CITY THEATRES

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21760, 17 April 1936, Page 6

CITY THEATRES

majestic «PHAB LAP’S SON?” ■ "PVinr Lao’s Son?” the New Zealand talkie coSy, just by Dr. A L Lewis, of Hollywood, with the assistance of 50 New Zealanders, is the result of confidence m the possibility of being -able to make an entertaining film suitable for international distribution, in this Dominion, Success has crowned their efforts, as indicated by the favourable criticisms, the packed houses, appreciative audiences and the toot that South Seas Films’ Ltd, of Dunedin, are even now planning their next picture. Dr. Lewis, the prime mover of thig movement, hn* been delegated to write a suitable story which can be filmed in Tahiti, Samoa Fiji, Australia, and New, Zealand It will be brimful of humorous sequences, snappy dialogue, funny, types, and plenty of personality girls. With the foregoing as a foreground and the scenic spots of the South Seas as a background, this forthcoming film should possess a distinct international appeal, which cannot help but be a valuable publicity medium for our Dominion. The cast for tneir next vehicle is being selected by Dr. Lewis through the routine of his, interesting and entertaining comedy talkie tests, which will be conducted on the Majestic stage in conjunction with the “Phar Lap’s Son?” programme. They in themselves are unquestionably a rare treat for both audiences and candidates, and were the method employed for the choosing of the cast of 50 used in the present picture. “Phar Lap’s Son?” is a definite credit to those responsible for its creation and execution, and they should most certainly be encouraged* in their constructive pioneering. They are already satisfactorily financed, so all they need is the patronage necessary for a continuance of their, picture production activities. Their programme was given an unprecedented reception in other centres, and no doubt Christchurch interest will be equally enthusiastic, when theatregoers stop to consider that here is an infant Dominion industry, struggling against tremendous odds, which has already gained its first foothold through merit, and is absolutely entitled to Support. Press comments upon the picture are very encouraging, characterising it as "an undoubted success,” “a cleverly executed film,” “an unique programme.” “good entertainment which maintains a high pitch of interest.” Heavy advance booking is reported, and the management of the Majestic urges its regular patrons and others to take advantage Of the gratis booking service, and in this .way avoid disappointment, for hundreds have been turned away at each performance in other cities. ' Film aspirants are being interviewed by Dr. Lewis at the Majestic. REGENT i «AH WILDERNESS!” , The delicate tracery of Eugene O’Neill’s drama with its simplicity and its dramatic power is vividly caught on the talking screen in ‘Ah Wilderness!” Metro-Goldwyp-Mayer s film transcription of the great stage success which is coming to the Regent Theatre to-day. Acclaimed on the stage, where it was played both by George M, Cohan and Will Rogers, the film version now adds the lavish scope of screen production to the dramatic story. Its location scenes in the quaint New England town of Grafton, its charming home sequences, and its camera effects add a sense of reality that only the talking screen could achieve. Wallace Beery plays on 6of his greatest roles as the .ineffective, alcoholic but.lovable Uncle Sid, running the gamut from comedy to poignant tragedy with Aline .MacMahon, who plays the spinster aunt who loves but cannot marry him. Lionel Barrymore, in the role played by Cohan and Rogers, gives a performance that rivals his famous delineation in “A Free Soul.” In the scene where he tells Eric Linden that which every father must tell his son as the youth stands on the threshold of manhood, he has one of the mightiest dramatic moments in his whole career. Young romance is represented by Eric Linden, playing the son, who gives an amazingly human and skilful performance, and Cecilia Parker, charming as the high school sweetheart. Miss MacMahon, as Aunt Lily, and Spring Byington as the mother, are Ideally cast, and Mickey Rooney adds childish comedy. Charles Grapewin, Frank Albertson. Edward Nugent, Bonita Granville, and Helen Flint are excellent in supporting roles. The principal players in this film have all high reputations as character actors. Wallace Beery has achieved great success in many- roles, and has shown himself capable of playing the type of part that he takes in this picture with distinction; Aline McMahon can always be relied upon ,to give an interesting interpretation of any character, and she has succeeded admirably in her present role. The acting of Eric Linden, who has returned after an absence from the screen will arouse great interest. The story deals with an American family in a small New England town in 1906. Barrymore plays the father. His son, graduating from high school, apd in the throes of his first love affair, goes through the transports and despair that each boy lives through, and there is a parallel in the romance of middle life between Beery, the shiftless reporter, and Aline MacMahon, the maiden aunt, whose love never ripened into marriage because of the inefficiency of her lover and his taste for drink.

