THE HONGKONO TELEXIRAPIL, SATURDAY, MAY 2, 1986.
ENTERTAINMENT
"FIRST NIGHT" ON
THE TALKIES
Charlie's Film
Is A Feat
Of Riotous Fun
"Modern Times”
Charlie Chaplin, Paulotte Goddard
"King's Friday'
CHARLIE CHAPLIN digs into the ribs
of a ticklish modern civilisation in "Modern Times" at the King's on Friday. next a picture that contains some of the funniest things he has ever done and is at the same time his most serious effort to 'make people think.
He will certainly make them laugh as heartily as anybody has laughed for many a day. Whether his satire is as deep as he evidently intended, you will decide for yourselves.
Ile tilts not only at the machine ago in industry, but also at a system that may make gaol a more comfortable place than thousands have to live in und at the stern inelasticity of lawa for the protec- tion of orphaned children,
But the outstanding thing is the revelation of Charlie's voice. This is nothing less than a triumph.
The little avaterfront waif (Paulette Goddard). whom Charlie had befriended is waiting for him when he comes out of gaol. She can get him a job as a singing waiter in a cafe.
Charlle knows nothing about waiting, and he cannot sing; but, with the customary vallance of the Chaplin figure in love, has a shot nt it.
The waiting sequences, with Charlie swept along in the multitude of dancers and driven back into the surge bearing his heavily Inden tray every time he thinks he has, achloved the table of his Impatient customers, will make you roar.
HILARIOUS SEQUENCE
All the little combinations of subilely and knockabout humour that Charlie does so well are mixed irresistibly in this hilarious aequence.
He rebearses in
Then Charlie is due to sing. the little sweetheart's dressing room. Always, after the confident preliminaries, he forgets the words. So she writes them for him on his cuff; and the first thing the new singing waiter docs as he advances to perform his act is, of course, to shoot the cuff across the room into oblivion.
"Sing anything," sighs the Ittle sweetheart, watching just behind the scenes. Charlie does so,
From a jumble of disconnected French, Italian, Spanish and English words he evolven, by the shear delicacy of his pantomime and the twinkling humour of his vocalist, what might easily pass as one of those gally mischievous little songs that menn all that in piquant in the word "Continental"
NEVER DONE SO WELL
It is positively brilliant. The feat is not entirely now, but it has never been performed with the wonderful artistry Chaplin brings to it.-It-la- Charlie's natural volce, pleasant and clear and its use in this way will serve to drive home the argu- ment that Charlie ought to come in the open frankly in any future pictures.
In "Modern Times" the refusal to talk. coupled with the fact that many of the captions are commonplace and unnecessary, become too much like an affectation.
This is ommhasised by the elaborate means he takes of bringing talk into the Alm. but not ner- mitting it to come direct from the mouths of the others.
TELEVISION TALK
Thus the president of a factory whose volce is - not heard in his own room, talks to workers through his television. sol.
Charlie, taking his modest lunch in the factory, Is chosen as the subject upon whom a feeding machine, designed to save time, is tested. It is riotously funny.
The machine wots out of order and moves faster and faster. They cannot stop it, and by the time the little man, gripped by the head-rest, is grappling with the wild presentation of corn on the cob, most audiences will be wining tears of laughter from their eyes.
When we see Charlie first his job is to fasten bolts on a moving chait. Here, too, he is at his funniest,
The steady succession of Jerks
gets on his riervon. He goes off his
head. pulls all the lever he sees and blows up the machinery.
Ho is taken to hospital, is told to avoid excitement when eured, runs' into a Communist demonstration and, trying to restore a red flag dronnet by a lorry, is sent to gaol as a ring- Jender.
THE COMFY GAOL There be Is. so nice and comfortable that when he is discharged for a comic feat of valour (after the innocent consumption of smuggled cocaine) his first thought is to got back again.
Then he meets the girl, and there- are some delightful scenes, though it fe in the romantic passages that the film tends to drag Charlie seeks work again for her'snko.
The end of the picture is Indeter- migato, buḥ happy. The Hitle man and the girl go smiling into the future along that open road which we have woon in other stories.
Paulotte
s
Goddard is charraing-a
DO YOU REMEMBER?
Charbe in The Shapwalker
And not so long ago. The Circus...........
A high spot from. Cite Lights-and.
(below) another not so high,
Audiences
MA
Like
Old
Songs And The Stars
Who Made Them
[ANY variety artists famous to two generations of theatre-goers
are still holding the centre of the music-hall stuge.
Here are a few now appearing in different parts of Britain this month-Sir Harry Lauder, Kate Carney, G. H. Elliott, Ella Shields, Arthur Princee, Gerlio Gitann, Hürry Tato, and Billy Bennett,
They were big names years ago. They are still big names. The rovolutiona that have taken place in the untertainment world havo
made no difference to their popularity.
Lauder has been on the stag fifty-four years; Tate-forty-one; Elliott-thirty-seven: Gertie Gitana-thirty: Ella Shields came here. from America in 1908; Kate Carney recently celebrated her golden wedding and still does threo shows a day; Arthur Prince, has been cross-talking with his thirty-nine-year-old ventriloquist's, doll "Jim"
pretty, alim, fresh-looking, darkhaired for thirty-six years. girl who looks as though che might
that Charlie contemplates amoro
be a real actress. I am not surprised. It is significant that most of these artists are comedians. Some
times they try to introduce a different style or modern songs into their shows. Then the gallery shouts for the old numbers.
sorious story for her.
