CITY THEATRES THEATRE ROYAL

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21147, 24 April 1934, Page 6

CITY THEATRES

THEATRE ROYAL

MAJESTIC

"ORIENT EXPRESS''

A really good programme is offered this week at the Majestic, which opened with a new bill last evening. It is a programme that has not a fault in it. The short features which take up the first part are good, and the main picture, "Orient Express," is a thriller with something more in it than mere thrills. "Orient Express," as the name obviously implies, is another train storv, '/.lis time of the celebrated 1 express from Ostend to Constantinople, but it surpasses in interest all but a very few films of the same type. A train gives a playwright almost unlimited scope for bringing together a diversity of types, and then recording their inter-actions in all sorts of situations, and the writers responsible for the story of "Orient Express" have made a thorough use of ail their opportunities in this way. The play is one which starts well, and sustains interest to the finish, and is all the time artistic and thoroughly convincing. An attractive feature is that although there are several well-known players in the cast, there is no undue insistence on any or*: of them. The play is in this respect exceptionally well balanced. The cast has been selected with a good deal more care than are most casts, probably because almost everyone who appears on the screen has some more or less important part to play. None of the actors, by virtue of most of the action taking' place on a frnin, is obscured by extras. The story starts at Osterd, where a number of passengers board the train for Constantinople. Heather Angel is an exceedingly charming heroine who takes the part of a dancer going to a job in the east. She is the centre of the play, but of little less importance are Norman Foster as a young business man. Ralph Morgan as a plotter against the government of a central European .state. Herbert Mundin and Una O'Connor as a bewildered Cockney man and wife, and Roy D'Arcy as an example of Ihe cleverest tync of Continental pick-pocket. The show is excellent in every department, and the only possible criticism, that a very feeble one, is that central Europeans in the film speak with American accents. The short features include a hilarious farce based on the famous ''J am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang." Anyone who saw the original film would i recognise the comedy as something outstanding, but even those who saw it j for the first lime could appreciate it. Another of those dives into the dim I past of movies is screened, and provides excellent entertainment. i CRYSTAL PALACE

Till-: FOI 11 MARX BROTHERS

I Why it should be funny to see Harpo ■ Marx produce a pair of scissors from his belt and snip tfvt tails <jfT a : respectable man's coat, or to see Groucho Mark perform a scandalous ; dance before the cabinet meeting over which lie is presidio:; nobody knows The fact remains, though, that it is funny—exceedingly funny. The four Marx brothers, Ifarpo, Groucho, Chico, and Zeppo, whose latest film, "Duck Soup," is now being shown at the Crystal Palace, have given to the cinema a form of humour so completely unlike anything that the stage can give or which anyone else in the cinema has given that it clefiies reason and ; logic and explanation. ! Several scenes stand out. There is, for example, the one in which Chico and Harpo, in partnership at the peanut stall, hopelessly outwit and bamboozle the proprietor of a neighbouring stall; best of all, perhaps, is the one in which Harpo and Chico dress up as Groucho, Groucho himself appears, and three Grouchos chase each other round the house in which Freedonia's war plans are concealed. Harpo sees in a frame what he thinks at first is a huge mirror. After a moment he begins to wonder whether there is a mirror there at all and performs wonderful antics in front of it, all of which are faithfully copied by the figure on the other side, who turns out to be Chico, similarly bewildered, on the other side of an open doorway. Finally, there are the battle scenes—the four brothers besieged in an old farmhouse and broadcasting for help. The programme as a whole is an excellent one, the supports, in their way, being as good as the feature picture. "Flying Gloves," a collection from old news-reels of famous fights and of sport of all kinds, is interesting; there is a Crazy-Kat cartoon of merit; a very topical news-reel, and a miniature variety show. PLAZA j "I ADORE YOU" "1 Adore You," which is being shown at the Plaza, has in it all the i ingredients of first-class musical comi edy. The costuming and settings are lavishly done, the music is I as good as anything that the screen has released, and the acting is good. Everything is there that a successful musical show needs. The music department is in the hands of Carroll Gibbons and his Savoy Orpheans, an internationallyknown band whose recordings are popular in this country. The Orpheans' music is, as mentioned before, as good as anything that the screen has yet produced, and a good deal better than most. It has in the main the . clear-cut type of rhythm that many people find so attractive in English bands when contrasted with the rather flamboyant effects of most American combinations. At his hand the director evidently had as much in the way of dressing, in its broadest sense, as he could possibly want, and he has made fair use of it. The scenes are all excellently got up. and the number of novelty ballets arc a taking feature of the show. The main songs are fair without being outstanding, and the acting of all those in the cast is sound. The short features are excellent and well varied. There is an Australian newsreel, which is good, and also amusing, a clever series of band selections from Runenoff and his orchestra, and a Mickey the Mouse film, in which that star is as good as ever. GRAND "SONG OF MY HEART" John McCormack's famous film, "Song of My Heart," began a return season at the Grand Theatre on Saturday. "Song of My Heart" has met with wonderful success all over the world. The famous tenor is heard at his best, and he is supported by a strong cast. The film was made in Ireland and has Maureen O'Sullivan and Alice Joyce in the feminine roles. John Garrick and Miss O'Sullivan play the youthful roles, and Farrell McDonald and J. M. Kerrigan supply a good deal of comedy. The supporting players and the extras are true Celtic types. The official sound film record of Archbishop Redwood's jubilee is also shown. His Grace gives a personal interview.

