Kay Johnson, Charles Bickford, Conrad Xagel, Casson Ferguson, and Muriel McCormac. _