ENTERTAINMENTS

Waipa Post, Volume 43, Issue 3327, 25 July 1931, Page 5

ENTERTAINMENTS

TO-NIGHT AND MONDOY.

" THE DANCERS^

When the rhythm of the dance weaves its. spell over two beautiful women and embroils a sentimental sweetheart and a ne'er-do-well son of wealth, dramatic intensity is sure to follow. This situation in the Fox Movietone version of the famous stage play, "The Dancers," featuring > Lois Moran, which will be shown at Empire Theatre to-night and Monday, comes at the climax of the picture when Phillips Holmes engages Walter Byron, the ne'er-do-well, in a battle over Lois' affections. Their struggle over this girl, temporarily blinded by the pleasures of gay night life and dancing, is brought to vivid contrast by the pathetic plight of Mae Clarke, who, as a professional dancer, is forced to look on while the boy she loves is made a fool of by Lois' selfish behaviour. The picture was directed by Chandler Sprague, who recently directed Miss Moran and Walter Byron in the Fox Movietone, " Not Damaged," and whose handling of the many delicate and dramatic situations is said to be of the most skillfull. In addition to those players mentioned above, the cast includes Mrs Patrick Campbell, whose name ranks with that of Sarah Bernhardt in the history of the drama, and Tyrell Davis. " The Dancers " was adapted to the audible screen by Edmund Burke from the stage play of the same name by Sir Gerald Du Maurier and Viola Tree, in which Richard Bennett scored so sensat;onally on the New York stage. Burke also wrote the dialogue. During the picture Mae Clarke sings the delightful song, " Love Has Passed Me By," written by James Monaco and Cliff Friend.

TUESDAY WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY. A curiosity equal to that which was occasioned by the appearance of Greta Garbo in her first talking picture has been aroused in connection with the showing next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thui-sday, at the Empire Theatre of Lon Chaney's initial talking production, "The Unholy Three," in which the " man of many faces " will introduce movie audiences for the first time to his many voices. The principal scenes of the picture are laid first in the environment of a circus side-show section and later in a bird and animal shop in which Chaney in the disguise of an old woman hides from the police who are seeking him for a murder. In the pet-shop se- , quences Chaney reveals a new angle of his versatile talents, that of ventriloquism by which he makes the parrots " talk." By the same method he makes the dummy in the sideshow sequences not only talk but sing " Sweet Rosie O'Grady." It is said that when the side-show scenes were filmed the Metro-Gldwyn-Mayer studio lots looked like the,combined Bar-num-Bailey and Ringling Brothers Circus grounds what with freaks, ani- ' mals, trapeze performers, hula-hula dancers and other typical details of a gaudy side-show sector. Chaney in an endeavour to make the atmosphere as realistic as possible insisted that actual circus freaks be employed in consequence of which Al Copeland, head of Copeland's Circus secured the services of Birdie Thompson, fivehundred pound "fat girl"; Harry • Kane, "living skeleton," and Great De Garro, " fire-eater " and a number of others. None of these circus performers had ever appeared before a camera and several of them could not be induced to act until they had satisfied superstitious requirements. De Garro, for instance, would not eat fire until he had repeated a magic formula in French to make sure that he wouldn't burn his tongue. Fire-eat-ers, he declared, had done this for centuries. Miss Thompson, the fat girl, wouldn't go on until she had walked three times around the cameras. Motion pictures, she said, were something new in her business and no new , •business should be embarked upon without this precaution. Each performer, furthermore, insisted on a private dressing room. Dramatic spots in "The Unholy Three" include the fight in the side-show after the ventriloquist attempts to pick the pockets of an onlooker; the mysterious murder on Christmas Eve; the scene in which the embittered midget sets loose an orang-outang so that he can attack the side-show giant; and Chaney's final scene in the courtroom where he reveals himself by tearing off the old woman's disguise.