Cinema Reviews

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22367, 2 April 1938, Page 9

Cinema Reviews

STATE

“ THE HURRICANE ”

' The gripping realism of “The Hurricane” makes it a notable film. It began a season, yesterday at the State Theatre. With the South Seas for a setting, the story is full of interest—it was written by Charles Nordhoff and j. N. Hall, on whose novels that very successful film, “The Mutiny on the Bounty,” was based—and splendid acting and the able use of Hollywood’s technical resources have done the rest. The names of Jon Hall and Dorothy Lamour, who have been given the leading roles, will not mean much to many theatre-goers, but there is a guarantee of good acting with the inclusion of C. Aubrey Smith. Raymond Massey, and Mary Astor in the cast. But Jon Hall and Dorothy Lamour show that newcomers to the films can sometirpes be quite as convincing in their acting as those who have proved their reputations over a long period. Certainly there can be no fault found with the acting in this picture. Terangi, the young islander of ■ Manukurua, is the first mate on a trading schooner, who, through no fault of his, falls foul of the law and is imprisoned. Attempts to escape bring an extension of his imprisonment, but at last he breaks free, accidentally killing a guard. How he escapes his pursuers makes an enthralling story that is brought to a climax when a hurricane strikes tke island ei Mamikvrevia where he lives. But the Governor of the island is the merciless De Laage, who, though he knows that Terangi has been falsely imprisoned, will not intercede because to do so would conflict with his sense of duty. There is a strongly dramatic touch ’in the scenes in which sympathisers g with Terangi seek to change De Laage’s mind, and in these there is excellent work by Thomas Mitchell as the easy-going French doctor, and C. > Aubrey Smith as the kindly priest. ’ But the dominant figure is Massey’s * De Laage, who will not allow his feel--1 ings to sway him against his sense ! of duty. Yet even the acting in this •; picture cannot claim the attention as ■ does the production of the storm scenes. These must be among the most 'exciting that the Hollywood studios ' have ever achieved. They sometimes test credulity, but there will be few 1 who will have any fault to find on this score. The whole material has been admirably handled by the director, and this film should be one of the mc-t successful that the State Theatre has ' known.- > On the supporting programme is one the “March of Times” series—always most acceptable entertainment—a newsreel, and a film that gives a very good idea of the thrills of ski-ing in Norway.

PLAZA THEATRE

TWO ADVENTURE FILMS

The old thrill of Zane Grey’s * western stories as they were dramatised on the silent screen is intensified when talkies add the sound of thundering hoofs and barking rifles; when the villain snarls and sneers and one cad hear him do it; and when runaway caravans slither round precipitous bends with all the accompaniment of stampeded horses and screeching brakes. “Thunder Trail.” a Zane Grey , western thriller now at the Plaza Theatre, recaptures all the old thrill and a little more. As a book story it was one of Zane JSrey’s best sellers, and here on screen it should be just as,-great an attraction. It is, good, when the theatre lights grow plunge back into the pleasant atmosphere which the old silent thrillers conjured up. The story itself has no outstanding attraction. . All the pleasantness is in the expansive action, the thrills-a-minute sequences, and the very realistic but not too terrifying killings and shootings wwhich lead up to such a hair-raising climax. Charles Bickford, Marsha Hunt, and Gilbert Roland are the principal members of the cast, with Bickford in a particularly audacious; role and Roland looking his handsomest as a dark-skinned, orphaned gold prospector in search of the men who killed his father, Marsha Hunt is no type, but a straightforward actress of peculiar beauty and charm. Her role is slight but her work con■vincing. There is a general quality about, the acting which makes one think that the whole cast enjoyed a holiday away from more exacting work and perhaps unconsciously turned,out in their exhilaration something unexpectedly good. C There is another feature on this fine programme—a film story of one of those terrible flood disasters which now make big news periodically in the United States. "On Such a Night” gives Grant Richards his important debut on big film work. Movie critics say that he started his film career because of his remarkable resemblance ;■ to John Gilbert. The resemblance is “ remarkable, but it stops at physical likeness. This new actor has his own style Antirely, It is convincing and promises well, and with Karen Morley, Roscoe Karns, and Eduardo Cianelli ’ fits in well in the acting of an intriguing story of trouble and disaster. Naturally Roscoe Karhs is again a newspaper reporter, amazingly enterprising and hard, and always near a telephone which connects directly with New York either 10 or 1000 miles nway. Flood scenes and those of the rescue work are splendidly managed and photographed.

