ENTERTAINMENTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 76, 11 January 1936, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS.

ST. JAMES THEATRE.

One of the most elaborate fashion displays ever presented on the screen is shown in the First National picture, "Fashions of 1934," with William Powell and Bette Davis in the stellar roles, showing at the St. James Theatre to-night and on Monday. Powell, in the role of Sherwood Nash, a promoter, bribes truck drivers for exclusive modistes, who handle Parisian gowns, to let him see the new models before they are delivered. Lynn (Bette Davis), an artist, copies them and he sells the patterns to the cheaper class of houses. The importers finally discover the leak and put a stop to it. Nash then boldly goes to these same importers and offers to copy the Paris designs for them. They reject the scheme as dishonourable, as a body , but each one secretly agrees to it. Nash goes to Paris, but is unable to obtain any designs. Finally, however, he sees Baroque, a famous designer, in a bookshop, and learns from a clerk .that Baroque gets his ideas for new models from old prints, figuring that fashions go by cycles. Nash adopts the same methods. The action in this comedy-drama moves swiftly to a happy conclusion. Others in the cast include Frank McHugh, Verree Teasdale, Reginald Owen, Henry O'Neill, Phillip Reed, Gordon Westcott, and Dorothy Burgess.

MAJESTIC THEATRE.

In the lusty, red-blooded romantic type of story which he adorns, Richard Dix, in his latest RKO-Radio picture, "West- of the Pecos," has scored another triumph, which will be shown at the Majestic Theatre to-night and on Monday, "Pecos Smith," whom Dix portrays, is reminiscent of his earlier creation, Yancey Cravat, in "Cimarron," and the picture is packed with excitement, tense situations, hard riding, straight shooting and all the other ingredients of the successful action picture. It is a he-man story of tho winning of the West, and it bears the authenticity one has come to expect of a Zane Grey narrative. The story opens at the close of the Civil War, when Colonel Lambeth with his daughter Terrill begin life anew in the West. Despite the disguise of Terrill as a boy, the romance manages to flourish throughout, and is cleverly woven into the action. Martha Sleeper is the romantic lead of tho picture, the cast of which includes Fred Kohler, Oscar Apfel, Maurice Black, Russell Simpson, Louise Beavers, George Cooper and Sleep 'n' L'at.