ENTERTAINMENTS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 172, 4 May 1937, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

ST. JAMES THEATRE.

“THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND.”

Quick death on tlie gallows would have been mercy for him. He lived to die a thousand deaths! Revealing for the first time in all its vivid horror and brutality the shocking 9tory of a nation’s hidden shame, “The Prisoner of Shark Island,” new 20th Century - Fox drama, comes to the St. James Theatre to-night and to-morrow night. Its hero is a gaunt figure who looms up out of the (pages of American history,, Dr Samuel Alexander Mudd—martyred by a nation’s frenzy for his innocent deed of mercy. With Warner Baxter starred in the leading a - ole, the picture tells the story of this gentle Maryland physician who was trapped with Lincoln’s murderers, and who spent years in a living hell for a crime he had never committed. Grim, fever-ridden Fort Jefferson, the massive American fortress on a Caribbean island, is the scene of this powerful drama of man's inhumanity to man. And John Ford, most capable of Hollywood’s dramatic directors, brings this narrative of prison life, torture, terror-stricken escape, courage, and self-sacrifice to the screen, under the personal supervision of Darrvl F. Zanuck.

MAJESTIC THEATRE. Top - notch entertainment, provided by some of the screen’s best talent in a story neatly combining romance and humour, marks the new offering at the Majestic Theatre to-night and to-mor-row night. Chief roles in the screen play of a millionaire youth who had to lose his fortune to find the right girl are carried out by Henry Fonda, Paramount star, Pat Paterson, petite ashblondo English actress who plays her first part under Paramount contract, and Mary Brian, cast for the first time in her screen career as a vixenish “heavy” in the role of a Southern belle who is revealed as a gold-digger and fortune hunter. George Barbier, veteran character actor, who played his last screen role in “Spendthrift” as the crochcty, uncle of Fonda, is aided by Halliwell Hobbes, Richard Carle and J. M. Kerrigan in packing the story with skilled comedy.

REPERTORY SOCIETY PLAY The Ashburton Repertory Society will open its 1937 season with the presentation of a three-act comedy at the Majestic Theatre on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 1 and 2. This is the amusing’ farce, “Ind’oor Fireworks,” a complicated tale of even more complicated events in the country home of an actress whose family, all as badtempered as herself, descend on her one week-end. The situation is rendered more difficult by the arrival of her ex-husband, the man she hopes will be husband No. 2, and his austere mother. CHORAL SOCIETY CONCERT. The Ashburton Choral Society has chosen for its first concert of the season “The Rebel Maid,” a light romantic opera in three acts, which was first performed in New Zealand at the Dunedin Exhibition in 1920. Ihe music, written in a very bright and happy vein, was composed by Montague Phillips while he was on active service with the North Sea hleet doling the Great War. This no doubt accounts for the seafaring atmosphere which pervades the music throughout the opera. The title role is to be sung by Madame Cara Tait, and Ashburton is indeed fortunate in having the opportunity of again hearing this popular and talented performei. Madame Cara Tait, who has sung for the society on several occasions in the past, lias during her long and distinguished career taken the soprano roles in “Faust,” “Tannhauser.” “Maritana,” “Elijah,” “The Messiah” and numerous other works. The society feels confident that the combination of a bright musical work, a talented performer like Madame Cara Tait, and the ever-popular conductor, Mr Victor Peters, will leave no doubt as to the pleasure which patrons will derive from attending the society’s first concert on Tuesday, May 2-5.