LIBERTY • “SILVER STREAK” AND “THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN” Romance, speed and tense dramatic action are deftly combined in the story of “The Silver Streak,” which comes to the .Liberty to-day. The central figure of the story, Tom Caldwell, is a young mechanical engineer who typifies the progressive spirit of modern youth. Employed by a trunk line railroad, the president and directors of which are basically opposed to anything new, he fights valiantly for his radically new invention. The railroad president’s daughter Ruth, and his son Allan, are aligned with Tom, and thus in opposition to their own father. Sally Blane and Charles Starrett are featured. The relief from the thrills, aside from a strong love interest between Sally Blane and Charles Starrett as the romantic leads, is the comedy provided by an able team of funny men. Edgar Kennedy, Arthur Lake, and Glihn “Big Boy” Williams. "The County Chairman,” the second attraction, rivals the successful “Judge Priest” and “David Harum” as a vehicle for Rogers. In “The County Chairman" he is seen as a wily, lovable county boss, half-diplomat, halfrustic. He wins elections and arranges love matches with equal skill. The homely humour of this story is rich in its American flavour. Even if its author had had Will Rogers in mind when he wrote this play, he could hardly have created a more perfectly tailored story for him. Many of the situations and speeches of Rogers in “The County Chairman” are his own policies and things he has talked of over the radio and written about in his daily column in the newspapers. Others in the cast of this famous play are Evelyn Venable, Kent Taylor, Louise Dresser, Berton Churchill, Charles Middleton, Frank Melton, and Stepin Fetchit. - v

PLAZA CORONADO

Full .of catchy tunes and bringing two new youthful and talented players to the screen, Paramount’s musical romance, “Coronado." which will begin to-day at the Plaza Theatre, is a film worth your money. Eddy Duchin and his orchestra provide the musical background for the film, and this popular dance band’s first motion picture engagement is auspicious, to say the least. The performances of the two leadihg players, Johnny Downs and Betty Burgess, indicate that Hollywood has discovered something refreshingly new. These two young , people not only act competently—they are talented singers and dancecp as well. The'action, in the main, takes place at the Hotel Coronado in Southern California, a resort frequented by the upper crust of society. Miss Burgess is cast as an entertainer with Eddy Duchin’s orchestra at the hotel, though she lives on the wrong side of the tracks in a “tent city" with her father, Leon Errol, and her sister, Alice White. The cast fits the story perfectly and there is no end of comedy in the picture. contributed mainly by Jack Haley and Andy Devine as two marine hating sailors, and Leon Errol as father of. the two girls. The performances of Berton Churchill as the tolerant motor magnate, and of Alice White as “Vi Wry” merit special mention. Fifteen separate studio sets were constructed in Hollywood for the picture, including two elaborate ones depicting the interior of the big hotel. The “Coronado” company, made up of more than 350 persons, moved in a body to the hotel itself after finishing studio shots, and 12 sets were used on the scene. One of these called for the construction of a complete “tent city” which figures prominently in the story. The script also called for the use of a ferry-boat, tugs, a navy tender, and several barges. The setting for the story is one of the world’s most fashionable beach resorts —the Hotel Coronado in Southern California —where Miss Burgess plays the part of an entertainer, with Duchin’s orchestra. Youthful, handsome Johnny Downs is the son of a millionaire car manufacturer, who comes to the hotel and falls in love with the orchestra’s singer, but fails to convince the girl that he loves her. STATE

