Civic’s Debut

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 840, 7 December 1929, Page 30

Civic’s Debut

“THREE LIVE GHOSTS” Comedy Success in First Bill A COMEDY film of tried and proven excellence lias been booked by the Civic and will be placed at the head of the opening programme. “Three Live Ghosts,” a United Artists production, is the management’s choice. Adapted from the remarkably successful play of the same title, “Three Live Ghosts” is genuinely English in theme, scene and dialogue. Its humour is human and makes an irresistible appeal.

When “Three Live Ghosts” opened in Christchurch a short time ago the public response was so great that an extended season was arranged tor. There need he no doubt that history will repeat itself in Auckland. Few pictures have reached New Zealand in the midst of such a favourable aura of praise as that surrounding “Three Live Ghosts.” It is one of the comedy pictures of the year, and the Civic's debut could not be made with better celluloid material. All Auckland knows the photographic, reproduction, and general technical qualities of “Bulldog Drummond.” Well, “Three Live Ghosts” is another out of the same box. Made by the same company with many of the same players, it rides high on the crest of that United Artists success wave which is sweeping out of talkieland.

Charles McNaugliton, Robert Montgomery, and Claud Allister (Algy of “Bulldog Drummond”) play the parts of Gubbins, Foster, and "Spoofy,” respectively, three soldiers who escape from a German prison camp just before the Armistice and return to London to find themselves listed as dead. Gubbins’s mother, “Old Sweetheart,” a typical Cockney, and the most screamingly funny character presented in films for many a day, has been endeavouring to communicate with the spirit world mainly because she has learned that a reward of £I,OOO will be paid for the discovery of Foster’s whereabouts. Thinking her son dead, she is trying to secure clues from him.

The “Three Live Ghosts” appear and, after an hilarious interlude, the schemers settle down to devise a way of collecting the money. “Spoofy” complicates the problem tremendously because he is both shell-shocked into loss of memory and is a kleptomaniac. To detail the story further would be unreasonable for much of the enjoyment of "Three Live Ghosts” springs from the surprise element.. Sufficient to say that this all-talkie is exceedingly well acted, particularly clear in dialogue and fast-moving in story. An appealing little love story and an undercurrent of carefullychecked sentiment runs through the entire play.

“Three Live Ghosts” as a picture is a worthy successor to “Three Live Ghosts” the stage production. Certainly it will be enjoyed equally as much. Shayle Gardner, the Aucklander, appears in the film.