EVERYBODY'S HAS COMEDY PROGRAMME.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18546, 21 August 1928, Page 7

EVERYBODY'S HAS COMEDY PROGRAMME.

Comedy is the keynote of this week’s programme at Everybody’s Theatre. Three pictures are shown, and all contribute their quota of laughs and merriment. An appropriate musical programme adds to the enjoyment of the pictures. Johnny Hines, who has not been seen in Christchurch for some time, makes a reappearance in " Chinatown Charlie,” a bright, breezy comedy which abounds with movement, farce and humour. It is a screen adaptation of a famous old extravaganza from the pen of the prolific playwright. Owen Davis, and it scored a great success on the speaking stage. The film adaptation of the picture has been treated in highly humorous manner, burlesquing New York’s underworld, and at the same time retaining the thrills of the original play. Farce and thrills are the main ingredients of this fast-moving film, and there are many breath-taking scenes. Glimpses of Oriental life are excellently portrayed in this film, and photography is very interesting, of the scenes may seem a little farcical, but the hilarious humour of the picture is such that laughs are produced from every bit of the film. The picture abounds in thrills, just as many thrills as there are laughs and loves; in situations of appalling danger, up against all manner of baffling Chinese, 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. Xfc 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. An added feature is the appearance of the famous Mazzetti Troupe of acrobats who take part in thm Chinese cabaret scenes, and also

furnish a sensational thrill by forming a human bridge from one second storey window to another across a Chinatown street. Louise Lorraine and the comedian effect their escape from a Chinatown don on this human bridge. The producer secured a large cast of comedians to surround his star in the production. with Louise Lorraine playing the leading feminine role. Others figuring prominently are Anna May Wong, Harry Gribbon, George Kuwa, Edna May. Fred Kohler and Emmet Wag- “ Womanwisc.” the second attraction, is a romantic' burlesque drama, in which runs a touch of humour. The story is laid in the oilfields’ of Persia, and centres about the love affairs of Russell, as a ne'er-do -well, and Pidgenn, a United States Consul, in the land of the pashas. June Collyer, cast as a beautiful American girl, is sent to Jedda to serve as assistant consul to Pidgeon. Adventure and fast action combine here to keep the entire cast, keyed throughout the length of the story. The second series of “ The Collegians,” those exhilarating comedies of joyous youth, was also screened. The Select Orchestra, under Mr Albert % Bidgood, played the following musical programme:—Overture, “ Romeo and Juliet ” (Gounod) ; “Arabian Nights” (Mildenberg), “Streets of Bagdad” (Trenkaus). “Dream Suite” (Richter), “Old Times” (Lake), “Going Up” (Hirsch), ” Pot Pourri ” (Konizak), “Merry WivUs*” (Nicolai), “Shanghai” (Nicholls), “ Ghinky ” (Wennich), “The Monastery Bells” (Wesley).