ENTERTAINMENTS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 71, 17 December 1937, Page 8

ENTERTAINMENTS

“Mr. Dodd Takes The Air” Screening At Regent

“Mr. Dodd Takes the Air,” the story by Clarence Budlington Kelland. a Warner Brothers’ production as bright and entertaining as the same author s celebrated “Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, will begin at the Kegent Theatre today. A successful radio singer, Kenny Baker, makes his screen debut in this picture, which should prove bis introduction to many future screen successes. Comedy, music and romance all abound in the film, which concerns the adventures of a small-town electrician who wins fame as a singer. Jane Wyman supplies an appealing feminine interest, while Alice Brady, Frank McHugh and Gertrude Michael provide numerous comedy interludes. A great deal of amusement is caused by an operation performe on the young singer who suffers from quinsy, which changes his voice from rich baritone to a clear tenor.

Drama And Radio Comedy At

De Luxe Theatre

Chester Morris and Deo Carillo l |la y the leading parts in “I Promise To Pay Columbia’s thrilling drama of the fehylockp of the loan market. It c ° mes t 0 the De Luxe to-day. The other feature is “Behind the Mike, with William Gargen and Judith Barrett. The story of “Behind the Mike’’ gives a graphic picture of radio-land both ma great city and a small town. Gargen has the part of a producer of big programmes who is forced to go to a small town where he proceeds to enliven a broadcast station.

“Okay For Sound,” Comedy At

Plaza Theatre America and England are forever turning out lavish and spectacular musical comedies with interesting casts> o£ value and revues packed full of dancing beauties with famous musical names at the head of the bill, but it is not often that something outstanding in original material is seen. Here now is a film comedy that combines laughs, music, dancing beauties and an imposing cast of stellar“names that has originality m story and treatment and. is the grandest entertainment seen in years. The film is the G.B.D. attraction, “Okay for Sound, which begins at the Plaza Theatre to-day. “Okay for Sound” first and foremost brings the Crazy Gang to the screen. This gang consists of three famous British humour teams—Naughton and Gold, Flanagan and Allen and Nervo and Knox. Each duo has a brand of humour that is individual and one that has placed them on the map as three separate sets of laughter sthrs. Together, to quote an English critic, “the Crazy Gang are an enormous asset to films and must be seen again and again.” This show was adapted to films 'from the stage production of the same title, that ran for no less than 18 months at the London Palladium Theatre. “Flight From Glory” Begins At State Theatre An unusual cross-section of life among exiled men who daily flirt with death, and who are unable to forsake their dangerous occupation is grippingly revealed in “Flight from Glory,” which brings Chester Morris and Whitney Bourne to the screen of the State Theatre to-day. Laid in a bleak South American air base, the story lays bare the forlorn hopes ot a group of disgraced aviators who have accepted an offer from a mercenary airline owner in Peru to pilot his condemned ships over the treacherous Andes Mountains. These flyers with diversified pasts react differently to their plight under the tyranny of the despot who has a mortgage on their lives. One by one the men meet their fate in their flying coffins, and one,by one they are replaced with new outcast flyers from the United States. One of the latter recruits brings along his young bride, little suspecting the conditions which exist, and it is in this flyers disintegration under the terrific strain as well as the wife’s vain attempt to fight

against love for another _ pilot, that the story’s gripping drama arises. “Ali Baba Goes to Town.” Eddie Cantor’s new attraction, “Ali Baba Goes to Town,” is the State Theatre’s Christmas attraction. Laurel And Hardy Comedy At Majestic Theatre Laurel and Hardy are just a pair of "tenderheel” desert miners trying to do a good deed for a dead prospector “pard’ in “Way Out West,” which begins at the Majestic Theatre to-day. But they are in a locale of the wild and woolly gay ’9o’s, surrounded by mounted cowhands, stage coaches and all the tough men and picturesque atmosphere of the glamorous and adventuresque pioneer times. The set-up is natural for the uproarious anties of Stan and Ollie. They blunder in delivering the deed to the gold mine to the dance hall instead of the daughter of the prospector and there’s a riot of fun as they romp through a series of exciting misdeeds yi .reclaiming the deed. Dinah, a 17-year-old mule, kicks up a lot of laughs and Laurel and Hardy themselves do some kicking in their version of a swing dance and burst into song that proves a hilarious highlight. New gags are deftly- introduced to add to the tempo and action of the production. “Way Out West” has a tuneful musical background reminiscent of the gay '9o’s. Sharon Lynne, the feminine lead, is impressive as the dance hall nightingale and hag a most amusing old-time chorus.

New Paramount Screens Drama And Comedy

Ginesouud's screen epic, “The Silence of Denn Maitland,” with John Longden and Jocelyn Howarth, which begins at th New Paramount to-day, has drama as its keynote, intensely human and vividly real. Delicately woven around a man—of the church — and a youthful indiscretion that sent his best friend to prison for 20 years lol' a crime he did not do, and sentenced himself to a life of torturing memory and hypocrisy, the story of “The Dean” opens 20 years, ago, in the peaceful English seaside village of Glenville. There we find Cyril Maitland, a young theological student, fighting against the spell of the alluring charms of Alma Lee, the beautiful daughter of a village fisherman. George Formby, among the screen's most popular comedians, is the star of "Feather Tour Nest,” which is the second attraction. With his übiquitous ukelele and broad Lancashire grin, Formby goes through the paces in high-geared humour, guaranteed to have everyone rolling and rocking in their seats.

Shirley Temple And Western At King’s Theatre

Kipling's colourful characters Jive glamorously, adventurously and courageously on adventure’s last frontier in the Twentieth Century-Fox picturieation of his famed “We Willie Winkie,” which opens to-day at the King’s Theatre, with Shirley Temple and Victor McLaglen in the starring roles. From, the heart of mighty India, where all the world is wild ami kt range, where the British raj ends at Khyber Pass, in the land of the Bengal Lancers, comes this glorious adventure of the Scottish Highlanders in action and'of the little girl who won the right to wear their plaid. Explosive excitement and fast action paced with comedy and tender romance, with Harold Bell Wright's new hero making the wild West wilder when he tackles a band from the badlands, mark the noted outdoors author’s story, “It Happened Out West,” featuring Paul Kelly and Judith Allen, which is the second picture. Paul Kelly plays the part of a special investigator for a trust company, who is eent to prevent Judith Allen from turning her Arizona ranch into a dairy farm, thereby endangering her inheritance. “Trailing The Killer” Showing At St. Janies A primitive battle to a finish, tang against claw and no Quarter asked or given, is the sensational high light of "Trailing the Killer,” which begins at the St. Janies Theatre to-day. 'The film marks an innovation in screen presentation, depicting as it does a vivid drama of the north-west woods, in true narrative form, and presented almost entirely by a east of animal actors. The (billing ciimax is a desperate light between Caesar, the dog, who has the chief part in the picture, and a puma, which ha« killed the ddg’s master. In his blind anger over the loss of his friend and master, Caesar reverts t<> type and in a frenzy of rage attacks the moot dangerous animal to be found on the North American continent. It is but one of a series of intensely interesting scenes of wild life which are as unusual and thrilling as anything that ever came out of the jungles. “Caesar,” the canine star, one of the most perfect animals of his breed ever developed, displays a degree of intelligence that is phenomenal. An unusual feature of the evening’s programme will be the appearance of the dog star himself on the stage, accompanied by his trainer. He will be directed exactly as he is before the cameras in Hollywood.