ENTERTAINMENTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 65, 28 December 1935, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS.

MAJESTIC THEATRE. “Feather in Her Ilat" will be the picture at the Majestic Theatre tonight and on Monday. Based on mother love, the story tells how Pauline Lord, a cockney owner of a little shop in the East End of London, meets Basil Rathbone, an ex-Army officer and gentleman, who is right down on his luck. She takes Rathbone into her home and he undertakes to educate and bring up her son, Louis Hayward, as a gentleman. At 21 the boy is a model young man, and it is then that Pauline Lord reveals that she is not his mother, but that he is actually the son of Billie Burke, a retired actress. With a small fortune left in trust for him until he is 21, Hayward, at Pauline Lord’s behest, goes to live in the same house as his mother. There, in addition to Billie Burke he meets Wendy Barrie, and the two fall in love. The love interest between Hayward and Wendy Barne is brought out well and there is a side issue provided by a little cockney girl, with whom the boy had been keeping company during his days in the East End. The finish is particularly appealing. ST. JAMES THEATRE. “Les Miserables” arrives on the screen as one of filmdom’s greatest triumphs, and will be shown at the bt. James Theatre to-night and on Monday. It is claimed by overseas critics to "be one of the major screen achievements of all times. Once in a decade comes a picture so vast, so moving, so vividly dramatic, that it takes its place among the immortal triumphs of^ the screen. The screen has presented “Les Miserables” several times in silent versions and once even as a talkie. Now 20th Century Pictures, who have given the screen such outstanding pictures as “The House of Rothschild,” “Clive ol India” and “Cardinal Richelieu,” have made an even more brilliant and impressive epic. “Les Miserables” is from the pen of the great humanitarian— Victor Hugo. The whole film is a fierce tirade against the social injustices of the author’s day retold in the matchless language of a perfect motion picture. The screen’s finest actors are to be seen in the film as the principal characters in the story. Fredric March represents the unfortunate Jean Valjean, sentenced to ten years in the galley ships for stealing a loaf of bread and then set free to live a life of terror, bereft of name, honour and love and relentlessly hunted by a human bloodhound. Charles Laughton is the detective, Javert, symbolising the letter of the law, and Yaljean’s ruthless pursuer. Sir Cerclic Ilardwicke is the benevolent Bishop Bienvenu, and Rochelle Hudson, Frances Drake and John Beal are featured in the supporting cast. SWIMMING CLUB’S DANCE. There was a fair attendance at the Ashburton. Swimming Club’s dance, held at Ft. Stephen’s Hall at the conclusion of its annual carnival last night. Mr R. Iveeley was M.C., and McDonald’s orchestra supplied the music.