ENTERTAINMENTS.

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 147, 19 March 1934, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS.

REGENT THEATRE. In John Galsworthy’s play “Loyalties,” an English screen version of which is being presented at the Regent Theatre, the often ill-formed loyalties of class and breed receive a severe jar because Ferdinand de Levis, the Hebrew in the case, possesses in greater degree those virtues of honour and breeding than the societypeople who seek to smirch his good name. The plot is excellently suited to film adaptation, having unusual emotional and action properties. Much of it i« set in a brilliant bouse party, and toward the end there is a great court case. An outstanding performance is given by Basil Rathbone, who. handsome, clean-cut,- and suave, gives a gripping and sensitive characterisation of the young Jew —so good, indeed, that he makes the rest of the east almost commonplace. This actor is bound to be beard of on the screen. Other pictures are the Regent news reels, a very fine film of New Zealand’s scenery- and institutions (including some capital shots taken at the Karitane Home. Wellington) ; a splendid scenic of the romantic West Indies, and a fantastic comedy entitled “The Devil's Cuba ret.” “Roman Scandals.” Ancient Rome in all its gaiety, colour and glory is the setting for "Roman Scandals.” Eiklie Cantor’s fourth annual screen musical comedy for Samuel Goldwyn, which begins at the Regent Theatre on Friday. Ruth Etting, Gloria Stuart and David Manners cavort with Eddie in his newest picture, successor to last year’s “The Kid from Spain.” The pageantry and the spectacle of that distant day. with its marching legions in burnish ed armour, the arenas and the bloody games, the beautiful slave girls in chains, and the Emperor’s gorgeous favourites in garlands of flowers, the glitter and pomp of a stately court and thundering steed--tearing their chariots through clouds of dust—all help to give Goldwyn a generous- opportunity for another of the lavish productions that ho makes of the annual Cantor carnival of fun and splendour. This is only a setting. however for a single and human little comedy. Before Eddie gets to the chariot chase that winds up the hilarious yarn he meets other equally fantastic adventures. In the great slave market scene he is placed on the auction block, while Ruth Etting sings her haunting lament “No More Lore.” the dancing girls in their glittering skirts of silver mesh dance a wild bacchanal and the senators contemplate the charm-' of yellow-haired enptives from far-off Britain, arrayed in a living frieze ami for sale to the highest bidder. The gold and scarlet robes- of state are worn by Edward Arnold as the wicked Emperor Valerius and by statuesque Verce Teas dale as the Empress Agrippa. Gloria Stuart and David Manners are concerned in the romance that is guided along its rocky path by Eddie, and Ruth Etting has the role of Olga, the discarded mistress of the Emperor.

MAJESTIC THEATRE. However romantically unreal the story may seem, the picture. "Should Ladies Behave?”, at the Majestic Theatre, is enthralling entertainment from start to finish, an-d the interest is borne lightly along on thj? airy flights of fanciful comedy. Place a divorced phiktndress, a young impressionable girl who is seeking “experience”; a silly, giddy wife a suave continental lover, and a suspicious husband together under one roof for a week-end, and the stage is set. It is a drawing-room comedy, farcical to the extreme, but tempered with a tender love interest which gives the story a piquancy of its own. Just how the pilot’s many problems are solved by tlie scheming of the husband and the daughter’s youthful admirer is reevaled in a happy climax. Alice Brady, in the role of the dizzy wife, chatters her way through the picture to the brilliant repartee of her sister. Katharine Alexander, and Mary Carlisle uses her platinum beauty to perfection in her dainty role of the lovelorn daughter. A feature of the programme is Die overture “March Majestic,” which was specially composed and played for the theatre by Ivan Perrin and his band. Full orchstras are seldom heard in theatres in these days of talkies, and many picturegoers will welcome this remembrance of the old silent days. The other supports are excellent. “Cinderella's Fella.” A musical romance of love ami laughter. “Cinderella’s Fella.” comes to the Majestic Theatre on Friday. Superimposed on an intriguing little story are many large and lavish scenes in wh’eh hundreds of singing and dancing beauties take part. The big reputation of thi.-Metro-Gohlwyn-Mayer production well precedes if. Tii the east are Marion Davies. Bing Crosbic. Fill D’Orsny. Stuart Erwin, and many others equally as good.