ENTERTAINMENTS

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 19, 17 October 1933, Page 14

ENTERTAINMENTS

REGENT THEATRE. Tingling with romance, drama, and humour, "She Done Him Wrong,” the new X’aramount release, is at the Regent Theatre. Miss West is seen as Lady Lou, a singer in the saloon, with a mania for diamonds, which were supplied by her many male admirers. However, at heart she is really quite a good girl, and at one stage even goes so far (secretly, of course), to sell some of her diamonds and buy a mission building to save it from closing down. However, virtue has its reward, and Lady Lou, after several adventures, ends up by marrying a detective, who had posed as a mission worker. The dialogue is clever, and at times extremely risque. Miss West, who wears some magnificent dresses. of. the style of the ’nineties, is ideal in the rede. Her acting is perfect, and her manner alluring. “The Working Man.” It is a new and somewhat dishevelled George Arliss, usually so immaculate, who appears in the Warner Bros, picture, “The Working Man, which comes to the screen of the Regent Theatre on Friday. For George Arliss let his hair grow for six weeks before beginning work on the production. In the story, a long fishing trip is interrupted by a chance to do an old friend a good turn in disguise and the seedy appearance of the character Mr. Arliss portrays is the disguise. “The Working Man” is a delightful and highly entertaining comedy drama in which Mr. Arliss, a wealthy manufacturer, masquerades as a small town fisherman in order to save from rum the children of a man who had been his bitterest rival in both business and love. A notable supporting cast includes Bette Davis as his leading lady. “"WUe Albright in the juvenile lead. Gordon Westcott, Theodore Newton and J. F arr . eli MacDonald. The screen piny by Charles Kenyon and Maude T. Howell is based on a story by Ergar Franklin and directed by John Adolfi. DE LUXE THEATRE. “When Ladies Meet” is now at the De Luxe Theatre. Mary (Myrna Lov) is a young novelist who has fallen in love with her publisher. Rogers. As he happens to be a married man with two children, Mary figures it out that she, being the really big thing in his life, should approach the wife and mother, nnd tell her frankly the position. Jimmie, who really loves her. very cleverly brings about a meeting between Mary and the! wife, Clare (Ann Harding). Robert Montgomery is admirably amusing as Jimmie, and a wealth of lively comedy is contributed by Alice Brady as Bridget Drake, at whose delightful country home the expose is made. There are good supports. Miss Iris Mason is at the Wurlitzer organ. „ , ~ “Moonlight and Pretzels. There is such scope on the modern talking screen for the production of musical comedy that it is not surprising to find Hollywood mustering its resources on a lavish scale in the picture “Moonlight and Pretzels,” which will begin at the De Luxe Theatre on Friday. The film features an exceptional range of talent, strong in singing, dancing and acting, and as a vivid kaleidoscope of stage settings and costume effects. Then ,in the climax, is a cavalcade of recent events in America, reminiscent of the touch of Noel Coward in his great British play. It is a most effective method of bringing before an audience the great changes that stir a nation. Between 1928 and 1932 the United States fell from the pinnacle of prosperity to the depths of depression, and the lightnning-like nature of the change is shown in dramatic outline. There is music to appeal to those who demand rhythm more than action. The song writer has used his powers to good effect, and the screen has done the rest. At the beginning a young composer struggling to make headway meets a girl in a country town, and n friendship is formed which stands the test of many, reverses in fortune. To the girl is dedicated the catchy song “There's a Little Bit of You in Every Love Song," which the composer has written in a moment of inspiration, and long afterward this is used to renew their friendship in the heart of Broadway. MAJESTIC THEATRE. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are appearing in their latest production, “Fra Diavolo,” at the Majestic Theatre. Several of the settings are worthy of classical production, and the singing of Dennis King and the massed voices is extremely enjoyable. The story is that of two friends who turn bandits in retaliation for being robbed of the.ir life savings just when they meant to retire. But banditry it no amateurs sport, ns they found out when one_of their victims showers them with pitiful tales which reduce them both to tears. Olivero (Oliver Hardy) decides to take the place of Fra Diavolo, feared throughout Northern Italy, but when he holds un the real Diavolo the fun starts. The way they escape from a number of ticklish situations serves to make the picture the funniest of the Laurel and Hardy laugh epics. “King Kong.” “King Kong,” RKO-Radio screen sensation, will be presented at the Majestic Theatre on Friday. Based on a weird and highly imaginative idea conceived by Mcrian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace, “King Kong” is a symbolic story of the age-old triumph of brains over brawn and of the power of beauty over the beast. The story deals with the harrowing experience's of a party of American motionpicture people who visit a strange, remote island in quest of a legendary ape god. It is their idea to find this brute Beast and make a photographic record of its reactions to Beauty—to find the dawn of man in this ape. a survival, by some weird freak, of the prehistoric ages. They not only find the ape. King Kong, but find him ruler of the island —feared by the natives, who steal Fay Wray, heroine of the adventure, to provide a sacrifice to the monster, who battles and vanquishes tyrannosauri and peterodactyls. The supreme fantasy of "King Kong” begins when “King Kong” after having been captured, breaks loose and runs riot in New York. Beautiful Fay Wray plays well as the girl whose courage survives such thrills as being carried aloft by a petorodactyl, fought over by Kong and a trynnnosaurus, carried in “King Kong’s” great hand through streets where his every footstep leaves wreckage and shrieking humans, and then carried up the straight, smooth sides of a skyscraper. Robert Armstrong plays the intrepid camera adventurer of the story nnd Bruce Cabot the first mate who falls in love with the girl and finally rescues her from “King Kong.” ST. JAMES THEATRE. “The Keyhole,” a Warner Brothers production, now screening at the St. James Theatre, is characterised bv its unusual situations and tense dramatic moments, Kay Francis aqd George Brent, in the principal roles, give a performance which cannot fail to have a large measure of appeal. The. plot concerns a dancer who marries a rich society man who is so jealous of her that he engages a private detective to be her shadow. The detective is ably portrayed by George Brent as a personable and charming young man about town. He does not find it difficult to be in her company, nnd. in fact, from the moment the two are brought face to face on the steamer bound for Havana, he rnpidly falls under her spell and charm. From then on the plot takes unexpected turns and twists to a startling and surprising finish. The supports include sports thrills. “Fishing and Shooting,” a burlesque on “Grand Hotel” entitled "Nothing Ever Happens.” a descriptive film, “Dear Old London,” and a New Zealand newsreel in which is featured the funeral of the late Mr. H. E. Holland. “Peg o’ My Heart. Mnrion Davies is said to give one of the finest performances of her career in “Peg o’ My Heart,” which comes to the St. James Theatre on Friday. The cinema version of the play that has been acclaimed for more than 20 years has a freshness all its own. Miss Davies’ “Peg” is an individual, and ye her interpretation of the role is none the less, genuine and fapiUiar in. character,

