ENTERTAINMENTS

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 187, 7 May 1934, Page 4

ENTERTAINMENTS

DE LUXE THEATRE. Those popular comedians, Laurel and Hardy, are causing shrieks of laughter at the De Luxe Theatre, where one of their best films is being screened. "Sous of the Desert,” the title of the picture, is a league which is treated very seriously, perhaps for the reason that the convention it decides to hold in Chicago is an excuse for husbands to break away from too-watchful wives and enjoy life in a big way. This was certainly done by Stan and Oliver, whose cunning planning to attend the convention in the face of opposition gives rise to much merriment. All sorts of ruses have to .be adopted, but a happy idea is struck on when the healthy-loo,king Hardy develops an illness which, according to the expert advice of a veterinary surgeon, only a sea voyage .will cure. Unfortunately, the husbands are found out, and anyone who has ventured into matrimony will guess the result. It is a tip-top picture, and is preceded by a budget of shorts definitely above the average. Mr. Paul Cullen supplies popular music at the Wurlitzer organ. “Queen Christina.” ■ It is reported that screen history will be made when “Queen Christina,’ rhe long-expected Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer championship picture reuniting Greta Garbo and John Gilbert, opens on Friday next at the De Luxe Theatre. The picture, a spectacular presentation of seventeen century romance, as depicted nt the life and loves of Sweden’s famous queen, is primarily historical because it brings Gilbert back to the theatre after his announced retirement to private life and after a five-year screen separation from Garbo. The performance of Garbo is said to be the finest of her career and Gilbert maintains and revives that force so evident in his earlier pictures. lan Keith, Lewis Stone. Elizabeth Young and C. Aubrey Smith are also in the cast. PARAMOUNT THEATRE. That the blending of grand opera with joyous comedy amid attractive scenic settings, provides ideal entertainment, is amply demonstrated in “Going Gay,” which is screening at the Paramount Theatre. Of somewhat similar style to the very successful “Tell Me To-night,” this film is delighting large audiences, and proves a worthy successor to Jan Kiepura’s picture. Magda Schneider, who, ' with her captivating . personality, allied to a soprano voice of rare sweetness, makes an immediate appeal, and her rendering of excerpts from “La Belle Helene” and “Daughters of the Regiment,” are a . real musical treat. Tlie celebrated English funmakers, Arthur Riscoe and Naunton Wayne, see to it that there is little let-up ' between the laughs. The supporting programme is of particular merit, and includes a news reel, a musical review, scenes of the English countryside, and special musical and singing numbers on the new Wurlitzer organ, by Paul T. Cullen. STATE THEATRE. ’ Comedy, romance, and tragedy, blended so subtly that at no moment can the interest of the audience slacken, are contained in “Friday the 13th,” which is screening at the State’ Theatre. An omnibus full of people running through a London storm with certain disaster ahead of it on the night of Friday the thirteenth; what fate gathered them all together for that ill-ending trip? The answer will be found in this Gainsborough picture! The clock is put back to early morning of the same day, and seven separate little dramas are played out, until the principal characters of each are brought to their places in the bus. Then the crash comes, and although it happens on such an unlucky day, it is the cause of far more good fortune than bad. To an harassed bank clerk threatened with blackmail it brings freedom; to Millie, the variety girl, it means reconciliation with her lover; to Joe, the dealer of the Caledonian Market, it brings deliverance-—quite, unde•servedly—from the arm of the law; to Jackson, the shipping clerk, in love with an _ unfaithful wife, it means merciful oblivion. In these seven stories there are all the elements necessary for the perfect entertainment. The acting in this picture is uniformly excellent. There is no part that can be called outstanding, and the final effect is gained by a splendid effort in team work. At the same time this has by no means spoilt the quality of the acting, and it; indeed would be hard to think of any other picture in which the characterisation is so clearcut and well sustained. The brilliance of the cast has much to do with this. Jessie Matthews appears as Millie; Sonnie Hale has an amusing part as thb superstitious bus conductor; Gordon Harker and Edmund Gwenu are city business men; Max Miller is the loquacious Joe; Robertson Hare is much in his clement as a hen-pecked husband; Emlyn Williams, Frank Lawton, and Belle Chrystall play the tense blackmailing scenes with complete conviction. REGENT THEATRE. - The story of tW£ elopements -arid two disappointments, round which Bebe Daniels weaves her latest triumph, “A Southern Maid,” is screening at the Regent Theatre. The consummate artistry of Bebe Daniels graces a dual role, that of Juanita and Dolores. She is as dainty and vivacious as ever, and scores with the way in which she handles her vocal numbers. Clifford Mollison (Willoughby and Jack Rawdon) opposite her fits the parts of the gay and carefree lovers exactly. He is a newcomer to the screen, and hi's work in” “A Southern Maid” stamps him as a player likely .to go a long way in the films world. Lux>lno Lane as Lopez, bandmaster, mayor and brigand chief, adds the greatest sipice of fun to a show which abounds in hilarity. The forlorn lover. Francesco, is played by Harry Welchman, in a clever piece of work. The delightful songs he sings contribute a great deal to the high class of the musical entertainment side of the show. There is an excellent supporting programme. Rene Rich, violinist, and Rex Desmond, saxophonist, commence a return season on the sthge, and, in response many requests, play “Annie Laurie” as an encore. There is also a fine Pathfinder film of the exploits of Tom Wilson, conqueror of the Rockies. ST. JAMES THEATRE. “I Like It That Way,” which is showing at the St. James Theatre, is rollicking comedy with just enough of the essence of drama to give it lengthened interest. As might be supposed, “I Like It That Way” is a musical comedy-drama. ’The story is of a life insurance salesman who, with bis business patter, sells himself very successfully to a night club hostess. He does not know her identity until he is about to. marry her. Then his sister, a pretty telephone operator,- who tires of her work, and secretly joins the same night club, throws a heavy spanner into the works by revealing the profession of her brother’s fiancee. From then on the story moves in quick action over phases of mistaken identity, jealousy, drama, but more often than not sheer lightheartedness. With sophisticated dialogue, scintillating songs, and , dancing feet, the picture has a gleeful zest that it would be hard to find in most others. The songs are excellent, and include the snappy numbers. “I Like It That Way,” "Miss 1934.” and "Let’s Put Two and Two Together.” In the cast are Marian Marsh, Shirley Grey, Noel Madison, Lucille Gleason, Gloria Shea, arid others. “Tilly and Gus.” A wholesome and bright film, “Tilly and Gus.” will begin its season at the St. James Theatre on Friday next. A guarantee of its reputed excellence is the fact that it is headed by the inimitable W. C. Fields and Alison Skipworth, who always make the most of any picture in which they are cast. “Tilly and Gus,” it is said, is the greatest laughter success of the year. MAJESTIC THEATRE. A purely imaginary country, Freedonia, provides a diplomatic though not 100 tactful background for the pleasant buffoonery of the comedians, the four Marx Brothers, who appear in “Duck Soup" at tbe Majestic Theatre. A fantastic burlesque, this, of ministerial |

