CITY THEATRES

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22424, 10 June 1938, Page 21

CITY THEATRES

AVON “WELLS FARGO” The motion picture camera brings back to life some ~of the most stirring and colourful days in American history in Paramount's "Wells Fargo," a romance.with Joel McCrea and Frances Dee which opens to-day at the Avon. The romance is based on the family fortunes of McCrea and Frances Dee. a pioneer Western family, from the time the first pony express rider carried his bag of precious mail out of Sfc Louis for the remote mining camps of the high sierras, and ends with the close of the war between the. states. Bob Burns, Lloyd Nolan, Henry O’Neill, Porter Hall, Robert Cummings, and Ralph Morgan are in the supporting cast, which numbers more than 2000.

The story is concerned in the main with the necessity which arose in the West for ’ dependable transportation service across the continent to California, to carry the mails and news to the scattered wildcat towns on the frontier, and to return to the East with gold and silver. How this need was filled by the enterprising firm of Wells Fargo and Company forms the background of the picture. Laid against this background, which covers the period of 1844 to 1870, is the romance of Joel McCrea, a young man with far-sighted vision who is one of the trail breakers, and his wife, Frances Dee, who loves him but fails to understand his dreams. The fortunes of this pair are traced froin the time when they are married, at the outset of the picture, until they are reconciled after the war between the states had come between them.

CIVIC

“PARADISE FOR TWO”

Not for years has Jack Hulbert appeared to such advantage as he does in “Paradise for Two,” the London films production, which begins to-day at the Civic, “It is very doubtful if Hulbert has made a better picture since his famous ‘Sunshine Susie,”’ writes a Wellington reviewer. “Much of the credit for this naturally belongs to Alexander ■Korda, the producer, who gives the star the kind of happy-go-lucky; humorously romantic material he needs, but of which he has so often been starved in previous pictures. And it is specially notable that it is Korda who has done this, for Korda hitherto has had rather the reputation of keeping his head in the clouds and being obsessed with highbrow themes. Now he has come down to earth and shown that, when he likes to try, he can produce a popular musical film which is British in flavour and yet compares quite favourably with .American attractions of the same type.” The story is light-hearted, frothy, and inconsequential, but it does give Hulbert one of the best parts of his career. He is in grand form. The same is true of Patricia Ellis, who reveals astonishing beauty, a delightful sense of comedy, and more than adequate voice. The two stars receive excellent support from Arthur Riscoe, pf whom more must be seen. Direction is bright and breezy in the best Hollywood tradition. PLAZA “LAUGHING IRISH EYES” AND “SENSATION” “Laughing Irish Eyes,” which begins at the Plaza to-day with “Sensation,” tells a rollicking story of a young Irishman, Phil Regan, who is brought to America as a ring champion, His greater delight, however, is his fine tenor voice, and Evelyn Knapp as his coquettish but spitfire admirer, artfully steers him from the prize ring into contracts for love and music. . x J. M. Kerrigan, noted for his spirited Irish portrayals, and Mary