REGENT THEATRE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 209, 4 September 1934, Page 7

REGENT THEATRE

“DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY.’’ Containing scenes of remarkable eauty and of sound drama, acting of he highest quality, and a story as unsual as it is interesting, “Death Jakes a Holiday,” now showing\ t the Regent, is one of the strangest, lost novel and most entertaining films hat has been shown in Wanganui this ear. It is one of those plays, Tare in he cinema, though common enough on he stage, which seeks to translate into erious screen language a purely fanastic and beautiful idea. The title of he picture sums up literally its theme. )eath, taking the form of a human beng, forsakes his grim work and for hrec days lives among men seeking to liscover the reason for mankind’s fear if him, seeking to discover the reason or man's love of Life, for his abhorence of death. The idea of Death as i being not human and yet not far relieved from human is probably as aearly as old as mankind. What is here improbable, then, in the idea of Death adopting human form and the and thoughts of humanity? rhe shadow of Death appears to Duke Lambert in his Italian palace and explains to him bis intention. For countless centuries, says Death, he has been loathed and feared by mankind. Now. out of pure caprice, he intends to live as a human being for three days and discover the reason for this loathing. “His Double Life'' “His Double Life,” coming to the Regent to-morrow, has a lively theme, which sets off as comedy but broadens to farce- It is usually difficult to talk of death beds and funerals and provoke mirth. This film includes bo’ih in its opening scenes, and both are so faithfully reproduced that their damper on later mirth is never completely shaken off either by the brilliant subtlety and wit of dialogue or die hilarity generated by many comical ind farcical situations. This is a pity, since Roland Young, one of the best comedians on the screen to-day, is seen in his best form. He plays the part of a world-famous painter whose identity becomes hopelessly entangled with that of his butler. The butler dies, is held to be the famous painter, and as such is buried in Westminster Abbey—that was how the trouble started- Lilian Gish is charming in the role of a mat-ter-of-fact woman who “catches” the butler through a matrimonial agency. When the butler turns out to be the painter when funerals and death beds become so entangled that arrival at the truth seems impossible, she retains her equanimity and her portrayal is such that she almost “steals the show. This is better than ordinary fare if one has the capacity to wing at a death’s head or two and crack a joke at a funeral.