TIVOLI "A CUCKOO IN THE NEST" Ralph Lynn has already proved many times how easy it is to be absurdly funny, but perhaps never before has he been so ridiculous as he is in "A Cuckoo in the Nest," the GaumontBritish production of Ben Travers' farcical comedy, which began its second week at the Tivoli Theatre on Saturday. Tom Walls will be with him again, to lend wickedness to Lynn's horrified innocence. As for Ralph Lynn, if there were nothing else in the picture except Ralph doing his original and painstaking best to curl up and go to sleep under a washstand, it would be worth paying to see. And part of that particular bit of fun is the outrageous manner in which Yvonne Arnaud, cosily installed in a comfortable bed, laughs at his struggles. She. by the way, re-enacts Margaret Hickett, the role she played so brilliantly in the original stage farce while the veteran actress, Mary Brough, recreates her part of Mrs Spoker, the acidulous and suspicious landlady of the village inn at Maiden Blotton. She has ample scope for delineating this narrowminded, highly "proper" old party and makes an important contribution to the success of the picture. Other fine comedy parts are given by Roger Livesey as Alfred the barman; Robertson Hare as Rev. Slolely-Jones, and Grace Edwin as the nagging Mrs Bone. "CRADLE SONG" A deeply emotional tale of mother love and sacrifice is told in "Cradle Song," the first motion picture in which Paramount's newest star, Dorothea Wieck, has appeared before New Zealand picturegoers. Completely off the beaten track of motion picture entertainment, "Cradle Song" is a delicate handling of a difficult theme. The story by the noted Spanish playwright, G. M. Martinez Sierra, tells of a child abandoned at ;i convent, and raised by one of the sisters. The film is coming soon to the Tivoli. REGENT "I I.TKK IT THAT WAY" If it, follows somewhat conventional lines, the musical comedy, "I Like it That Way." which was shown at the Rodent Theatre for the first time on Saturday, is still an entertaining piece with a good deal of colour and some pleasant tunes. The principal players, Gloria Stuart and Roger Pryor, are among the younger stars of the day, but they act naturally, and in the case of Miss Stuart. look extremely well. The whole picture is lively, and it has some bright dialogue. The principals act well and are adequately supported by Marian Marsh, Shirley Grey, and Onslow Stevens. There were a good many golfers at Ihe theatre on Saturday night to see the first of a new series of "instruction" films by Bobby Jones called "How to Break 90." "Candy House" n a clover cartoon of the doings of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and there was also a British Paramount News, a collection of extraordinary and bizarre happenings under the title "Strange as it Seems," and an unusually good musical number, featuring a Castilian xylophone band. LIBERTY DOUBLE FEATURE PROGRAMME Jack Holt and Fay Wray are the stars of "Master of Men," one of the two new films at the Liberty Theatre, a picture in which the photography is excellent and the acting good. It is a picture which exactly suits Holt's temperament and he has made the most of the opportunities which come his way. Holt is shown as an ambitious worker in a steel mill who makes money and gains a high place in the company only to lose them through the scheming of his wife. Fay Wray is her usual attractive self in the part of the wife who, realising that her husband is sacrificing everything to his own greed, deliberately ruins him. The other picture, "Hell and High Water," is as unusual as its name and provides an amusing mixture of drama and romance. Richard Arlen, a popular actor, is shown as a man who dislikes women to such an extent that he declares: "Women are poison and I don't intend to commit suicide by taking one." The chances of such a man falling in love with a girl who is a professed man-hater are remote, but the picture shows that it is possible, and shows it in a clever and amusing way. The other leading part is taken by Judith Allen, who gives a skilful interpretation.

"THE DEVIL TO PAY" Ronald Colman is a delightful ne'er-do-well, and his part in "The Devil to Pay," which opened a season at the Theatre Royal on Saturday, is probably one of the best he has ever played. The film is a most successful adaptation of a typically English comedy. The situations are neat and well-arranged, the dialogue is much more subtle than that of the usual films of this type, and the supporting members of the cast are all well chosen. This applies particularly to a most attractive little terrier. "Good-bye, Again," the first film on the programme, is an American sophisticated comedy of more than average i merit. All Ihe work falls on Warren Williams, who plays the part of a popular author encumbered with many female hangers-on. He loves and laughs most pleasantly, until he finds himself rather too deeply compromised with another man's wife to avoid the attentions of her well-meaning relatives and her mild-eyed husband. Joan Blondell and Genevieve Tobin, his secretary and his lover respectively, both have amusing parts. The programme opens with a newsreel showing the latest method of fishing—from the air. This film also shows some of the Waitangi celebration scenes, a few hakas, and some poi dances. To the outsider who sees this film New Zealand must seem a savage land. CIVIC "MURDER AT. CO VENT GARDEN" Owing to the theatre being otherwise engaged, there will be no pictures screened at the Civic Theatre this afternoon or to-night. The current attraction. "Murder at Covent Garden," will again be screened on Thursday, and picturegoers in search of a good mystery drama, without the usual gruesome and sordid element, are advised not to miss this attraction. Pfcms are open at the theatre from 10 a.m. daily.