“FOLLOW THE FLEET” For gay and fast-moving entertainment “Follow the Fleet,” which is entering a second week at the State Theatre measures up to the highest standard of musical comedies on the screen. In it the combination of Fred Astaire and "Ginger” Rogers is again seen. Their names ‘are a guarantee of quality, but the public always expects something better in every film in which they appear. The burden that is thrown on these two is obvious. “Top Hat” was their last picture, and those who saw it would have been perplexed if they had been asked to suggest how the picture might have been improved. In these circumstances, it would not have been surprising to find an element of “pot-boiling” in "Follow the Fleet.” It says a good deal for Hollywood’s ingenuity that the picture is as fresh and stimulating as the first one in which the team first appeared. Astaire and Miss Rogers are primarily dancers. Their last two pictures have shown a marked development in their ability as comedians, too. The story on which “Follow the p'leet" is based is so flimsy that to make the picture so entertaining they have to do more dancing, singing, and jesting than in any of their other pictures, and that is the secret of their success. Astaire is more impudent than ever, and makes an hilarious success of his part. If there was a fault to be found with “Top Hat” it was that the action flagged towards the end; but in the current feature there is not the slightest suggestion of such a fault. TIVOLI

“MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY” “Mutiny on the Bounty,” which has enjoyed a very successful season at the Regent Theatre, will be transferred to the Tivoli to-day. Those who have seen the picture agree that sense. Everything that has been said about this picture in England and America is deserved. It sweeps across the screen like a colossus among films, carrying the spectator into «a new world of adventure, where the eighteenth century is recreated with all its romance and beauty, its brutality and degradation. The magnificent theme has inspired the members of the cast to give superb performances. Charles Laughton does not act the part of Lieutenant Bligh. He is Bligh—inhuman and monstrous, but with the incredible courage that carried a tiny open boat and its crew across the breadth of the Pacific. Clark Gable is Fletcher Christian, and Fi’anchot Tone is Midshipman Byam (substituted for the Peter Hey wood of history). A tribute must also be paid to the camera work. The Bounty struggling through the storms off Cape Horn and sailing to Matavai Bay at Tahiti; the lagoons and palm groves of the loveliest of South Sea islands; the sinking ing and burning of the Bounty at Pitcairn Island; the British Ensign floating beneath billowing sails—these are a few of the things that are outstanding in the “Mutiny on the Bounty.” In certain respects the picture does not follow faithfully the historical facts, but this does not in any way detract from its entertainment value. Many of the scenes of shipboard life are highly spectacular and dramatic, and some of the most powerful “shots” are those of the small boat’s journey to Timor. There is such a plentitude of action that two and a quarter hours pass dramatically by before Fletcher Christian reaches Pitcairn Island.

There is a good supporting programme.

GRAND

“STRANGER’S RETURN” AND “WHISTLING IN THE DARK” “Stranger’s Return,” which stars Franchot Tone, Miriam Hopkins, and Lionel Barrymore, begins a season at the Grand Theatre to-day. It is a delightful story of farm life, with romance, drama, and comedy interwoven. The film is adapted from the book by Phil Stong, author of the sensational success, “State Fair.” The pictorial beauty of the picture cannot be too greatly stressed. The camera work is most effective the screen has offered out-of-door lovers. A number of the farm scenes are breath-taking in rural grandeur. “Whistling in the Dark,” the second feature on the programme, is a mystery comedy in which a writer of crime novels gets entangled in a plot and is given 24 hours to think up a “perfect crime.” Ernest True and Una Merkel are starred. The supporting cast also includes Edward Arnold, John Miljan, C. Henry Gordon, and Johnny Hines. Elliott Nugent directed, ,

