EXCELLENT PICTURES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20310, 21 May 1934, Page 3

EXCELLENT PICTURES.

“ The Lottery Bride ” and “ Bedside.” A good bedside manner is an asset to any medical man, and “ Bedside,” one of the featured films at the Theatre Royal this week, provides a useful study in the technique of this delicate art. Louis Brown (Warren William), masquerading as Dr J. Herbert Martel, of New York, by combining a polished bedside manner with big publicity schemes organised by Sparks (Allen Jenkins), attains success. But he has to use dishonest methods to achieve his purpose, and these lead to his downfall and, inciprovide the material for a striking drama. At first, Louis is just an X-ray technician at a clinic, where he has a good friend in the nurse, Caroline (Jean Muir). She lends him a large sum of money to enable him to obtain his diploma, but he loses it in gambling and returns to the clinic without telling her of his lapse. There comes to the clinic a man calling himself Smith (David Landau), asking for morphine. Louis suspects him to be a doctor, as indeed he is, and an arrangement is made by which Smith is to be kept supplied with dope, while Louis secures a medical diploma enabling him to pose and practise as Dr Martel. An unsuccessful operation on an actress (Kathryn Sergava), whose life is finally saved by Louis’s assistant, reveals the fraud to Caroline. But that is not the end of this powerful story, which must be seen to be appreciated. The acting of the principals is first-class. The return of “ The Lottery Bride,” the second full-length picture, will be welcomed by those who like bright music and sparkling comedy, for the stars, Jeanette MacDonald, John Gairick and Robert Chisholm, are accomplished vocalists. Friml, of “ Rose Marie” and ‘‘The Vagabond King” fame, wrote the music, and this, combined with an excellent story, makes the production very popular.