NEW REGENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 977, 21 May 1930, Page 16

NEW REGENT

“LAUGHING LADY” ON FRIDAY The mystery-thriller. “The Trial of Mary Dugan,” is now in its last days at the New Regent Theatre. Bayard Veiller, author-producer of the famous stage hit, personally directed the talkie version of the murder drama in which Norma Shearer makes her talkie debut in the title role, that of the young show girl who is accused of murder and goes on trial to battle for her life. Featured with Miss Shearer are Lewis Stone, H. B. Warner and Raymond HacketL Mr. Warner plays th 3 prosecuting attorney, Mr. Stone the defence attorney who doesn’t strive very hard for his client’s acquittal, and Hackett, the brother-attorney* who saves the girl. “The Trial of Mary Dugan” scored one of the stage’s outstanding dramatic successes and is regarded as an ideal dialogue vehicle for talking pictures.

Several splendid talkio shorts are also shown, and songs sung by Titto Ruffo, the famous baritone.

The fame which Ruth Chatterton established for herself in ‘ Charming Sinners,” and “Madame X,” gains added glamour in her newest Paramount picture, “The Laughing Lady,” which comes to the Regent Theatre, beginning on Friday next. She is seen as the star of this powerful human drama, played against a background of smart sophistication, with Clive Brook, one of fandom’s great favourites, as her leading man. It is the story of a woman who laughs at death, laughs at the irony of fate, laughs at her own breaking heart, but who cannot laugh when the chance comes to ruin the man who had tried to wreck her life, because she finds that she loves him more than she hates him.