SPORTING TALKIE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 750, 24 August 1929, Page 18

SPORTING TALKIE

•SPEAKEASY” AT THE STRAND RAMSAY MACDONALD SPEAKS speedy, wholesome, and thoroughly tertaining talkie is ‘Speakeasy,” illiam Fcx's Movietone boxing, racing and New York night club romance, %hat opened last evening at the Strand. ft captured the audience immediately itrith the brisk sparkle of its action, its attractive dramatic qualities, and the clarity of its reproduction. “Speakeasy” was accompanied by probably the best short subject programme yet secured by the Strand management. Each film seemed better, even, than its predecessors, and the bill as a whole was uncommonly satiaICying. Take, for instance, the Movietone Interview with Mr. Ramsay MacDonfcld. Prime Minister of Great Britain, and his son and daughter. This is quite the best film interview yet screened in Auckland. All three labour leaders chatted naturally and frankly in the privacy of their own garden. The photography was perfect, likewise the reproduction of the Prime Minis ter's honest Scottish voice. At intervals during the pleasant little political chat the audience applauded Bpontaneously—an unconscious tribute to a splendid Movietone achievement. Then there was the “one-woman” talking comedy, made by that delightcomedienne, Gertrude Lawrence—

Mourning.” In this the film and the sound served merely to convey the personality of the artist, whose work was a sheer delight from beginning to pend. With anyone else the sketch might have been merely funny. With jGertrude Lawrence at her best it was ftb comedy gem. Another comedy followed. “Sound .“Your A” was an excellent example of what sound and speech can do to enliven, and improve out of all recognition, film humour on conventional lines. There was laughter from beginning to end of this picture, and the reproduction could not have been better. Fox provided a new copy of the now familiar Movietone news, showing, among other things, a number of interesting air pictures taken during American Army manoeuvres. The outstanding sequence, however, was the trooping of the colours by the Grenadier Guards, in which the camera provided close-up shots of that famous regiment marching past the saluting point like a perfect machine. Here, again* the sound effects were admirable. All these, plus an interesting film’ of the fishing industry on the American Atlantic coast. Then “Speakeasy.” Apart from its entertainment qualities, “Speakeasy” commands attention because of the great improvement in sound and speech reproduction demonstrated in every sequence and scene. Not a month passes without providing rapid advances in talking film technique, and "Speakeasy” is the most polished Movietone effort to date. From the first scene to the last it is obvious that the talkie cameras have secured almost the same freedom and general pictorial elasticity as their eiient forebears. Indoors and outdoors, and in city and forest; on the tube railways, and by the boxing ring; in the rooms of a night club, and on a great race track —anywhere and everywhere, the camera travelled. And the sound travelled with it, clearly and crisply. “Speakeasy” as entertainment, is thoroughly American, but exceedingly attractive. There is a little sport, a little romance, a spicing of rapid action, and a garnishing of humour. It is the eort of picture that is bound to have a wide and direct appeal and should bring big business to the Strand. The story tells of a boxer’s “comeback,” through the efforts of a girl reporter, or “sob sister” as the Americans have it. The newspaper office scenes are realistic and humorous,, the night club sequence is amazingly

realistic, and the climax—a haxdiought ring battle—could not have been bettered. Lola Lane and Paul Page, two newcomers, are the principals of “Speakqasy,” and a clever cast supports them. They make their talkie bow in a film that should not be missed. What is reputed to be a new' method of telling a trial story is used in “Thru Different Eyes.” Fox Movietone Murder Mystery. It is a novel method, highly dramatic, and one that holds the closest attention throughout. An excellent cast is headed by Mary Duncan, Warner BBaxter, and Edmund Lowe,