THRILLS AND LAUGHTER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 886, 1 February 1930, Page 19

THRILLS AND LAUGHTER

“THE CARNATION KID” PLAZA’S FINE TALKIE When presidents and governors and senators and what not are being elected in America, there's another election on which is full of thrills and fights, all of which makes some unusually timely and interesting moving picture entertainment. It is “The Carnation Kid/’ the new Paramount Douglas Mac Lean production which is showing at the Plaza Theatre. In the Mac Lean picture there’s a district attorney (or crown prosecutor, as we would call him) running for office in a big city; and some very dangerous underworld forces importing a famous gunman to see that the district attorney never has a chance to run again. From the time that the young typewriter salesman is mistaken on the train for the notorious Carnation Kid with his newly invented machine-gun, things begin to move in the plot. Mac Lean plays the part of Clarence,, the typewriter salesman; Francis McDonald is the real Carnation Kid. Others who play the parts in this melodramatic comedy are Frances Lee, who is the district attorney’s daughter; Lorraine Eddy, secretary of the underworld boss; Charles Malles the candidate and district attorney, and William B. Davidson as the boss of the bad man. This picture goes more into the dramatic side than the comedy, for it contains all the elements of a melodramatic story, with thrills, a little romance, and lots of fighting of one kind and another. The people who like the short talkie features on the modern film programmes are well catered for at the Plaza this week. The talkie items are unusually interesting, and include songs by Tito Schipa, the famous lyric tenor: an all-talking comedy, “When Ceasar ran a Newspaper/’ in which such well-known film stars as Sam Hardy and Raymond Hatton appear; a Paramount Sound News with latest world events: and finally a musical attraction, “The Song of Schubert.** LUNA PARK IS OPEN Luna Park. Auckland’s centre of laughs and thrills, continues to grow in popularity and is attracting large crowds of merrymakers nightly. All the familiar shows and devices, such as the caterpillar, joy wheel, goofy house, river caves, fun factory, scenic railway, dodg’em and whip are well patronised, while the several new side shows which have been introduced are also exercising a powerful appeal. Buses run to the park from the bottom of Queen Streep.