Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-27
From the Front Row
Reviews and News of Washington Theaters

this week, featuring Buster Keaton,
freely at ease in his first talking
picture, may be pronounced q genu-
Inc hit.
Serious, comical and laughingly
awkward, Buster Is seen in q de-
cidedly new role-that Of comedian
in a screen musical comedy, in
which he proves himself a very
clever dancer in the terpsichorian
number, Free and Easy" from
which the play derives its name.
Buster loses none of his funny quail
tiles by reason of the lines which
he speaks in the play. In fact, he
adds TO his ability to portray his
foolisllly striped character, always
doing The wrong thing, by speaking
in voice quite as expressionless as
his face. Busters monotone voice
Is but one more comical feature in
the long list of funny things seen,
done and heard in Free and Easy"
In ridiculously exaggerated cos
TUNES, one as an aviator and an
other as a clown, he shows a chorus
of hootchy-kootchy desert dancers
how they really should dance and
arouses roars of laughter merely
with his absurd appearance.
woven plot of all musical comedies.
Elvira Plunkett travels as Miss
Gopher City Kansas, from her home
town to Hollywood with her mother
as chaperone, and Elmer Butts
Buster Keaton) as her manager.
Trixie Friganza, as the mother, Is
a close rival to Buster as a come
dian. The inevitable occurs. Ell
vira's prettiness fails to impress the
Hollywood producers. Her mother
and Elmer, however, eventually be-
come great successes. Elvira wins
as husband the screen hero, whom
she first meets on the train going to
HOLLYWOOD. Several scenes shot"
in Hollywood's studios, showing well
known stars not ION the set" are
merely a few of the interesting fea-
lures of the picture.
The vaudeville this week shares
honorS equally with the picture IN
the excellence of its entertainment.
Wesley Eddy returns after an abb
Sence of three months and is mas
ter of ceremonies for an unusually
good program. featuring Days o
Yore" with three Kings, dancers;
Chevalier brothers, accomplished
acrobats; Edna Howard, Nat Spira,
a stylish stout" chorus, designated
a "Ten Tiny Tots" and a Chester
Hale chorus. Hearst Metrotone
News and short subjects complete
the program.
"Ingagi" at Keith's
Leaves Audience Limp.
THE most amazing record OF prirn-
tive life yet exploited by the
camera of man in the jungle OF
Africa is visible at R-K-O Keith's
Theater under the title "Ingagi," q
film, which purportS to be the ad-
ventures of Sir Hubert Winstead,
F. r. S., in the wilds of the Congo.
It is the most pictorially vivid reva-
Iation of mans savage ancestor, the
gorilla, yet brought before the pub
lie. Through the last half, which
is distinctly not for juvenile con-
SUMPTION, the audience seems
scarcely able to breathe, so intense
is its dramatic vitality.
Congo Pictures, Ltd, which Is re-
sponsible for this film, has chron-
icled its sequences with one Of the
most varied collections of animals
ever seen outside of Noah's Ark
lions, leopards, pythons, rhinoceroses
and, seemingly, all crawling beasts
of the earth. Not only do they ap-
pear for brief moment to strut
their stuff across the stage" but
they are pictured with startling
naturalness.
One of the most thrilling moments
of all Is the attack of lion on one
of the men of the expedition--an
attack which is said to have proved
fatal to the man later.
The piece de resistance" is the