JOHNNIE HINES IS RIOT OF LAUGHS AT EVERYBODY’S.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18545, 20 August 1928, Page 7

JOHNNIE HINES IS RIOT OF LAUGHS AT EVERYBODY’S.

It is now some time since Johnnie Hines has been seen on the screen, but this deplorable absence is to be remedied this week by the advent of “ Chinatown Charlie,” his latest contribution to the silver sheet. San Francisco’s Chinatown has been transplanted to the screen, surely with a few silent, secretive mandarins hovering round, more chop sueys than are really there and a variety of prowling, shiftyeyed Celestials all worrying the poor hero, stealing his girl, leading him a merry chase along dark alleys into strange houses, confronting him with almond-eyed beauties and all the rest of what one expects of Johnnie Hines in Chinatown. Everybody’s Theatre this week has this comedy as its headliner, supported by an equally Oriental and amusing picture, “ Womanwise,” the second one much subtler than the first. “ Chinatown Charlie ”

abounds in thrills, just as many thrills as there are laughs and love's; in situations of appalling danger, up against all manner of baffling Chinesp, jumping over houses and performing all the crazy tricks the properly enamoured young man performs in search of his lady—in these situations' the cheerful Hines still manages,to make everything look extremely funny, even though he has lost Susie, or whatever the dear one’s name is. In this picture Hines has taken a humorous slap at the underworld, always pictured in lurid colours, and bristling with bad men and vampish women. He has picked on Chinatown as the scene of his actions, which, even in the midst of his love affairs and his melodramatic encounters with infuriated natives, is always diverting and originally humorous. A notable feature of this comedy is the hero’s escape from a den across a human bridge, spanned from one top storey to another by a troupe of acrobats. Of course, the escape, besides being fraught with thrills, is hilariously “ gagged ” by Hines, who, even in such a precarious position, could not resist the inclination to raise the happy laugh. Taken all in all this “ Chinatown Charlie ” is as bright and breezy a comedy as this favourite player has produced for some time, and he is supported by a good cast including Louise Lorraine and Anna May Wong. “ Womanwise ” is the title of the second picture, which is not nearly as dramatic and serious as it may imply. June Collyer and Walter Pidgeon, with Theodore Kosloff as a pasha in Bagdad with a weakness for lovely women, turn it into a romantic burlesque on the mode of the sheik, or the troubles in Iraq, or the Khurds, or any of those things that infest the cable page. The action takes place in Bagdad and in the ’American Consulate, with all the Oriental glitter to give it atmosphere, and all the thrills arid human touches to make it an agreeable romance. This is just something a little different in photoplays, well acted, and as such should be appreciated. t'he second series of “ The Collegians.” those exhilarating comedies of joyous youth, will also be screened, completing an unusually excellent comedy programme. The Select Orchestra, under Mr Albert Bidgood will play tho following musical programmeOverture, “Romeo and Juliet" (Gounod), “ Arabian Nights ’’ (Mildenberg), "Streets of Bagdad" (Trenkaus), "Dream Suite” (Richter), "Old Times” (Lake), “ Going Up” (Hirsch),

“Pot Pourri ” (Konizak), “Merry Wives” (Nicolai). “Shanghai”' (Nichplls),. " Chinky ” (Wennich), “The Monastery Bells” (Wesley). Box plans are at The Bristol Piano Company, where seats- ma,y be reserved.