NEW REGENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1027, 18 July 1930, Page 15

NEW REGENT

“CONDEMNED” An actor with wide stage experience as well as screen experience was the requirement for every important role in “Condemned," the new Honald Coiman starring picture which comes to the New Regent Theatre today under the auspices of Samuel Goldwyn The close connection between Broadway and Hollywood nowadays was never better emphasised than in this film of life in the prison colonies of Devil's Island, the notorious French penal settlement off the coast of South America. American audiences know Ronald Coiman. star of the picture, as a movie figure altogether, remembering such popular successes as "The Dark Angel," "Beau Geste,” “The Magic Flame” and “Bulldog Drummond.” But at home in England, before and after his service in tho World War, Mr. Coiman was one of the better known leading men on the English stage, having acted in that capacity for such noted British actresses as Gladys Cooper. Ho even tried his hand on the New York stage before Henry King gave him his first American picture role as leading man for I-illian Gish in "The White Sister.” Even before “The Trial of Mary Dugan,” Ann Harding's blonde beauty was well known on Broadway, the same beauty which now makes her such an appealing heroine in ‘’Condemned."

Douis Wolhetm is another stage veteran who achieved even greater fame in pictures. After being a mathematics Instructor Cornell, he -apitalised his villainous appearance in "The Hairy Ape,” Eugene O’Neill's sensational play of several years ago, and repeated his triumph as Captain Flagg In the stage version of "Wha* Price Glory?” ' His villainous ca-eer since entering pictures has been so hectic as to involve his dying a violent death some 47 times. For a wonder. in '‘Condemned'’ he does not ploy the villain, although he does gs* drowned. A brilliant supporting programme has been selected to accompany “Condemned.”