NEW REGENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 725, 26 July 1929, Page 15

NEW REGENT

“THE STUDIO MURDER MYSTERY” This evening - sees the final presentation at the New Regent Theatre of the romance, “Wolf Song,” a tale of the early days of California, starring Lupe Velez and Gary Cooper. This film has several singing sequences, and is accompanied by a number of entertaining talkie items. Full details of how talking pictures are made will be shown to the motion picture public for the first time when “The Studio Murder Mystery,” Paramount’s latest all-talking thriller, opens its Auckland season at the Regent tomorrow. An all-star cast, including ! many stage stars, acts this mystery j melodrama which was directed by j Frank Tuttle. The revelations of talking moving picture technique are possible because the action of “The Studio Murder Mystery” occurs largely within a mythical motion picture studio and the characters are persons connected with the screen. “The sequence which uncovers the real technique of audible movies,” explains Director Tuttle, “shows a director shooting a scene on a carnival lot. One of our characters is a bystander and, while watching the making of this episode, he obtains a clue which solves two murders. “First of all, cinema audiences see the brilliantly lighted carnival set, peopled with performers. Suspended over the heads of the actors are the microphones that pick up voices and carry them to the amplifying and recording apparatus. “A short distance away from the actors are two peculiar objects that look like war-time tanks. They contain the cameras and are constructed of soundproof materials to keep camera noises away from the microphones. A double plate glass window is set in an aperture in the front of each tank and t it is through these windows that I scenes are photographed. The operators of the cameras wear headphones during the filming process and can hear everything that is said on the set while synchronising devices keep the J cameras in accord with the recording ! apparatus in another part of the buildj ing.” j Among the well-known actors in the cast are Neil Hamilton, who plays the role of the person who picks up the clue, also Warner Oland, Fredric Marsh and Doris Hill.

A specially-selected programme of short talkie features will also be presented tomorrow.