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CRYSTAL PALACE

DOUBLE-FEATURE PROGRAMME

of feet of continuous laughter, comedy, and romance constitute the new programme at the Crystal Palace Theatre this week. The doublefeature offering contains two comedy successes which rival one another in their first-class entertainment value, and together go to the making of a programme that is bound to meet with outstanding popularity. Heading the bill are the famous Ritz Brothers, whose clever buffoonery has put them among the world’s first comedians. They appear in a rollicking story of college life and football matches, entitled “Life Begins in College.” The second feature is another fine piece of comedy-romance, “Change of Heart.”

The life that begins in Lombardy College begins with zest. A college full of laughter, singing, dancing, and football matches, if it gets little work done, is certainly a pleasant place to go. There enters upon the scene an Indian undergraduate, in the person of George Black, who plays lightly with dollars and football. He is the sensation of Lombardy College, winning fame on the football field and providing the foundation for a lot of fun and frolic, in which the Ritz Brothers in their own strange style take a prominent part. The story has many exciting moments, both on and off the football field, and together with its good measure of buffoonery has a continuity which carries the audience easily along with it. Nat Pendleton as the Indian is the centre of attraction, apart from the Ritz Brothers. Gloria Stuart plays a feminine part competently. Dick Baldwin, the football captain, is another of a cast of pleasant people. “Change of Heart” is a delightful comedy-romance, in which Gloria Stuart and Michael Whalen take the principal parts. Gloria Stuart is the golf-loving wife, who finds her husband too keen on business and who decides to take golf in preference to him. She is sorry for it not long afterwards, and there is an amusing series of chance meetings and misunderstandings carrying the story along happily to a pleasing climax. A prominent part is taken by the boy actor, Delmar Watson, who captures a large part of the attention with a competent piece of acting.

MAYFAIR

JANE WITHERS IN “WILD

AND WOOLLY”

The versatile -child star, Jane Withers, is something of a modern Buffalo Bill in “Wild and Woolly,” the Twentieth Century-Fox film which has begun a season at the Mayfair Theatre. Aided by the best supporting cast she has. ever had, Jane gets up to her antics in a Western town. Mesa City, which is holding its pioneer day jubilee. The West was never so wild as when Jane and her two-gun grandfather, a former bandit (Walter Brennan) make life unusually thrilling ‘.i Mesa City. Jane has inherited the feud between ,her grandfather and Berton Churchill, the unscrupulous town banker, carrying it on with the latter’s grandson, Jack Searl. The feud between Brennan and Churchill is renewed each year when Brennan’s candidacy for sheriff is always beaten by the political machine run by Churchill. Robert Wilcox, a young. city man, who has been sent to Mesa City to take over the newspaper, rescues Jane from a runaway train, and through this act forms a friendship with her grandfather. By various ruses Wilcox, Jane, and her small friend ‘.‘Alfalfa” succeed in getting Brennan appointed sheriff. Churchill’s and Brennan’s differences reach a climax when a duel is arranged. The subsequent happenings in this event make Jane decide to leave her grandfather, but as she is going through the woods she overhears a plan ot imported city gunmen to rob Churchill’s bank. Her grandfather, for a time, expresses his approval of the plan because of his fued with Churchill. The climax is reached when a bank robbery, which occurred many years before, is reacted on the final day of the jubilee. However, the plan of the gunmen is foiled through a clever ruse by Jane, her small friend, and Brennan. As a result the enmity between Churchill and Brennan is patched up.

In addition to her amusing anct unusual antics, Jane is seen as a tapdancer, singer, and rope whirler. Tne story is full of mischifef and thrills; and is undoubtedly one of Jand Withers’s best comedies. •

An excellent supporting programme is also shown. One of the most interesting features is photographs xif Clouston landing at Sydney after his famous flight, and there are also scenes of the King going to a levee, and of the Fairy springs at Rotorua.

