ENTERTAINMENTS

Taranaki Daily News, 17 July 1930, Page 6

ENTERTAINMENTS

THE REGENT.

“THE VERY IDEA.” “Th© Very Idea,” which commenced a three night season at the Regent Theatre last night, absolutely rocked the audience with laughter. Played by a cast of true masters of comedy, the story, which deals with a practical application of the eugenic idea, provokes mirth from opening scene to final fadeout. Frank Craven, stage star making his debut as a picture actor, provides many of the laughs as he tries to put the eugenic theory into practice. With him are heard and seen Allen Kearns, Olive Tell, Doris Eaton, Theodore Von Eltz, Hugh Trevor, Sally Blane and Jeanne de Bard. “The Very Idea,” 'written for the stage by William De Baron, Is one of the few stage productions made into a talking picture that follows the stage play and action almost to the letter. Persons over 0 or under 10 are not admitted to the screening oi “The Very Idea.” The sup-' ports include Fox Movietone News, May Usher (vaudeville comedian), Elsie Janis (singer assisted by chorus), Pathe Sound News, Audio Review and the “Utica Jubilee Singers” (in plantation songs;. A MARVELLOUS THRILLER. “BULLDOG DRUMMOND.” The mystery .thriller has been lifted from the level of indiscriminate epinechilling to that of an artistic vehicle > in “Bulldog Drummond,” the picture version of the famous stage play which commenced a three-night season at Everybody’s, New Plymouth, last night before a crowded audience, with Ronald Colman as star. In this all-talking picture, Colman proves that he has been keeping a fine gift for comedy pretty well out of sight while he has been so eminently satisfactory in the past as a serious romantic lover. “Bulldog Drummond” gives him an opportunity to combine the two and marks a great advance in his development as an actor.

Mystery and horror a,re well combined in the famous story which made both a successful novel and a successful play; dealing with the operations of a gang of criminals whose long suit is torturing their victims through the fiendish ingenuity of Dr. Lakington, a physician who delights in inflicting pain. Bulldog Drummond is a demobilised British officer, seeking danger in order to escape from the boredom of peace-time. An advertisement in the newspapers, requesting trouble, brings him to Phyllis, the beautiful niece of a wealthy American who has fallen into the hands of the criminals and is being tortured to death in their fake sanitarium. Drummond’s courage and dare-devil cleverness allow him to outwit the fiends almost single-handed. Joan Bennett, Lilyan Tashman, Montague Love and Claude ABister head the brilliant supporting cast. The supporting programme ■includes “Micky’s Follies” (the first of the Micky the Mouse cartoons), and “Irish Fantasy” (a beautiful talking, singing, dancing featurette). A special matinee will fee held on Friday at 2 p.m.