GRAND THEATRE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 419, 10 November 1930, Page 11

GRAND THEATRE.

DELIGHTFUL MIXTURE OF NONSENSE. What is comedy? Webster’s definition reads: —“A joyful festivity with music and dancing. A phase of drama depicting scenes of an amusing and cheerful nature.” A shorter manner of defining “comedy” would be to see “The Cuckoos,” the all-talking, singing, musical show now at the Grand Theatre. Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, inimitable clowns of “Rio Rita” lame, are principal reasons why “The Cuckoos” is “joyful festivity.” June Clyde and Hugh Trevor, with 100 trained singers and dancers, are the featured entertainers along the musical and dancing line. Stage technicans have always claimed that comedy was an- elusive factor and particularly hard to bring out on the screen. Special “gag” men are usually employed to insure the success of the embryo comedy. But Wheeler and Woolsey refused to have an assistant when filming “The Cuckoos.” Every “gag” used by them in the picture is original. They have worked together so long that they know before hand whether their jokes will register successfully with the audience. Most musical comedies of the screen have featured the singing and dancing numbers, but “The Cuckoos” reverses the ordinary routine and features the comedy. The picture was “made for laughs” and, according to those who have seen it, the show hits its mark. “The Cuckoos” is comedy of the broadest type. It makes no pretenses at subtlety, for Wheeler and Woolsey are decidedly comedians of the “slapstick” variety. They are aided to no small degree by Dorothy Lee, who scored so sensationally with them in “Rio

Rita.” and Jobyna Howland, a newcomer to the screen who has made her mark in Broadway musical comedies. “The Cuckoos” is the screen’s first all-talking extravaganza of nonsense. Reserves may be secured at theatre office or by ’phone 3152.