THEATRE ROYAL SHOWS "ROGUE SONG,” SATURDAY

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19238, 27 November 1930, Page 4

THEATRE ROYAL SHOWS "ROGUE SONG,” SATURDAY

The season of “Alt’s Button” will conclude to-morrow, night. The much-discussed screen operetta, “The Rogue Song,” filmed entirely in technicolour and starring Lawrence Tibbett, leading baritone of the Metropolitan Opera Company, will open an engagement at the Theatre Royal on Saturday. Lawrence Tibbett is the only living opera star of international reputation so far to be introduced to the screen. The songs in the production range from numbers of operatic magnitude accompanied by a symphony orchestra, to simple love songs and ballads. Assisting in the musical end of the picture are Elsa Alsen. dramatic soprano, a women's chorus and a male chorus. It is stated that while a large number of persons will be primarily interested in the musical attractions of “The Rogue Song,” the producers were careful not to allow the interesting plot of the picture to become submerged in the maze of musical numbers. It was with this in mind that Lionel Barrymore, considered to be one of the foremost directors, was selected to supervise the film. Barrymore interpolated the musical numbers at consistent points in the plot without detracting from the continuity of the situations. The colourful story is told in the Caucasus Mountains, with Tibbett playing the role of a srwashbuckling Russian Robin Hood, leader of a group of singing bandits who steal from the rich and give to the poor. The picture is said to contain some unusually effective cavalry scenes in which a large number of Russian Cossacks participated. The chief sound engineer headed a scientific staff to take charge of the special blending of* sound and colour required for this all-techni-colour production. The colour work is said to be finer than anything yet done in this medium, a particularly beautiful scene being that of an Albertina Rasch ballet of 100 girls who dance to the modernistic music of Dimitri Tiomkin.