ENTERTAINMENTS

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 148, 19 March 1931, Page 2

ENTERTAINMENTS

PARAMOUNT THEATRE. Gales of laughter Issuing from the Paramount Theatre have been noticeable in Courtenay Place during the week. The fun has been caused by “The Cohens and Kellys in Africa,” an all-amusement film which is to be screened for the last time to-day and this evening. No one wlio_ likes continuous comedy should miss this last chance of seeing the film. “Officer O’Brien.” “Officer O’Brien,” starring William Boyd and featuring Ernest Torrence and Dorothy Sebastian, opens at the Paramount Theatre to-morrow, together with a supporting programme of special Pathe short subjects. Box plans at Bristol and theatre. The opinion was generally voiced that “Officer O’Brien” is one of the classiest pictures produced this season. The story was acclaimed as appealing and convincing, while the settings and scenes were hailed as beautiful and gripping. For tense drama, the trial scene, when a witness is mysteriously murdered, and the climax, when the hero of the story faces one of the strongest situations ever conceived, are said to bo sure to impress thcatro audiences as beln gexquisitcly fine. The story was written by Tom Buckingham. DE LUXE THEATRE. For the last time to-day a big doublefeature bill of exceptional entertainment value will be screened at the De Luxe Theatre. The first film is “A Notorious Affair,” with Billie Dove and Basil Rathbone, and the second Is a breezy American comedy, “Top Speed.” “Billy the Kid.” One of the most engrossing pages of Western history will be presented in “talkie” form at the De Luxe Theatre tomorrow. King Vidor’s splendid presentation of the twenty-one-year-old character who became the “most dangerous man of the west” during the eighties is both good drama, and a great lesson for youngsters of the present day. No one who sees the bravery of William Bonney, but his steadily losing fight, against the law. could help but be impressed by the picture this story presents of one who livbd at the wrong time. However, as did many at the same time, he lived by the pistol and died by the pistol. John Mack Brown docs a fine job as "Billy, and Wallace Beery is excellent as Sheriff Pat Garrett, who is at one and the same time Billy s nemesis and his greatest friend. majestictheatre. That favourite trio of players, Edmund Lowe, Leila Hyams, and clever J tommy Clifford, cannot be seen in that reahy ontertainiug play, “A Part Time Wife. at.er to-day, for the successful season will finish with to-night’s screening. “A Young Man of Manhattan.” The return to-morrow to the Majestic Theatre of the popular star, Claudette Colbert, who was such a favourite when last In Wellington with Maurice Chevalier in “The Big Pond,” is certain to be a welcome event to the clever lady's many admirers. She will now be seen to advantage in the Paramount all-talking feature comcdydrama of modern life, entitled A young Man of Manhattan,” in which she will be supported by such well-known people as Norman Foster, Ginger Rogers. Charles Ruggles, Leslie Austin, Dudley Hawley, and the Four Aalbu Sisters. The play is an adaptation of the well-known book of the same title by Katherine Brush, and its popularity on the screen is said to rival that ot the book. It is an unusually realistic story of a man and woman, both clever suporting writers connected with big daily papers, who marry and attempt to settle down but while the lady is a hard worker, the able husband is lazy, aud also has a fondness for alcohol, which cuds in separation from his wife. Every word of the really clever dialogue rings true to lite, and the play is regarded as being something far above average. The first part of the programme will consist of special Paramount featurettes, and an interesting news reel. The usual late shoppers’ session will commence to-morrow at 5 o'clock and finish at 7 p.m. Box plans are at the Bristol and also fit the theatre.

REGENT THEATRE. Large crowds are daily finding laughter and entertainment on a scale they never dreamed ot at the Regent Theatre this week, where “Plunder,” a British and Dominions productiop, is being screened. It is mainly round Ralph Lynn as D’Arcy Tuck—an “Algy” type of character—that the fun Is built. Mary Brough in the role of Mrs. Hewlett, who really commits bigamy in marrying old man Hewlett for his money, also shows herself to be a clever comedienne, while Winifred Shotter does justice to the part of the heiress and grand-daughter of Hewlett. D’Arcy Tuck falls in love with her on the way home from Now Zealand, but on arrival thev find the housekeeper has married the old man, whose death allowed her to succeed to his property. D Arcy plots with his pal Freddie Malone, played by Tom Walls, to get the woman s jewels as some recompense for the loss bis fiancee had sustained. How this was achieved, how Scotland Yard was called in. and how the experts were beaten by the coolness of Freddie, and the sltnpie innocence of D’Arcy enable the production of a Story that is enjoyable from start to finish. The .supports arc excellent. ST. JAMES THEATRE. “The Benson Murder Case” closes its season at the St. James Theatre to-night. “Just Imagine.” The finest feature production produced bv the famous Fox organisation in many uioons, entitled “Just Imagine, will be screened at the St. James Theatre for the first time in New Zealand to-morrow morning. It comes with a great reputation from England and America, where its success has been of the electrical order. The autho-> of the favourite screen play, “Sunny Side Up,” wrote the clever story, and they are credited with achieving something in the same shape of novelty that out-rivals all previous achievements since, the advent of “talkies.” It deals with “the world in 10S0 —fifty vears hence,” in an imaginative fashion that the “New York World” considered to be worthy of the famous French author, Jules Verne, “.lust Imagine” is classed as a comedy-drama, the action of which takes place in two worlds—at New York and on the planet Mars, but audiences in America regard it as satirical comedy pure and simple, and of the very highest order, for from first to last the entertainment is punctuated with roars of unrestrained laughter. The popular comedian, Ed. Blundell, scores a triumph in the character ot a Swede, who is brought back to life by science and turned loose on a world that is very different to the one he left 50 years before. KING’S THEATRE. Featured at the head of an exceptionally good bill at the' King’s Theatre is “Men of the North,” an adventure romance starring Gilbert Roland and Barbara Leonard. It will be shown for the last time to-day. ■ “The Lady of Scandal.” Opening its season at the King’s Theatre to-morrow, “The Lady of Scandal” is sure to be well received by Wellington film-goers. It is the story ot a London actress who becomes engaged to the son of a peer, and is taken into high society to be “educated.” Instead, she “educates high society, in a series of hilarious comedy Incidents, and then suddenly faces an intensely dramatic problem, when torn between love and duty. KILBIRNIE KINEMA. “Hell's Angels.” according to world war authorities, is undeniably the most authentic and realistic air spectacle which has been produced to date. Major C. C. Mosclev. formerly of the First Pursuit Group, A.'li.F., now vice-president of the Curtis Flying Service, is one of many ex-war-aces who has voluntarily gone on record in high praise of the authenticity of the Howard Hughes aviation film, now at the Kilbirnie Theatre. A Universal talking news will support tlie feature. Reserve at theatre aud Bristol.