REGENT THEATRE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 221, 18 September 1934, Page 7

REGENT THEATRE

J “THE RETURN OF BULLDOG DRUMMOND ’ ’ One of the most thrilling and entertaining films seen for some time, “The Reiurn of Bulldog Drummond,” will be shown finally at the Regent Theatre to-day. There is not a dull moment iu this splendid picture and the audience is kept in breathless suspense by a series of exciting and unexpected incidents. The story is by the celebrated author “Sapper,” whose adventure novels have been read by millions. It deals with Drummond’s efforts to thwart a dangerous band of criminals headed by his unscrupulous enemy, Carl Peterson, who are attempting to destroy the peace of Europe. The picture moves rapidly through many exciting incidents to a particularly powerful climax. The film is refreshing enteriainment. Ralph Richardson gives a fine performance in the name part and is ably supported by Claude Allister and Ann Todd. “Hi, Nellie!” Time was when the more announcement, of a daily paper background for a motion picture was to a newspaperman what a red flag is to a bull. Weird and unusual was a motion picture art director’s conception of a city room. Technical errors by the hundred were rhe rule, and no one seemed to care except a protesting handful whose suggestions were rudely pushed aside. “Why bother?” was the attitude. Newspaper people make up a very small minority of motion picture audiences, and the general public doesn’t particularly care, the dissenters were told. All well and good, despite the frantic yells and indignant squawks of reviewers, until one fine day Warn | Bros, made “Five Star Final.” Mervyn LeKoy, chosen to direct, is a stickler for realism and accuracy. He gave the public a taste of what a real metropolitan office looks like, and the public loved it. It found real colour and drama in a setting that bore little semblance to the combination button factory sweat shop they had been accustomed to sec under the guise of a newspaper office. In “Hi, Nellie!” Paul Muni’s sparkling new saga of the newsprints, coming to-morrow to the Regent Theatre, the setting takes in a complete New York daily city room. And Leßoy, again the director, has insisted on accuracy down to stained cupsidors and a floor littered with discarded newspapers and proof sheets. His newsroom fairly reeks of printer’s ink. The screen play was written by Abem Finkel and Sidney Sutherland from an original story by Roy Chanslor—all men who have served years as news gatherers, as well as screen writers. Sharing honours with Muni in the cast arc Glena Farrell, Ned Sparks, Robert Barrat, Kathryn Scrgava, Hobart Cavanaugh and Berton Churchill.