CHRISTCHURCH CINEMAS,

LIMITED

A' murder mystery, “Night Must Fall,” with Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell is now at the Regent. It is the film version of a well-known play. “Can You Hear Me, Mother?” an amusing comedy, featuring Sandy Powell, is the new picture at the Majestic. Transferred from the Regent, “Parnell," a historical film starring Clark Gable and Myrna Loy, is the current attraction at the Tivoli. • Charles Farrell, in “Midnight Menace,” and John Wayne in “I Cover the War,” are the attractions on the new programme at the Liberty. “The Private Secretary,” with Edward Everett Horton in the lead, and “Way Down East,” starring Rochelle Hudson and Henry Fonda, is now being screened at the Grand.

AVON “SOULS AT SEA»» The Avon Theatre is showing “Souls at Sea” "for a third and final week. The film is one of the most realistic and spectacular seen by Christchurch audiences for many months. The dramatic story is acted by a notable cast with Gary Cooper and George Raft in the leading roles. There are also Henry Wilcoxon and Frances Dee. Actual history is used in the production which has for a setting the slave trade in the early years of the last century. The scenes at sea alone with their climax in the sinking of a clipper ship provide material enough for an outstanding film. In a trial scene at the beginning of the film Gary Cooper is shown as a young man who is charged with the murder of a number of people during a shipwreck. His defence is that he did it to save others from death. The circumstances behind the trial are then unfolded. Cooper is shown on board a slave ship of which the death of the captain compels him to take command. He does not favour slavery and allows the captives to swim ashore. When the ship is later taken by a British patrol the Government asks his help in an attempt to deal a crushing blow at the slave trade. On the clipper ship, Sam Brown Cooper makes a voyage for America. It is in the wreck of the vessel through fire that he takes the course which leads to his trial. Extraordinarily vivid and real scenes are shown of the sinking of the vessel and the efforts of the crew and passengers to secure safety. Romance is provided in the attachment which grows up between Cooper and the sister of a British officer who is secretly involved in the slave trade. This role is taken by Frances Dee, and that of her brother .by Henry Wilcoxon, both of whom give excellent performances. Raft and Olympe Bradna offer a secondary romance. It ends tragically when the girl in the part of a lady’s maid travelling on the vessel is fatally injured during the wreck. Raft refuses to desert her. A feature of the film is the capable way in which it is produced. There is no looseness in construction. The dramatic episodes follow one another so rapidly. that it is impossible for the attention to wander. The theme is intensely serious but there is no suggestion of melodrama. The whole tone is quiet and restrained and therefore very effective. On the supporting programme is an amusing "Pop-Eye the Sailor” cartoon and a sports feature in which a sheep-dog trial at Napier is shown. This is- easily the best film of such a trial yet to be made. CIVIC “DINNER AT THE RITZ”

Annabella. _ the beautiful actress which\the Civic Theatre introduced in “Wings of the Morning,” is just as popular in “Dinner at the Ritz.” which is now in»its third week at the same theatre. She is recognised as one of the most brilliant stars attached to the British studios. Her first two films could not be easily forgotten. Her simple and sincere charm endeared her to enthusiastic audiences. In her latest film she gives perhaps the most perfect performance to date. The gaiety of Paris and Monte Carlo provide the setting of the picture. A nnabella is the daughter of a wealthy banker of Paris. She is about to marry a fashionable baron in circles of high society and finance. A social gathering being held at her home is dramatically broken up when her father is found dead in his study with a pistol near at hand. The verdict is suicide, but this does not satisfy Annabella. She sets out for Monte Carlo in pursuit of the man she feels has committed a hnurder. Here, among glifttering casinos, she forgets > much of her sorrov'. and finds new romance. The chase takes her back to England, where the story ends on a happy note. Annabella’s acting through all this has a light, quiet touch of efficiency that is in keeping with her natural manner. She'moves first with a lighthearted gaiety, then with quiet sadness. later with dramatic intent, and last with youthful abandon. A 'Supporting programme of exceptional merit includes a Terry Toon cartoon and a clever piece of comedy.

LAWRENCE TIBDETT IN “ UNDER YOUR SPELL ”

Lawrence Tibbett and a big cast will appear in “Under Your Spell” at the Rex Theatre, Riccarton, to-night, Monday, and Tuesday. It is a story filled with action, comedy, and rhythm.