ENTERTAINMENTS.

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 4, 29 September 1933, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS.

REGENT THEATRE “The Masquerader” .Two men who so closely resembled each other that one stepped into the fighting political career and love of the other man’s wife provide the famous dual roles of "The Masquerader” for Ronald Colman at the Regent Theatre to-day. Involved in the pbzzled affections and loves of Colman’s two roles are Elissa Lntidi and Juliette Compton and a big cast headed by David Torrence, Helen J. route Eddy, Creighton Hale, and Halliwell Hobbes. As a background for Colman and the strange human problem of “The Masquerader,’’ Samuel Goldwyu has provided a production that gjyes hew life and , a bright modern toucn to the famous English melodrama. Political turmoil, riot and threat of revolution, financial and government crises taken from to-day’s headlines are the etorm clouds that drive one man from his position at the helm of state and from the love of his wife to drugs and debauchery. Pride of family, patriotism and love of adventure and fight summon his unknown young cousin to the rescue. His two roles give Colman an opportunity to contrast drunkenness and sobriety, sanity and fitness with debauchery and depravity. Unlike “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” and other famous dual roles of the stage and screen. “The Masquerader” offers Colman no important help in the way of make-up. Its triumph is of noting, not make-up. Richard Wallace directed “The Masquerader” from an adaptation by Howard Estabrook and Moss Hart. It is based on John Hunter Booth’s dramatisation of the novel by Katherine Cecil Thurston. The film is preceded bv a witty coloured cartoon. "Santa’s Workshop,” which kept the King much amused when he attended a screening nt the New Victoria Theatre, London, According to a London writer, the King burst into hearty laughter when he saw a gigantic toothbrush being used tn nicari a friirvlnnd r p ’ndrer’s tenth, and Uwn then nn the hnst'in-; methods of the fa’fvlnnd factory kept him continuously smitsrd.

ST. JAMES THEATRE. The new Fox film. “Adorable,” with Janet Gaynor and Henry Garat in the lending roles, which is due tn onen ! ts season at the St. James Theatre today, is the most hauntingly romantic picture yet made, snys an American writer. "Janet Gaynor hns found the perfect complement for her unique abilities in Henry Garat, the European player who makes his American picture debut in ’Adorable.’” he continues. “Together, as they unfold step after step of the storv. they form what ;s by far the most attractive, most whimsical, most r p mnnti p pair of players seen for a lone t’me. Tf is a r"rn motion nmtnrn oo—i-i’-'p when story n”d stars fit so henutifidiv fo'-c’hnr. MPss Gaynor again reveals her manifold talent for the screen In its three principal departments—acting. singing, and dancing. Garat must eertnfnly look to a br'lliant career on the American screen. Cast in important roles. Herbert Mundin and C. Aubrey Smith contribute their highly individual

talents. Blanche Friderici, Stuart Holmes, Albert Conti, Ferdinand Schu-mann-Heink, Esther Muir, Hans von Twardowski, Peter Duray, Barbara Leonard and Sterling Holloway, are excellent in the supporting cast. The music by Werner Richard Heymann and the songs by Richard A. Whiting and George Marion. Jr., are rich in melody and appropriateness. The “Adorable” Waltz. “My Heart’s Desire," and ‘‘My First Love to Last." are the ch'ef song, hits. “Adorable” will be preceded by a specially chosen programme of featurettes. These will be of a most varied nature, and should provide excallent entertainment. PARAMOUNT THEATRE. Gaumont’s triumphant comedy. “The Man from Toronto,” which has already run twenty weeks and is still continuing nt the Athenaeum Theatre. Melbourne, will bo seen for the first time in Wellington at the Paramount Theatre to-day. The success of the film has been outstanding wherever shown. The popular star. Jessie Matthews, is credited with bettering the work which made her such a favourite in “There Goos the Bride” and “The Midshimnnid." Many will regret that M'ss Matthews hns accepted a long-term contract for the London legitimate stage, and that “The Man from Toronto" will be her Inst picture. Members of the cast are lan Hunter, Fred Kerr, Margaret Ynrde. the famous character actress, nnd Kenneth Kove. a most ponular member of tlm celebrated Aldwych Theatre Company. The “Kincmntograph Weekly” writes: “All the essentials of good, clean, romantic comedy nre here and they are mixed with that practised skill which assures unusual success. No producer has ever used c-’mera or players to better advantage. Thoroughly entertn’ning from start to finish, there is n delightful lightheartedness about the fi'm which causes the whole thing to go with n swing that carries th" andienoo nlong with it.” As a nrclim’T’nrv to “The Man from Tn-ooto” Conan Doric's “The Hound of the Baskervilles" will be screened. MAJESTIC THEATRE. “Central Airport," with Richard Barthelmess as the star, will open its season at the Majestic Theatre to-day. The story deals with the hazardous lives and the exciting loves of the hardy navigators of the stormy air-lines. Richard Barthelmess plays the part of a returned war hero who pilots trans-continental passenger planes. He crashes his ship, with a heavy toll of lives, and is “grounded.” Discredited in the job he loves and the only one he knows, he goes barn-storm-ing with n travelling air circus, and falls in love with Sally Eilers a parachute jumper Broken and filled with n snvnge rccklcs-nevs when he learns that he hns lost h's girl. Bcthelmess turns to any firing job that offers enough danger, whether it’s fighting in the Orient, or lending n South American resurrection, nnd he becomes famous even to the far corners of the earth ns n pilot who laughs nt death, pod even goes out of his wav to tompt it. The ending of this First National spectacle is one of the most spectacular and

thrilling scenes ever filmed., and shows one phase of peace-time aviators’ work, ■when Barthelmess as a pilot: rescues the passengers from a sinking aeroplane in the storm-swept Caribbean Sea. There are good supports.

DE LUXE THEATRE.

“Cavalcade," with Clive Brook and Diana Wynyard heading the cast, will begin the third week of its season at the De Luxe Theatre to-day. It delineates an English family life during the first quarter of the twentieth century, set in a vast background of vivid, illuminating flashes of great world events, with their inexorable recoil upon the units of the family. Everything is handled in a brilliant and frequently remarkably delicate manner An additional attraction is tho engagement of a special orchestra of 18 talented musicians, under the capable direction of Mr. L. D. Austin. Miss Iris Mason is at the Wurlitzer organ.