ROMANTIC COMEDY IS AT EVERYBODY’S.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18643, 24 December 1928, Page 7

ROMANTIC COMEDY IS AT EVERYBODY’S.

The “ Follies,” in New York, especially if they arte Mr Zeigfeld’s Follies, stand for youth and beauty and the almost lost art of living beautifully. Phyllis, of that body, knew her youth and her beauty and how to live. But better than she was Mrs Decker, who had been a dancing and singing young

lady in the front row, and who was now possessed of a dull husband of admirable virtues. Mrs Decker pined for the old days, and when her husband got Phyllis’s (divorce case (the story runs true to type) she saw a way to a means. “ Phyllis of the Follies,” the big picture at Everybody’s Theatre this week, is, strange to say, more concerned with Mrs Decker than it is with Phyllis, and when one learns that that luxurious lady, Lilyan Tashman, plays her, the reason will be understood. Phyllis is played by Alice Day, a sweet young thing who is buffeted about a bit by fate and lawyers and Mrs Decker. The story is a light and frivolous one, always amusing in a quiet, deep way, and is an example of that excellent art, how to handle men. Apart from the troubled course run by Mrs Decker and her husband (Matt Moore), there is a romantic part run by Phyllis and a young man called Clyde. Apart from his name, there is nothing the matter with Clyde, and the audience has good reason to be grateful to him, for he peps up the action considerably, untangles the skein woven by the clever Mrs Decker, and has the four principals playing ring-a-ring-a-rosy at the finish. A romantic comedy of this type is always sought after, and the sub titles are not the least amusing feature of this picture. Ramon Novarro heads a lengthy list of lovely ladies in “ A Certain Young Man,” the supporting picture. Renee Adoree and Carmel Myers and Marceline Day are but a few of the divinities in the life of the young man, played by Novarro. In this picture he has the role of a young man of fashion, a man of the world, a Dorian Grey in looks arid ladies, who pursues the elusive god ol romance until one day, in a railway train, something happens that alters the course of his whole life, as the novelists say. Everything does not go well, and much water flows under the bridge until the young man does a few more alterations, and then everything is happy ever after. Marceline Day is the first and last of the ladies. “ Secrets of a Bachelor ” would be a better title, for this sophisticated story. Mr Albert Bidgood is conducting the Select Orchestra in the following musical programme :—Overture, “ Christmas ” (Coleridge-Taylor) ; suites, “ Compass ” (Campbell), “Scenes de Ballet” (Glazannov), "Four Fancies” (Finck); selections, “Hit the Deck” (Youmans), “La Traviata” (Verdi), “The Bat” (Strauss) ; overture, “ Carnival ” (Dvo-

rak), “Country Gardens” (Percy Grainger), “La Belle au Bois Dorman ” (Tschailcowsky) ; ’cello solo, “Sous les Filleuls ” (Thome), foxtrot, “Nebraska” (Blake); entr’acte, “The World is Waiting for the Sunrise ” (Seitz). The box plans are at The Bristol Piano Company, where seats may be reserved.