ALL-TALKING FILM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 291, 8 December 1928, Page 15 (Supplement)

ALL-TALKING FILM

IN LONDON THEATRE. The new Piccadilly Theatre, London, saw the birth in England of an “alltalking cinema programme. People who came to criticise stayed to praise and to applaud the magic curtain from which the stars of the United States sent their voices, their idiosyncrasies—almost every little detail of their personalities. With your eyes open or closed, you could feel that you were in the presence of living artists (says the Daily Chronicle, London); you could sense the very soul in some of the music, particularly that of stringed instruments, that came from the mystery stage where there were no performers in the flesh. Vitaphone showed us what “talking pictures” really are, and what a power they are going to be in the near future. The unbelieving heard and saw, in perfect tone and synchronisation, the cross-talking of comedians, the wonderful banjo-playing of two cheery young men who chattered and smiled at you as though they arc really there, and the somewhat ineffective but perfectly reproduced “turns” of three sisters: the contortions, quips, and incidental music of a jazz band; and the singing of Martinelli, the dramatic tenor of the New York Metropolitan Opera. Finally we had the New York play. “The Jazz Singer,” with Al Jobson, the idol of Broadway, and May McAvoy in the principal parts. In the audience wore many well-known theatrical and cinema people. There was one who saw what he described as “the writing on the wall.” “This is going to deal a death-blow sooner or later to touring,” he said. “It will never kill the bigger theatres, though. ” He was the least cheerful person to whom I spoke. Mr C. B. Cochran, for instance, does not think that the 11 talking picture” will ever compete with the stage. Jn his view, it misses the point of personal contact. There were others who declared that it would not even hit the silent picture.

Emory Johnson, who directed “The Shield of Honour,” the Universal production, has directed but one picture which was not written by his mother, Emilie Johnson. The well balanced cast include? such players as Neil Hamilton, Ralph Lewis, Dorothy Gulliver, Fred Esmelton. Claire MacDowell, William Blakewell. Nigel Barre, Thelma Todd and others.