MAYFAIR

“STORM OVER THE ANDES’* AND “WAY DOWN EAST” Two outstanding films will be screened to form a programme of exceptional merit at the Mayfair Theatre to-day. They are “Storm Over the Andes” and “Way Down East.” “Storm Over the l Andes” is considered one of the finest productions in which Jack Holt has ever been starred. Taking as its theme the war in Paraguay the film deals with the adventures of Holt as an American soldier of fortune who joins the air corps of one of the fighting countries as a combatant pilot. In the cast of the production are Antonio Moreno,' making a return to the American screen after five years in Spanish motion pictures; beautiful Mona Barrie, who plays the part of a gay senora; Gene Lockhart celebrated as a stage and screen comedian, Juanita Garflas, a Spanish pepperpot, Grant Withers, Barry Norton, and George Lewis, famous for his work in “The Collegians.” Colourful highlights of the story include a gay fiesta in a South American city; the strafing of airports at the front; several air battles; the blasting of munitions dumps, and some spectacular flying by veteran aviations. Two aeroplane crashes take place in the course of the picture. Holt saves his commanding officer, brings down a giant bomber, captures the ace of the enemy air forces and does several other hair-raising and thrilling stunts. The production 'was directed for Universal by W. Christy Cabanne, from a story by Eliot Gibbons and Laclede Christy with screenplay by A 1 Demond, Lieutenant-Com-mander Frank Wead, and Eve Green. A dramatic story, with a strong human interest, “Way Down East” is notable not only for its fine and sympathetic treatment of an arresting theme, but also for the magnificent acting of the principals, Henry Fonda and Rochelle Hudson, and the beautiful and striking photography. Derived from the play whose force and appeal have made it one of the greatest melodramas for more than 40 years, the picture tells the story of two who fought bigotry and hatred for the right to love. The locale of “Way Down East” Is the New England of the 1890’s. Its principals are Russel Simpson, who acts a stern, principled squire; his sensitive dreamy son, Henry Fonda, and the girl, Rochelle Hudson. These characters enact a drama which contains some of the most heroic scenes and one of the greatest climaxes ever brought to the screen. A special display of scale-model aeroplanes will be shown in the foyer of the theatre from midday on Friday. This novel attraction should prove of considerable interest to patrons, who have always appreciated the decorations that have been provided. THEATRE ROYAL

“I COVER THE WATERFRONT” AND “THE EAGLE’S BROOD” The stirring adventures of an American newspaper reporter assigned to keep a close eye on the life of a Pacific Coast waterfront provide an unusual background for the thrilling story of “I Cover the Waterfront,” Strange things happen to men who go down to the sea in ships, and the pressman becomes involved in an underworld drama which nearly costs him his life. However, fate is on his side, and this perilous situation brings him romance and success in his profession. One of the strongest features of the film lies in the scenes of the waterfront and the sea. The acting is a triumph for the principals, Ben Lyon, Claudette Colbert, and Ernest Torrence. Torrence gives a superb piece of character acting, combining dramatic force with a dash of unobtrusive but clever comedy. Miss Colbert plays the old man’s daughter, and her Performance is full of fire and action, he part of the enterprising newspaper reporter is in the hands of Ben Lyon, who also relieves the tension with clever comedy. Those films of the West, in which gallantry and villainy seem always to meet face to face, are well served by sound. They were exciting enough in the days when films were silent; they pestered the Imagination even then, but they were not better for the luridness which was perhaps necessary to heighten illusion. Their tone Is quieter now. since the attendant sounds leave less to imagination. And the direction of this type of film has not been at a standstill. There are shades of Improvement—not always noticeable until after, when the film Las been thought about—which may be found in “The Eagle’s Brood.” It is not always that a double-feature programme is without flaws. Sometimes the two pictures are ill-matched, and one puts the other in an unfavourable light. On “I Cover the Waterfront” and “The Eagle’s Brood,” which form .the programme beginning to-mor-row at the Theatre Royal, judgment can only be suspended. Both have been separately recommended; and the nature of each ensures that, even shown so closely together, they will be in exciting harmony.

