REGINALD DENNY STARS IN FINE TALKIE COMEDY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18992, 11 February 1930, Page 7

REGINALD DENNY STARS IN FINE TALKIE COMEDY.

Reginald Denny has made his first talkie, and at the same time he has made one of the greatest successes in a career packed with hits. His work on the silent films earned him a great reputation as a comedian, and his latest effort, “ Embarrassing Moments,” will heighten his fame. It is the same old Denny, with his broad smile, and his habit of emerging triumphantly from situations which require wit. It is the same old Denny, with the great difference that he now talks. In the days of his ffilent film fame, Reginald Denny was justly renowned for comedy that was as far removed from the slapstick as it was possible to get, and his latest film is no exception to the rule. The cheerful comedian relies almost entirely on situations for his laughs, and he displays a genius in getting himself into laughable corners. His voice, too, will appeal instantly to all who prefer English to American, as it is strongly an English voice, a legacy the actor has carried with him from his Surrey birthplace. The story of the picture is in parts daring, but it never goes too close to the edge. Denny, contrary to liis usual style, is a most retiring and peaceful individual in his latest film. He is a writer. Thaddeus Cruickshank by name, who is used as a stalkinghorse by a charming young lady from a small backblocks town. The writer is considered by the girl’s family, before they have made his acquaintance, to be a very dashing and rather dangerous person, and he arrives on the scene as a means of shocking her family, hints of a companionate marriage hav-

ing been given forth. The small town nance, whose sleepiness and general smugness have stirred the girl to this drastic action, is very much in the background when the writer is summoned before an irate father and commanded to marry the girl immediately. Embarrassing moments they certainly are for the principals, but they manage to provide a record quantity of laughter for the audience. In his role as the quiet Thaddeus, Denny makes probably the best showing of his remarkably successful career. He is inimitable in the part, and has the audience in fits of laughter the whole time he is on the stage. He is the central piece of a farce that is as good as anything the taikies have done so far. “ Embarrassing Moments ” is a fitting start for Denny in the talkies. Hardly less impressive in his part is Otis Harlan as the angry father. His is a peculiar type of comedy, which finds the fullest and most successful scope in this comedy of scenes. Denny’s English voice fits J”® PJir* like a glove, and no less does the Mid-Western twang of Harlan fit the part of the tubby and irate papa. Second on the programme is a comedy or no little merit which concerns the Rooneys, vaudeville artists, who suddenly inherit an ancient Irish title and its appurtenances. They are all splendid dancers and also most of them sing. Tho plot is, of course, highlv imaginative. but secures its effect, that of burlesque, without effort. An episode in the lives of the Collegians proved highly popular, and its • if.?*?; rollicking humour was a valuable addition to a very fine programme. A most interesting gazette, or, rather series of shorts, opened the bill. Among the turns was a fine song by the famous Kos L a Raiser, which reproduced almost perfectly.