ENTERTAINMENTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 244, 28 July 1936, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS.

ST. JAMES THEATRE. i i ”'_' l The little things, artistic in them-i selves, artistically combined, which make for convincing and compelling picture entertainment, are essential factors for proper set effects, according to Alevander Toluboff, Paramount art director. For a single artistic shot of a tenement house skylight in “Mary Burns, Fugitive,” coming to the St. James Theatre to-night and to-morrow night, starring Sylvia Sidney, Toluboff insisted that rain, :pattering on the glass, be included in the scene to create the illusion and atmospheric effects of a detective’s shadow thrown against it, as seen by a girl fugitive from within, even though the rain added greatly to the difficulties in lighting. The film traces the tragic experiences of a girl caught in the web of the law through an innocent friendship with a man she did not know was a public enemy. Convicted on circumstantial evidence, she gets a .prison- sentence, but breaks gaol, a. girl fugitive hunted by the law. She falls in love with a wealthy, brilliant, but temporarily blind young scientist, but her former sweetheart gangster, determined not to lose her, pursues her relentlessly. A series of tense dramatic episodes fol~ lows the girl until a gripping, thrilling climax brings the picture to an exciting finale. Melvyn Douglas, Alan Baxter, Pelt Kelton, lVallace Ford and Brian D‘onlevy are in the cast. ' MAJESTIC THEATRE-t Described as a “musical extravaganza,” “Public Nuisance No. 1,” to be shown at the Majestic Theatre tonight and to-morrow night, reaches heights in entertainment value seldom before realised. It’s two world—famous co-stars, Arthur Riscoc and ll‘rrances Day, surprise yOll--almost stagger you ———with their never-ending string of wisecracks, that froth and foam like yeast on the beer for which Arthur Rawlings has so great a thirst. Frances Day, as Frances Travers, an innocent little shop girl, is delicious! A bubbling—babbling—siren, sparkling with life‘and charm, she suggests naughtiness in every nerve—while Arthur Riscoe, as Arthur Rawlings, reaps many a hearty guffaw from his brightly breezy antics. The idea of the story dealt with a wealthy young man-about-,town, Arthur Rawlings, who meets Frances Travers, a. shop assistant; in fact, she helps to rescue him when he drives his car into a shop window and proceeds to go to sleep in the bed displayed there. His uncle, tired of his nephew’s continued “lifting of the elbow,” decides he must go to work and sends him out as a waiter, to a : hotel he owns in the Riviera. Arthur: ensures that Frances goes there too, by ‘ arranging for her to win a prize in a charity ballot. l