CIVIC

“THE TUNNEL” In the breadth of its conception, the dramatic interest of its situations, and the convincing manner of the working out of its vision of the future, “The Tunnel,” which will enter its second week at the Civic Theatre on Saturday, is probably the most remarkable film of the year. Stories of the future are usually made laughable by the incongruity of details, but “The Tunnel,” taking a project that at the outset seems ridiculous—the construction of a traffic tunnel linking England and America—soon has every member of the audience taking that project as a matter of course, and following the progress of its construction with breathless interest. It achieves the seemingly impossible by mere power of narrative, a power which is apparent in every detail of the film. The tunnel itself is the main character of the film story, which tells of the mass of difficulties overcome by an engineer (Richard Dix) and his crew in its construction. The heartbreaking and almost insurmountable odds faced by these men—difficulties of nature, of the magriitude of the job they have attempted, and of the human material which rebels at the pressure placed upon it, and difficulties of finrnce when shrewd millionaires nearly wreck the whole undertaking in attempts to rig the stock market to suit themselves—help to add to the realism and credibility of the scheme. The time sense is used well, for as the two ends of the tunnel advance towards each other, the engineer’s .;on emerges from babyhood to boyhood, and in the end is employed in the tunnel and killed there. But what is astonishing about the film is the way it compels the audience to believe in the tunnel.

AVON “ROSE OF THE RANCHO” ■Featuring a famous Metropolitan opera star in the title role, “Rose of the Rancho,” a brilliant production of the musical comedy type, will run a second week at the Avon Theatre. Gladys Swarthout, who begins her

sixth season this year with the Metropolitan Opera, plays a dual role, as the heroine “Rose,” and as “Don Carlos,” who makes nightly sorties against unscrupulous Americans who are trying to wrest from the Spanish Dons their great estates. The story is set in Monterey in -1852, two years after California had joined the Union. Monterey was then the capital of the state and the centre of life for the Dons who held huge ranches under verbal right from their king. With California a part of the Union, land grabbers swept into the territory, ruthlessly wresting the vast estates from the Dons, and obtaining the title for themselves under the American law. There really was a “Rose of the Rancho.” The original “Rose” was Antonia Maria Castro and she lies now in a grave in the shadows of old San Juan Batista Mission. Antonia was a descendant of the Spanish Dons who laid the foundations of early California history. She lived in the troublous times when California was first admitted to the Union, and when unprincipled American desperadoes swept into the territory, bent upon wresting the groat estates from the Spaniards. Antonia's home was the famous Castro rancho near Monterey, which was the first capital of California. When in 1850, Commodore Sloat raised the American flag over the Alcalde's house in Monterey, he started one of the bitterest struggles of the nation’s history, and the glamorous Antonia Castro found herself plunged suddenly into a strange world of adventure, vindictiveness and bloodshed.

CRYSTAL PALACE “CAPTAIN HURRICANE” AND “ADMIRALS ALL” In keeping with the high standard usually offered'by the Crystal Palace, a double feature programme of unusual merit will be presented to-day, when “Captain Hurricane” and “Admirals All” will be shown for the first time in Christchurch. “Captain Hurricane,” RKO-Radio’s colourful comedy-drama of Cape Cod folk, is a story of a captain who loved the sea, even though he tried to get away from it and live a sedate life on the land where he never felt at home. James Barton, a noted Broadway star, brings to the screen the role of the explosive Captain Zenas Henry Webster, trying so hard to settle down and cool his temper, so that he could be accepted by the woman to whom ha had been proposing for 20 years, but who would never have him because of his roving disposition and his terrible temper. With him as the prim spinster whom he woos while she mothers and dominates him is Helen Westley. Also cofeatured are Helen Mack as a waif of the sea, and Gene Lockhart as one of the captain’s cronies,. A youthful romance, in which Miss Mack figures, provides a strong element in the story. The second attraction will be “Admirals All,” an outstanding RKO-Radio British production. The book was written by lan Hay and Stephen KingHall. The story is of Gloria Gunn, a glamorous film star, who, after making success after success for the Colossal Picture Corporation, becomes difficult. No adequate leading man can be found to play opposite her in her new picture, “Chinese White,” and. in a fit of tem-' perament, she sails for China. The stars are Wynne Gibson, who was taken to England especially for this film, Gordon Harker, and Anthony BushelL The plot culminates in a clever scene when a sailor is called on to impersonate an admiml of the fleet and becomes Involved in complications with a film star.