CITY THEATRES

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21243, 15 August 1934, Page 7

CITY THEATRES

+ MAJESTIC "CALL IT LUCK" AND < "ANIAKCHAK" j •Call it Luck," now being shown j a t the Majestic, is a story , about a man and his horse, but it is : by no means a plain story. The threads have been lifted here and there and : woven into a new and pleasing pat- ' tern, whio, as a background, gives I colour to the theme. Part of the pat- : tern is a bright and original ballet, < in which Pat. Paterson sings and dances well. Another part is a pretty piece of swindling, done by three or four very debonair gentlemen who themselves are finally swindled, and still another is a spot of romance supplied by Charles Starrett in collaboration with Miss Paterson. Herbert Mundin is Hie star, in fact as well as nominally. He is very amusing, particularly his face. "Aniakchak," which precedes "Call It Luck," is a picture as strange as its name. Somewhere out in the Alaskan Peninsula the largest volcano in the world unceasingly vomits its clouds of smoke and streams of lava. For centuries it was unconquered by man—parties who had tried to learn its secrets had perished or had been driven back. But finally Father Bernard R. Hubbard, known in Alaska as the Glacier Priest, made a dash across its crater, called the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. "Aniakchak" is his story, and it is a story full of most amazing revelations. "Aniakchak" is a most remarkable film. Also on the programme are a cartoon and a newsreel. "MANHATTAN MELODRAMA" Clark Gable gives probably the most compelling performance of his. career in "Manhattan Melodrama," which will come to the Majestic on Saturday. With Myrna Loy and William Powell prominently cast, the picture is most absorbing entertainment. The film begins with a prologue re-enacting the Are and panic aboard the excursion steamer General Slocum, in New York harbour in 1904, when hundreds were killed. In this horror two young boys lose their parents. They grow to manhood in a slum. Gable plays the young man who has grown up highspirited, reckless, an underworld gambler, bur. very likeable and—to. the ladies—fascinating. Powell, studious in his youth, rises to-be a brilliant barrister. Gable has a woman friend, played by Myrna who leaves him for Powell. Although the three still remain comrades, Powell fast climbs the ladder of fame, and becomes state attorney, with another short step to governor. It is at .this stage that Gable shoots a blackmailer who might have prevented Powell's election, and lands himself in a position from which only Powell and his wife can save him. From here on the audience has many surprises awaiting it. In part's the film is effervescent with humour, in others tensely dramatic. REGENT "MYSTERY OF MR X" j "Mystery of Mr X," which is at the P.egsnt this week, is the sort of thriller that happens only once in a while. Its success is due in greatest measure to the combination oi acting, production, and story that go to make it up, and not a little t6 the ability of the American movie manufacturer to take a typical English setting and dialogue and make it as English as the production • of the best Dative studio. The book was written by Philip Mac Donald, who is perhaps the best of current mystery-story writers, and whose stories film so excellently. Heading a strong cast is Robert Montgomery, and with him are Lewis Stone and Elizabeth Allan. The direction is one of the masterpieces that one has come to expect from the Metro-Goldwyn studios. The scene is laid in London, the London of foggy docksides, and streets that are familiar in name and appearance to thousands all over the world who have never seen them. The book concerns itself with the interweaving trails of two crooks, one, the savage murderer of eight policemen, and the other* because he is the hero, a singularly attractive crook. This is Nick Revel, a character nobody but Philip Mac Donald could have imagined, and nobody but Robert Montgomery could have interpreted. For the part of the humorous, good-looking young crook, no better choice than Robert Montgomery could have been made. The part of a high police official is taken by Lewis Stone, who appears to be as much at home in this picture as the perfect English officer, as he is in others as a hard-boiled American businessman, or a mediaeval gentleman. "ALICE IN WONDERLAND" "Alice in Wonderland," the eagerlyewaifed talking film version of Lewis Carroll's immortal fantasy, will begin at the Regent Theatre on Saturday. Heading a mammoth cast is Alice, played by Charlotte Henry, who won the coveted role after an international search lasting five months. The screen play, which has been highly praised by critics the world over, contains the most important sequences from both "Alice's Adventures" and "Through the Looking Glass," and the characters themselves are made-up to look exactly like the drawings by Sir John Tenniel in the original editions of "Alice." The box plan for the 10.30 a.m. session is now open at the Regent.