THEATRE ROYAL

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

THEATRE ROYAL

"NANA" Having seen "Nana," one can sympathise with the enthusiasm that practically the whole world has shown for the new star. Anna Sten. The film is being shown for a second week at the Theatre Royal. Beside being a very beautiful woman, she acts with a finesse that makes her beauty an embellishment to her acting rather than an excuse to secure the attention of her audience. She is an outstanding screen find. "Nana" is a Goldwyn picture, and has all the colour and meticulous attention to detail that make the name of Goldwyn a guarantee of quality in a film. As a pict-ire for Anna Sten, "Nana" is almost ideal. She is herself a brilliant person, and the setting of the Zola play is Paris in the glamorous period about the time of the FrancoPrussian war. The theme, is the rather familiar one of the old family threatened with marriage with an undesirable woman, but as the story was made before the birth of the American need for an ending happy, and at the same time in accord with the most treasured sentimentalities of democracy, it is satisfying and logical. Two men are mainly concerned in the life of Nana. They are brothers, and both soldiers, and with Nana are the pivot round which the story revolves. The two men are played by Phillips Holmes and Lionel Atwill, and both give sound performances. Nairn's two friends from the old and unprosperous days are acted by Mae Clark and Muriel Kirkland, both very successfully, j "PALOOKA" AND SILLY SYMPHONIES "Nana," starring Anna Sten, will conclude its season at the Theatre Royal to-morrow night, and on Friday "Palooka," the new Jimmy Durante farce, will be screened. Besides Durante there are in the film Lupe Velez, Stuart Erwin, Thelma Todd, Marjorie Rambeau, and Robert Armstrong. Durante plays the part of a boxing promoter, who lures Joe Palooka, the rather "simple" son of a former champion, away from his mother, and tries to turn him into a fighter. Lupe Velez is the night-club entertainer who completes the work of leading the youth happily astray. In deference to the enormous popularity of Waltz Disney, the entire first half of the programme at the Theatre Royal during the screening of "Palooka" will be occupied by a revival of silly symphonies and Mickey Mouse cartoons. Five selected examples of Disney's brilliant art will be shown, including Mickey Mouse in "Mail Pilot" and "Klondike Kid," and the Silly Symphonies, "Santa's Workshop," "Babes in the Wood," and "Old King Coie." Of the Silly Symphonies, "Santa's Workshop" is 1 one of the most famous of all Disney's creations. There are delicious touches of humour and fantasy in it, such as me rarely seen on the screen. In "Babes in the' Wood" the Disney version of the storv of I he two children lost in the wood and found by the witch there is a delightful musical accompaniment, while in "Old King Cole" the inhabitants of fairy-tale- land appear on the screen amo:,g them "Mary, Mary, Ouiti- Contrary." "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater" ; "Jack Spratt and his Wife." "The Three Blind Mice," and "Hickorv Dickory, Duck." TIVOLI | ' GEOUV.E HAFT IN "BOLERO" j ; George Ruft was a dancer before lie • became a film actor, and in "Bolero" ' he has a chance to show how good ' he must have been. The story has ' been inspired by Maurice Ravel's | highly rhythmical "Bolero," a' recent - composition which has a way of in- ' sinuating itself into the mind until it " becomes almost irresistible. Raoul do - Baere, played by Mr Raft, begins as 3 a coal-miner in the United States. But ' he has plenty of ambition, unlimited • confidence in himself, and the very 5 useful knack of exploiting women for 1 his own ends. His dancing part- I • ners invariably fall in love with 1 him, and demand his attentions, but he does not believe in mixing love with business (even though his brother and manager puts it to him that it is only a case of mixing business with business', and the girls are told, one after another, in varying, picturesque phrases, that their services are no longer required. All except Helen (Carole Lombard), and she neatly reverses the tradition by handing in her resignas tion and marrying Lord Corny, who is c . presented in keeping with the usual • idea of a handsome, gallant, and stupid young English peer. Helen and Raoul I are, of course, really in love, but in • their determination not to mix busil ness with love they lose one another, g Raoul goes to war, and the director t (Wesley Ruggles) is courageous enough . to make the marriage a happy one. j The culminating point of the film is e the bolero which the pair dance, to t the accompaniment of native drums, - when Raoul has returned from war t and is at the point of death. They r dance superbly the dance which made them famous, but in his hour of '. triumph Raoul dies. Mr Raft and Miss e Lombard act extremely well together, i and the film is very neatly and satis- '< factorily made. - CIVIC t "UP TO THE NECK" s . e Entertainment of a high standard is . being presented at the Civic Theatre this week. Ralph Lynn is brighter l than ever in the Ben Travers comedy, "Up to the Neck," and his partner. Winifred Shotter, is seen in one oi. her 1 best roles. The combination of Lynn,

Travers. and Shotter provides an entertainment full of amusing situations and bright action Four splendid supports complete an excellent programme. On the same programme is Miss Iris Mason, the talented lady organist, who is making her first appearance in Christchurch after most successful seasons in both Australia and New Zealand. Spontaneous applause has greeted Miss Mason at all sessions. Miss Mason is heard in original, classical, and popular numbers, thus catering for all tastes. Box plans are at the Civic Theatre, where seats may be reserved at no extra cost. GRAND "THUNDERING HERD" Zane Grey's "The Thundering Herd." now showing at the Grand Theatre, is packed with thrills, romance, death, and danger. Randolph Scott, Judith Allen, Monte Blue, Harry Carey, Noah Beery, Buster Crabbe, Raymond Hatton, and Blanche Friderici heads the big cast in this stirring Western thriller. They bring back the era when men and women risked their lives in pursuit of the fortunes to be shot out of the great buffalo herds that roamed the plains. Box plans are at the D.I.C.