matters. It toys with high finance and descends to the base depths, of political intrigue. The scenes whieh surround the comedy are magnificent to a degree, and suffer considerable damage off and on when there are wars about. Grotesque in the extreme, there is a light-fingered skill in the oddity of the Marx brothers that is more than clever. Groucho Marx as Rufus T. Firefly, the Minister of Finance who is somewhat but not top much enamoured of the wealthy widow, steers his country through a storm of plots and pranks which lands him and it very much in the soup, which in this case is a particularly noisy, blood and thunder harmless sort of war. Chico and Harpo are Chicolin and Brownie, two spies who do everything but spy, and mix themselves up in a turmoil of trouble. Dialogue is distinctly clever, subtly satirical in places, and there arc bursts of song to variate the patter. “Narrow Comer.” A clever author, front-rank actors, and intelligent direction are responsible for a really good picture, "Narrow Corner,” which will begin its season at the Majestic Theatre on Friday next. Headed by Douglas Fairbanks, junior, this film has been aptly described as an alluring romance of tropical love on an island paradise. The picture, which is based on the powerful novel of Somerset Maugham, has also in its excellent cus; Patricia Ellis and Ralph Bellamy. GRAND OPERA HOUCSE. The undiminished popularity of “Catherine The Great” is indicated by the appreciative audiences which are flocking to the Grand Opera House to sec this London Film production which reflects in some degree the glory of Russia under the Czars. An unusually strong east includes Elizabeth Bergner, an ' accomplished English actress, who makes her screen debut as the timid German princess, who, by a trick of fate, rises to be Empress of all the Russias, while Douglas Fairbank’s, Jnr., gives what is undoubtedly the most outstanding performance of his career in the difficult role of flic weak and unbalanced Czar. As the sophisticated old Empress Elizabeth. Flora Robson is at her best, and the polished acting of Gerald du Mauricr far outshines the small part allotted him. The supports arc excellent.