"BRIGHT LIGHTS”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 280, 29 November 1935, Page 10

"BRIGHT LIGHTS”

JOE BROWN’S SUCCESS COMEDY AT THE REGENT Supported by an excellent cast, in which is included some of Broadway’s greatest stage talent, Joe E. Brown scores the biggest success of his long career in “Bright Lights,” his latest picture. which will commence at the Begent Theatre to-day. Already well known as a first-class farcical comedian, Brown will surprise even his keenest admirers when they see him in “Bright Lights.’’ Not only does he frolic as usual through a series of comical situations, but he also sings, dances, mimic and perforins remarkable acrobatics. He is a complete vaudeville entertainment in himself, but the producers have not been content to let the whole responsibility for

» ■ the film ’s success rest on his shoulders. I ‘ The story is a strong one, showing j what happens when a comedian in a l : small vaudeville troupe suddenly be- ' comes famous on Broadway and the ! i success goes to his head. Four new i songs are introduced against this setting of back-stage life, one of them • [being “She Was an Acrobat’s Daugh- - ter,’’ sung by Brown. The acrobat’s I daughter, incidentally, is somewhat similar tn “The Man on the Flying Trapeze.” The music has th? same lilt, and the words are just as funny. ■ Scores of chorus girls appear in tuneI [ ful and lavish song and dance numbers ! staged bv the celebrated Busby Berke- .... I Hugh Herbert, the droll performer, t I who has the role of a picture snatcher in the First National mystery melodrama, “Fog Over Frisco,” which ‘conics to the Begent Theatre on Wed- | nesday next, once attended Cornell • University. He discovered that Adolphe I Menjou and Phillip Reed also attended I Corneil. So he decided a celebration was in order and proceeded to lay ’ plans. When he finally got round to . issue his invitations, he discovered that [after making three pictures in a row, ' i Menjou had just left the studio for other fields: and young Phil Reed had . ! been loaned by Warners to another I company for an important role with Constance Cummings. So the Cornell , get-together was- off.

The complex and fascinating ritual of scientific crime detection and its laboratory experiments form the back- , ground for the story of “The Legion lof Valour,” the new Reliance produc- [ tion which is coming to the Regent ’ Theatre on Saturday next. Under the . 1 expert supervision of Captain Don Wil- ■ kie, former ace of the United States ’ Secret Service, the step-by-step methods employed by Department of Justice operatives in tracking down public enemies are dramatically unfolded in this gripping story featuring Richard Richard Arlen, Virginia Bruce, . Alice Brady and Bruce Cabot. There . is a cartridge sniffer who can tell by . his keen sense of smell when a bullet ; was fired, its calibre and whether it ■ was fresh or stale. Following a bank . hold-up and the get-away of the ban- . dit, he sniffs the ground like a bloodhound for the scent of petrol and informs his superiors regarding the , direction in which the robbers have fled. The mere footprint of a person p will, reveal to an expert, the exact . length of his stride, and from the size . of the foot, plus the length of the . stride, a person’s height can be accur- ! ately obtained. A cross-section of a single human hair conveys a pretty . fair description of the owner, and from . the bite in an apple a man’s face and > jaw' are reconstructed. Bruce Cabot . plays the public enemy hunted down |by the detectives in “The Legion of Valour.”