PARAMOUNT THEATRE. The brilliant farce creator Ben Travers, with the co-operation of the leading British comedians, Ralph Lynn and Tom Walls, Mary Brough and Robertson Hare, have given many humorous successes to the talking screen. These have all been reproductions of the stage comedies which have captivated London at the Aldwych Theatre without intermission for a period of years, yet not one of them has raised such riotous laughter as does “Thark. the story of their attempt to lay a sepul-chral-voiced ghost in an eerie house during a thunderstorm. “Thark” is now in the middle of its second successful week at the Paramount Theatre. Another fine picture is “With Cobham to Kivu. ’ “Little Damozcl.” Starring Anna Neagle, “Little Damozel” will come to the Paramount Theatre on Friday. This production comes with a London reputation. GRAND OPERA HOUSE. Now showing at the Grand Opera House is “The Masquerader, the story of John Chilcot, M.P., and. the man who stepped into his shoes in a national crisis. Ronald Colman nils a dual role. He is the man in the Opposition who has the ability to bring about the downfall of the Government, but drugs and drink have undermined nis constitution, and he collapses as he opens his attack. Chilcot prevails upon his cousin and double to take his place, nnd John Loader delivers n crushing condemnation of the Government, but be_has failed to allow for deceiving John Chilcot’s wife. “Strictly Personal.” Coming to the Grand Opera House on Friday next is “Strictly Personal, ’ with Marjorie Rambeau, Eddie Quillan, and Dorothy Jordan as the stars.