ST. JAMES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1005, 23 June 1930, Page 15

ST. JAMES

“NO, NO, NANETTE” The filming of motion pictures in colour reaches its greatest effectiveness in “No, No, Nanette,” First National’s lavish screen musical comedy which the St. James Theatre is showing, according to newspaper and magazine critics wherever the picture has been shown. The colours are a delight to the eye and the scenes look as natural as they would outside the theatre. Players lose the “shadow” effect of black and white photography and look as real as people seen on the street. “No, No, Nanette,” in fact, seems to represent the perfection of the technicolour process. Four of the biggest scenes ever made for the screen have been filmed in colour for “No, No, Nanette.” They are the Mars, New York, Holland and Japanese numbers. The audience reaction to these dazzling sequences, filmed on the largest sound stage in the world, built at the First National Studio especially for this pictLire, is startling and lasting. Bach of these scenes cost more money than the entire original stage production, on which the screen version is based. Clarence Badger, director of “Nanette,” was in his youth an inventor of a colour printing process. Multi- ; coloured printing is fundamentally the same process used in multi-coloured filming. Badger was not content merely to direct “No, No, Nanette”; he followed his picture through the laboratory and cutting rooms into its final release stage. He is known as the most advanced colour director in Hollywood. “No, No, Nanette,” features Bernice Claire, Alexander Gray, Lucien Littlefield, Louise Fazenda and a tremendous cast and chorus. The St. James programme also includes several talkie featurettes. LONDON THEATRE One of the best actors of the talking picture is Clive Brook. His fine voice and great acting have already been heard and seen to advantage in such pictures as “Interference” and i “Charming Sinners,” and he now adds • a further conquest to his laurels. It is the bringing to the screen of the famous character of fiction, Sherlock Holmes. As Holmes, Mr. Brook assumes for the first time in his career as a screen actor, a number of disguises, and his fine voice is also disguised to meet the parts he is playing. “The Return of Sherlock Holmes” is an all-talking picture at the London Theatre. “Sherlock Holmes.” written by Conan Doyle years ago, is one of the most popular characters of fiction, and this latest modern exploit of his is thrilling, and will keep you on the edge of your seat all of the time while you are following with Holmes the clues of the baffling mystery. In addition to Mr. Brook, there is a big cast of well-known screen players.