PLAZA THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 278, 20 August 1938, Page 16

PLAZA THEATRE

* “Vivacious Lady” Ginger Rogers and Jamco Stewart arc married within about the first five minutes of the R.K.O. Radio attraction “Vivacious Lady” at the Plaza Theatre, but spend the rest of the picture getting his parents to recognise their _ wedded state. Boiled down, that is practically all there is to the theme of this film, but it is remarkable what a large amount of bright entertainment has been extracted from it. For a change, the leading characters give one the impression of being human people and not amiable lunatics,

ae in so much recent comedy, and although the predicament in which they find themselves could hardly be called usual, it is handled in a way to make it seem real. Having shown so strikingly in<“Stage Door” that she is very much more than a' merci song and dance star.! Ginger Rogers con-

tinues the good work with a characterisation that calls for a great deal of light and shade in acting.. It is mainly light, for the heroine is a very high-spirited young lady, but Miss Rogers also manages to impart a feeling of warmth and genuine sentiment to her role as the night club actress who falls head over heels' in love at first sight with a young professor from a secluded country college, marries him in haste, but thereafter is given little opportunity to realise that she is his wife. _ Similarly James Stewart puts something more than just ribald comedy into his part'as ■the unacknowledged husband. His inarticulate shyness, his eager devotion and the iron determination that at last breaks down his reserve are all finely conveyed. The two young stars are most admirably supported by Charles Coburn as the domineering, professorial father, Beulah Bondi as the mother whose gentle manner covers a rebellious spirit and who produces heart attacks to order, James Ellison as the irresponsible cousin, and Frances Mercer as the hero’s abandoned fiancee. “Vivacious Lady” has a theme which demands a great deal of skating on thin ice, but the script has been cleverly enough written and acted to be merely saucy and enjoyable.