PLAZA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 748, 22 August 1929, Page 17

PLAZA

“THE MIDNIGHT TAXI” Bootlegging might be more effectively coped with by lawmakers giving some thought to the Helene Costello method. In her role opposite Antonio Moreno in “ The Midnight Taxi,” the Warner Bros.’ part-talkie now at the Plaza Theatre, Miss Costello uses the oldest of all reform methods. She finds Moreno the head of a bootleg ring, and to get him out of the ring, marries him. “The Midnight Taxi” is a stirring melodrama, the action ranging from a cruise across the 12-mile limit at sea to a race through the air and a fight aboard a runaway railroad car. The story is said to be taken from the life of one of the most sensational characters of America’s underworld, and was adapted to the screen from a Gregory Rogers story. John Adolfi directed. Moreno and Miss Costello head a cast which includes Myrna Loy, William Russell. Bobbie Agnew, Tommy Dugan. Pat Hartigan and Jack Santoro. The Plaza’s programme also includes several new Vitagrapli all-talkie features. Chief among these are songs and items by Daphne Pollard, one of England’s famous comediennes: comedy by O’Neill and Vermont; songs by the Harrington Sisters: songs by Allan Prior the celebrated Australian tenor; and jazz by Roger Kahn’s Orchestra. Finally, there are some amazing scenes of an airplane refuelling in midair during a 150 hours' record endurance flight. Katherine Dale Owen wall be John Gilbert’s leading lady in “Olympia,” his second talking picture. The new picture is based on the international stage success by Ferenc Molnar and will be directed by Lionel Barrymore.