ENTERTAINMENTS

Waipa Post, Volume 43, Issue 3328, 28 July 1931, Page 8

ENTERTAINMENTS

EMPIRE THEATRE. TO-NIGHT, WEDNESDAY, AND THURSDAY. Lon Chaney will make his first speaking appearance on the screen at the Empire Theatre in “The Unholy Three,” all talking version of his former silent success but said to be vastly different from the earlier film in that he asumes not only two disguises but five vocal characterisations and also makes a dummy sing by the art of ventriloquism. The new MetroJ-Goldwyn-Mayer production was directed by Jack Conway with continuity by J. C. Nugent and Elliott Nugent. The younger Nugent is also in the supporting cast which includes Lila Lee, Harry Earles, John Miljan, Ivan Linow, Clarence Burton and Crauford Kent.. The picture is based on C. A. Robbins’ story of a side-show ventriloquist who becomes involved, together with a circus giant and midget in an amazing criminal plot. The ventriloquist fools the police by running a pet. shop in the disguise, of an old woman while the midget impersonates a baby. .The clerk in the store, knowing nothing of their activities, is “framed” after a murder, but the ventriloquist’s love for a girl who pleads for the boy’s vindication •finally prevails in a dramatic court- • room scene Climax. Interesting scenes ':in the production include those of the pet show in which a wide variety of ■ animals and -birds are seen and those of the Circus side-shows in which actual circus freaks play prominent parts. In preparing for his first talking roles,: Chaney asserts he. employed a unique method, of practising the various:,! characterisations. I didn’t want to be a nuisance at home, the star stated recently, “nor did I want to do it around the- studio. So I practised the different voice inflections while driving to and from work in my automobile. OnCe a traffic cop looked at me as thought he thought I were out of my mind, but I didn’t let a little thing like that stop me.”