CITY THEATRES

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23366, 27 June 1941, Page 9

CITY THEATRES

—♦ AVON “ANDY HARDY MEETS DEBUTANTE ” "Andy Hardy Meets Debutante,” coming to the Avon, weaves a typical Hardy Family tale of the comedy, romance and drama to be found in the average American family and this time does it against the glamorous background of New York City. The picture involves Mickey Rooney, as AndyHardy, in a hilarious attempt to crash the acquaintance of a dazzling Manhattan debutante with whose photograph he has become smitten back in Carvel. Lewis Stone, as Judge Hardy, gives one of his best performances as the small town lawyer who defeats the best legal brains in New York in a case involving the financial welfare, of the Carvel orphanage. Fay Holden, Cecilia Parker and Sara Haden complete the "family” and Judy Garland is a sweet sub-deb. Dozens of the sights that thrill visitors to the nation’s greatest city are seen in the picture through the eyes of the Hardy Family.- They include the great bridges that have been thrown across the Hudson, the city’s mountainous sky line as seen from the Jersey side, the stupendous Rockefeller Centre development, New York University’s Hall of Fame, swank Fifth Avenue, and a dazzling coming-out party which Is typical of Manhattan’s Four Hundred. MAYFAIR “TALL, DARK AND HANDSOME” "Tall, Dark, and Handsome,” which Is coming to the Mayfair, is a gay and exciting film with a featured cast headed by Cesar Romero, Virginia Gilmore, Milton Berle, and Charlotte Greenwood. Funny as it is throughout, the film has plenty of drama and a fine romance between Cesar Romero and Virginia Gilmore. Things start happening with the rapidity of "Tommy” gun fire when the dapper, big-shot gangster, Cesar Romero (who hasn’t the heart to kill), is attracted to comely Virginia Gil* more, a departmental store nursemaid, Posing as a “father,” Cesar Induces Virginia to take a job as nursemaid In his palatial home. Cesar is taken for a “ride,” but lives to watch his own funeral. All the men he has “rubbed out” come to life and in a madcap finish he gets his adversary put behind bars. The cast also features Stanley Clements, Sheldon Leonard, Frank Jenks, and Barnett Parker. Four new, catchy tunes by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger are blended into the glittering'bight club scenes. STATE THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED ” No one can fall,to appreciate the magnificence of Charles Laughton’s acting. He has been responsiole for many superb characterisations, and in “They Knew What They Wanted,” the feature which opens at the State today, he gives another classic portrayal. It Is a contrast with his other roles, In that he plays a successful, warmhearted grape rancher, childish in many pf his ideas, but lonely to the point of having as his great desire the possession of a wife and children whom he could make rich and happy. Opposite him is Carole Lombard, in the role of a repressed waitress in p San Francisco restaurant, who attracts the attention of the rancher when he Is on holiday and agrees, after a correspondence acquaintance, to marry him. The complications are provided by William Gargan, foreman of the ranch and a young man of, moods and Casanova tendencies. When the love-sick ItalianAmerican is asked to send his photograph he encloses that of his foreman instead. The misunderstanding is complete when the foreman meets the young lady on her arrival at the ranch, and her temporary disillusionment when she understands that she is betrothed not to aim, but to his jovial, great-hearted employer, leads to high drama. There is much brilliant work in thp film, but all of the other performances are overshadowed by Laughton. CRYSTAL PALACE “BLONDIE GOES LATIN ” Blondie's newest adventure in hilarity, “Blondie Goes Latin,” begins at the Crystal Palace to-day. In this latest of the gay Columbia series based upon the popular comic strip* Peggy Singleton, Arthur Lake, and Larry Simms are featured as the inimitable Bumstead family, with Ruth Terry and Tito Gulzar prominent members of the supporting cast. Action of "Blondie Goes Latin” takes place aboard a South American-bound passenger liner, with Blondie and Baby Dumpling helping Mr Dithers, Dagwood’s boss, to "escape from it all.” Dagwood is supposed to' be back at the office, minding his own business, but he blunderingly manages to get aboard the vessel as a stowaway. Posing as a member of the ship’s band, he attempts to evade Blondie and Mr Dithers. The complications ensue when he becomes involved with the girl singer with the band. In the second feature, “The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance,” Warren William and Eric Blore attempt to solve a mysterious kidnapping, but end up behind bars themselves. But they soon escape to solve the most, thrilling case in the debonair Lone Wolf’s career. LIBERTY “KITTY FOYLE” A girl’s sacrifice for the man she loves forms the dramatic theme of “Kitty Foyle,” Ginger Rogers’s film, based on the famous novel by Christopher Morley, which begins to-day at the Liberty. Dealing with the colourful career of a modern white collar girl, the film derives much of its suspense and interest from the hectic romance between the heroine and a young society man whom she marries but subsequently leaves to keep from wrecking his life. Dennis Morgan has the masculine lead opposite Ginger Rogers, and James Craig, Eduardo Cianrtelli, Ernest Cossart, Gladys Cooper, and other noted players ate In ’ the cast. ■ "Scattergood Baines” is also showing. PLAZA « DIAMOND FRONTIER ” COMING Telling a .story of . injustice and reVenge, Universal’s “■Diamond Frontier” is coming to the Plaza. Starring Victor McLaglen, with, John .Loder, eminent British actor, as the victim of McLaglen’s Injustice, the drama tells the story of the . discovery of diamonds in South Africa. , In the mad rush to stake out claims and’the mad’disorder and lawlessness that follow, Loder suffers from McLaglen’s greed and cruelty, is Imprisoned, and then returns to pursue his revenge against the man who had wronged him, Dennis O’Keefe, who appears in the second feature, “I’m Nobody’s Sweetheart Now,” Is one'of the iew screen leading men to emerge from the extra In his newest production, O’Keefe has another of the light romantic roles at which he has proved so expert. Constance Moore and Helen Parrish pro-? vide the love interest, and Lewis Howard, Laura Hope Crews, Berton Church-, ill and Samuel S. Hinds are also imnftttantlv art.