Hongkong May Have Television For The Coronation
By "FIRST NIGHT”. TONGKONG may, as the result of enquiries now being unofficially undertaken in London, be the first part of the British Empire outside London to have Television.
H
The high-definition Television system of the B.B.C. will be in operation in August this year. If the B.B.C. will make records of their television programmes, as they do to-day of their ordinary broadcast programmes, there is every likelihood that Hongkong will erect its own Television transmitter and use the London programmes.
Because of the wide frequency band required for high-definition television, ultra-short wavelengths must be used to broadcast visual images.
Unfortunately, the range of ultra-short wavelength is' limited to a radius of 25 to 50 miles from the broadcasting station, ruling out any possibility of the B.B.C. visual broadcasta being picked up in Hongkong direct, as are the Daventry pro- grammes.
But a television transmitter is comparatively inexpensive and If Hongkong can obtain visual programmes from the B.B.C.. ex- pense should not deter the local authorities from installing a local transmitter.
Television receivers are admittedly more expensive than the ordinary broadcast receivers, but the B.B.C., as part of its Tele- vision Programme, are arranging for the marketing by private Arms, of inexpensive sets. At present a Television receiver costs £50 sterling. It can be used either for visual or sound reception, or both.
QUASI-OPTICAL RANGE
The ultra short wave-length employed for television have a quasi-optical range-that is, their radius of reception is just over that of the human eye, The height of the aerial plays as im- Dortant part in television broadcasting. For this reason. Hong- kong is an ideal aite for such a transmitter. An aerial at the top of the Peak would give a radius of reception that would greatly exceed that of the new B.B.C. transmitter in London, which, with an aerial 600 feet high, will have a radius of from 30 to 50 miles.
It is not necessary for wireless to be employed in television. Ordinary telephone lines can be employed in a manner similar to that used by the Hongkong Telophone Company for its wired- wireless broadcasting service from ZBW.
I understand from a reliable source that, while the Hongkong' Telephone Company is not at present considering the installation of such a service devoted to Television, unofficial enquiries ard being made by a prominent Government taipan regarding the advisability of expanding ZBW in order to embrace television.
The apparatus, if ordered before the end of this year, could be installed in Hongkong in time to televise the scenes of the Coronation in May next year of King Edward VIII. Coronation scenes will be broadcast by the B.B.C. by television, as well as through the channels now existing.
GUEST WRITER SAYS
AUSTRALIAN FILM
INVASION
SOON
Many-correspondents have written recent weeks, deploring paucity of British films. How Australian Governments are tackling foreign film grip, and at same time making market for own films overseas, is explained in following article by well-known journalist recently returned to Hongkong from Sydney.
WITH the passing by New South Studios imported Charles Farrell to Wales of a film quota act to take the lead in "The Flying Doctor" operate this year, the production of which is being produced at the re-
cently constructed studio at Australian films, which hitherto had
Page- appeared irregularly and with indif wood, near Botany, Sydney. For the ferent success, is now assured and technical work a big team of English It is almost certain that in due course exports, headed by Miles Mander, films from Australian studios will was fent by Gaumont-British which find their way to Hongkong theatres. is undertaking the distribution over- Australian studios, although fin sens, National Studios first negotiat anced purely by Australian interests, ed with Richard Dix to take the role have linked themselves with the but he was unavailable.
major distributing companies in America and England in order to
to gain sales outside of the Commonwealth. act, Until the passage of the quota the future of Australian films was
most uncertain. In the silent days a few films were made but they were of auch poor technical quality that they were not screened outside Australia. With talking alms there was a revival of the industry and from 1930 to 1935 Australian studios kept up a steady output of more or less good technical films.
For a time the industry flourished and it was thought that it would pro- gress steadily, but the handicap of having no distributing organisation overseas was too great and as purely domestle screening did not return suf- ficient profit, one by one the studios disappeared or curtailed thair output. The New South Wales quota not, which is for a period of five years, compels both distributors and exhibi- tora to handle stipulated percentages of Australian films, beginning at a low proportion and increasing annual-
ly.
The act had the immediate result
of seeing several film companies com. ing into existence, most of them being connected with the major companies overseas, for the lessons from pre- vious failures was well known, and no exponse was spared in the attempts to make the Alms worthy of presenta tion overseas.
First of all it was realized that al- though there wens good artists, in Australia, stars with world-famed names and technicians with overseas experience woro necessary, and im mediately negotiations were entered Into with prominent stars.
Ono. of the first films to be under takon удо Thoroughbred," by Cincaound Studios, a
company which In addition to producing a regular news-reel had made several good films' including a version of the old romance "The Silence of Doan Maitland.”
Shortly after her arrival National
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FOOTWEAR
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Use our system of deferred payments.
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Hongkong's Ladies' Shoo Specialists.
SHOPPING AT MAMAK'S
The above picture shows His Excellency Vice-Admiral Sir Charles J. C. Little, K.C.B.. selecting "Davis Cup" 1936 model tennis rackets at Mamak's, Kowloon.
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