AMUSEMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 239, 9 October 1935, Page 11

AMUSEMENTS.

MAJESTIC THEATRE

It is not often that a film is considered worthy of a recall to a big city theatre, but so persistent and numerous have been the requests of picture-goers to be given the opportunity of seeing "Naughty Marietta" again and again that it is beginning a short return season at the Majestic Theatre on Friday. Filmed on a lavish scale with spectacle, gorgeous scenes and hundreds of players in the cast, "Naughty Marietta" is a screen musical masterpiece, capturing magnificence and grandeur such as the screen has never before known. Jeanette Mac Donald and Nelson Eddy, the American operatic baritone, who has been hailed as a sensational "discovery among romantic leading men," head the huge cast. In this spectacular romance of Creole days, the dramatic side of the adventures, thrills and perils of the period is stressed as a thunderous background for the glamorous music of Victor Herbert. All the original music of the Operetta is retained, with such song hits as "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life," "I'm Falling in Love With Someone" and "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp." Among the dramatic highlights are the flight , from Paris, the battle with pirates at i sea, the capture of the Casquette girls, the march of the scouts through the everglades, the New Orleans marriage market ! where the girls are sold in marriage, the sensational "confession" of the princess, ' and the disillusionment of her officer lover. CIVIC THEATRE. The discovery of a tropical kingdom locked in by towering mountains of ice; a voice speaking from behind a curtain of living 6team; a maiden swathed in sacrificial robes, poised upon the edge of a blistering pit of fire; the sight of a woman bathing in a gushing flame—these are awe-inspiring features of the screen version of H. Rider Haggard's thrilling novel "She," coming to the Civic Theatre on Friday. The story takes two scientists into the mysterious kingdom of Kor in a search for the source of eternal life. At the end of a perilous icebound trail they find the kingdom, ruled by an immortal empress, She, who finds freedom from death by bathing in a flame. The film is a veritable showcase of motion picture magic and wonders. Primarily it is a saga of conflict —physical conflict, fierce and thrilling, and the conflicts in the mind of a man who faces a temptation no mortal has ever before been called upon to face. A film of magnificence and splendour, "She" is said to be one of the most elaborately produced pictures of the hist few years. Helen Gahagan, a famous Broadway stage star, makes her screen debut in the title role of "She," the eternal woman. Randolph Scott, remembered in Auckland for his distinguished leading part in "Roberta," plays the role of Leo Vincey, the adventurous young explorer. REGENT THEATRE. Claimed by overseas critics to be one of the major screen achievements, "Les Miserables" begins a season at the Regent Theatre on Friday next. It is said to be so vast, so moving, so vividly dramatic, that it takes a place among the immortal triumphs of the screen. "Les Miserables" is from the pen of the great humanitarian Victor Hugo. In a burst of enthusiasm, Swinburne, the poet, called the story "the greatest epic and dramatic work of fiction ever created or conceived." Its qualities the producers of the picture have sought earnestly to preserve; it has been adapted to the screen as a series of dramatic crises aimed at the heart, forming a pageant of human misery, defeat and triumph. "The whole film is a fierce tirade against the social wrongs and evils of the author's day, brought into life and realism by the matchless language of a superb motion picture," said one critic. In the enactment of the story three of the screen's finest dramatic actors play the leading roles. Fredric March represents the unfortunate Jean Valjean, sentenced to ten years in the galleys for stealing a loaf of bread, and then sot free to live a life of terror, bereft of name and honour, and relentlessly hunted by a human bloodhound. Charles Laughton is the inspector, Javert, Valjean's ruthless pursuer, and Sir Cedric Hardwicke the benevolent Bishop Bicnvenu. PLAZA THEATRE. With unabated enthusiasm Auckland pieturegoers are flocking to the Plaza Theatre, fascinated by the beautiful voice and charming person ity of Grace Moore, who is appearing in her latest film, "Love Me For Ever." The whole world was enchanted by her singing in her earlier picture, "One Night of Love," which earned for her the description of "the girl with the voice divine." In "Love Me For Ever" Miss Moore lives up to every hope and expectation, and her new film seems assured of phenomenal success. Miss Moore is supported by a brilliant cast of players, and the same care and finish has been extended to the production of the film. Victor Schertzinger, who directed both films, has proved himself no less a capable musical composer than he is a director, for the theme songs of both films are his own work. Miss Moore also singp "Jingle Bells," "Funiculi Funicula," "II Bacio," "The Bells of St. Mary's," "Rings On My Fingers and Bells On My Toes," and selections from "La Boheme" and "Rigoletto." As a big-time gambler and cafe owner, and a lover of fine music, Leo Carrillo is Mies Moore's leading man, and the pair are ably supported by the talented young operatic star Michael Bartlett, Robert Allen, Thurston Hall and the laughable Luis Alberni. The story is a strong one, with a well-balanced blend of comedy, romance and drama.