GRAND OPERA HOUSE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 66, 10 December 1938, Page 16

GRAND OPERA HOUSE

“A Slight Case Of Murder” Everyone who knows “More Than Somewhat,” which swept all London into its engaging net a year or so ago, will appreciate the fact that when Damon Runyon writes a story it is not like other stories. The film version of his latest story, “A .Slight Case of Murder,” is now screening at the Grand Opera House. The title itself is evidence of his system of under-statement, for the slight case of murder involves four bodies in one room. But the point is that they are found by a onetime racketeer who has grown respectable since prohibition (with disastrous effects to his business) but whose record is still not what it might be. “A Slight Case of Murder” is one of those films which produces laughter hours after it has been screened, the sheer force of its humour is so great. It is played by a cast which is equal to its demands in every way. Edward G.’Robinson, the “Little Caesar” of the screen, has the role of the reformed racketeer who has become “legitimate.” Ruth Donnelly is his wife/ and her successive jolts to her. memory that she is now “high-toned” and her efforts to make her husband’s henchmen play up to their new level are responsible for much of the humour. Harold Huber, Edward Brophy ami Allen Jenkins (a triumph) are the chief members of the gang, always mingling their own business with that of their chief and strangely incongruous as servants where once they were employed as strong-arm men. There is romance, but it is left to Jane Bryan and Willard Parker, an attractive pair. KING’S THEATRE “My Lucky Star” Superb .photography, part in sepia toning, permits Sonia Henie to be seen to good advantage in “My Lucky Star,”, which is showing at the Kifig’s Theatre. Sonja’s latest triumph, “My Lucky Star,” which continues at the King’s Theatre, presents her in an entirely new sotting, far removed from Switzerland's alpine peaks and Norway’s remote peasant villages. She is a radiant modern girl, having a modern good time on a co-ed campus. Sharing, star honours with her is Richard Greene, handsome young British actor, who gave such a splendid account of himself in “Four Men and a Prayer.” In order to raise some money to pay alimony to iTee Richard from his wife, Sonja agrees to stage an ice carnival in a Fifth Avenue store. It is. here that Sonja performs her magnificent “Alice in Wonderland” ice ballet, one of the six big skating ensembles in the picture. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”Box plans for the King’s Theatre .special Christmas attraction, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” will be opened at the theatre today. The film will begin its season on Friday, December 23. TUDOR THEATRE “Always Goodbye” Barbara Stanwyck in “Always Goodbye,” 20th Century-Fox film in which she stars with Herbert Marshall, reverts, to the same type of role in which she first flashed across the film horizon as one of the loveliest of the screeen glamour queens. Though her role in “Always Goodbye,” screening at the Tudor Theatre, is primarily a glamorous one, the screen play by Kathryn Scola and Edith Skouras is a remarkable combination of beauty and the forceful dramatic appeal in which Barbara is. so much at home. Barbara Stanwyck, in- love, waits for her eager young'man who is speeding to City Hall to marry her. He is killed as his car crashes into a trolly. Stunned at the tragedy, she wanders toward the river where‘Herbert Marshall, a derelict physician. talks her out of a suicide attempt. She faints and the physician sees that she is taken to a hospital . . . where her son is born-. Marshall’s sincere love for the brave girl; her love for her child (Johnnie Russell) ; the love of foster parents who adopt the youngster; the tempera-mental-Parisian ardour of Cesar Romero and the ultimate love which brings the story to a suspenseful conclusion create a beautiful saga with a throbbing message for today’s womanhood. lan Hunter heads the featured cast including Cesar Romero, Lynn Bari. Binnie Barnes and John Russell. June Lang and Dick Baldwin are co-starred in a gripping mystery thriller, “One Wild Night,” which is the second feature.