ENTERTAINMENTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 129, 13 March 1936, Page 2

ENTERTAINMENTS.

ST. JAMES THEATRE. The audience of the London premiere of “Heart’s Desire” judged it as a worthy successor to “Blossom Time”— a verdict .which was later endorsed by the glowing tributes of the Press. In addition to lauding the glorious music, they drew attention to the delightful simplicity of the story, said to be adapted from the great tenor’s own life story, which depicts him as a simple biergarten singer, who is discovered by a young composer and his beautiful English girl-fiiend. Searching for a tenor to play lead in the young composer’s opera, they persuade Tauber to leave his biergarten and friends and come to London, where he is a sensation overnight Leonora Corbett, who plays the part of the English girl, delighted at the success of her discovery, although her heart' belongs to another, thoughtlessly leads Tauber on, without realising that he has fallen hopelessly in love with her. The story is tenderly told under the expert direction of Tauber’s great schoolboy friend, Paul Stein, who scored such an outstanding personal triumph with the direction of “Blos.som Time.” “Heart’s Desire” will be shown to-morrow night and on Monday night. “Behold My Wife,” with Sylvia Sidney, will be shown finally to-night. MAJESTIC THEATRE. A double feature programme of merit will be shown at the Majestic Theatre to-morrow and on Monday. “Here Comes Cookie” will provide the laughter for the evening. This is a highly amusing film in which the inimitable George Burns and Grade Allen are featured, and it is said that their work was greatly appreciated when the picture was shown in Christchurch this week. Packed, houses were the order at the Plaza Theatre, where it was screened. It is one of the comedies that every now and then grips the fancy of audiences and makes a hit of the season. A colourful outdoor drama, “Wanderer of the Wasteland,” outstanding because of its. originality of plot and humaneness of characterisation, topped with rip-roaring action that marks the ageless popularity of Zane Grey westerns, is the second feature film. Laid against the picturesque desert country of the West in the days when bands of outlaws roamed the desert wastes preying on gold prospectors, it centres its story about Dean Jagger, a young Easterner, who, on his way to the badlands, meets and falls in love with Gail Patrick, also travelling to the gold country with her parents. Upon his arrival, his ne’er-do-well brother is accidentally shot in a crooked card 'game, and Jagger, unjustly accused of the crime, flees into the desert.