ENTERTAINMENTS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 4, 29 September 1939, Page 6

ENTERTAINMENTS

Theatre Majestic “The lee Follies of 1939,” designed for the entertainment of the whole family, will begin a season at the Theatre Majestic today. Ice skating, graceful enough in itself, i« enhanced for the screen—by the making of the pietiire in colour. The story. has a Hollywood background, and gives intimate glimpses into studio life. Janies Stewart and Lew Ayres are fancy skaters. When Stewart marries Joan Crawford and adds her to the double act, trouble ensues. The loss of a job in a skating rink causes the girl to seek employment on her own and, because ot her unusual voice, site secures a film contract, signing it before she notices the “no marriage” clause buried in the legal terms. The three finally drift apart, Stewart to seek backing for the staging of an ice follies, Ayres to one-night stands in skating rinks, and Joan Crawford to film stardom. Elaborate ice spectacles feature, the original Ice Follies Troupe. Specialty and group acts, performed on wet ice to give a mirror effect are breathtaking in their beauty. This is specially true of the Indian Ballet which includes Roy Shipstad and Bess Ehrhardt. New Opera House A Russian-made film, “Professor Mamlock,” which will be released at the New Opera House today, is a dramatic, exciting story, a fragment from history, a naked and ruthless revelation of those things for which Nazi Germany stands, those things which Britain and France are not gathered to crush. A respected Jewish surgeon who takes no part in politics and cares for nothing but his work in the hospital. Professor Mamlock suffers personal degradation and interference on the Nazi’s advent to power. He is paraded ignominiously through the streets, driven to attempt suicide, and finally shot dead while denouncing the oppressors. His son works against the Nazis, is captured and illtreated by them, escapes, and at the end is shown with a group of like-minded companions declaring the necessity for continued resistance by every means.

In every way this is an outstanding film, brilliantly and sincerely made and full of suspense. The technique from start to finish is essentially the direct, unobtrusive narrative-technique exemplified in the modern American film, and as such is handled to the best possible advantage by a group of highly-skilled technicians. Nor does the profound significance of the subject matter prevent it from having ail the concentrated and horrific excitement of the cleverest gangster thriller. Indeed, the comparison is apt in more ways than one.

“Professor Mamlock” makes a point of distinction between the armed hireling of tyranny and the bewildered and regimented masses, and dwells on the. perilous underground working of those in opposition to 'the Nazi regime. It shows, the worst elements among the Nazis rising to the surface, and the better elements being alienated. Production and settings are first class, and there is an admirable command of detail, which gives to the general purpose an added and emphatic force. The characterization is impressively naturalistic, in keeping with the main tones of the film, and never for a moment sinks into caricature. Even the bullies are fully recognizable human beings. Throughout, both crowds and individuals, down to the smallest part, are directed with understanding and rigorous effect.

Plaza Theatre In that film which is bright fun the whole way through, “Good Girls Go To Paris,” beginning the second week of a season at the Plaza Theatre today, a professor and a waitress skip through a series of sure-fire mirth-provoking adventures. These adventures are instigated by the affairs of a young Englishman (Melvyn Douglas), professor of Greek at a midwestern university, who finds in the Aesop fables the answers to the many perplexities he encounters in American life; and the escapades of a pert, blonde waitress (Joan Biondell), who has every intention of goi .g to Paris, but . whose conscience prevents her from going by the “gold-digger” route. Regent Theatre Released at the Regent Theatre, “Four Daughters” is an extract from the life of a musical familv of four lovely sisters occasionally ruffled by the masculine world outside. It is a charming, heartbreakingly human comedy-drama. When Jeffrey Lynn comes to Claude Rains’s home to board, the four daughters of the house —Priscilla, Rosemary and Lola Lane and Gale Page immediately fall in love with him. It is Priscilla, however, who captures his heart, and they are to be married. It is then that a down-at-the-heel musician, played by John Garfield, tells Priscilla that her eldest sister, played by Gale Page, is deeply in love with Jeffrey and is broken-hearted about the impending wedding. 'The bond between the eldest and the youngest of the girls is so deep that 'Priscilla cannot bear to be the instrument of her beloved sister’s unhappiness. Acting upon'a sacrificial impulse, she runs away only a few moments before her scheduled wedding to Jeffrey and marries John. This starts the chain of lively events of which “Four Daughters” is composed. Newsreel Programmes. From today programmes of newsreels and short subjects of topical interest will be presented daily at the Regent Theatre, at hourly intervals, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Outstanding features of the first programme are “Crisis Days in London,” “Lord Halifax’s World Broadcast,” “Royal Air Force Bombers Fire 'Torpedoes From the Air,” and “Poland Prepares for Invasion.” St. James Theatre As Sergeant Madden, 30-year veteran of the police force, soft-hearted, plodding, and idealistic Wallace Beery epitomizes the finest traits of “New York's Finest,” in “Sergeant Madden,” which will be released at the St. James Theatre'-today. He is the "cop on the beat” to the minutest detail; and as the father who must track down the son whom lie has • failed to impress with the traditions and ideals of righteous living, Beery is convincing. A trio of youngsters, however, presses him hard for honours. Alan Curtis, as tlie eon who tries a short-cut to promotion and finally is forced to turn bank robber, plays the role to the hilt, with a finely-shaded progression of character from the time he finds himself a victim of the prize-fight racket to the moment when he in the snarling, cornered criminal. In a difficult role, as the Irish waif whom Beery adopts and who marries Curtis, Laraine Day comes through with flying colours in this her first important featured part, auguring well for a memorable career to come. She is sensitive, clear-cut, and convincing, even to her Irish brogue. Tom Brown, as the adopted son whose loyalties are torn both ways, shows fine conception in another colourful characterization.

King’s Theatre The real-life story of Vernon and Irene Castle, world-famous dancing team of 25 years ago. is portrayed by those famous dancer« of today, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, in “The Story' of Vernon and Irene Castle,” beginning a second week at the King’s Theatre today. The film opens on Vernon Castle’s early career as a knockabout comedian with Lew Fields, anil his first meeting with the then Irene Foote, who persuaded him to give up cheap comedy in favour of dancing.. How the two married on the proverbial shoestring went to Paris, and nearly starved before they got a start as a team, is revealed in frank fashion. Their meteoric rise to fame in dance engagements which took them across two continents till their reputation was established as Ihe outstanding dance duo of their time; the breaking-up of the team when Vernon enlisted with the British forces on the outbreak of the War; and Ins untimely death in a Texas air crash, are the main ingredients.

State Theatre That exciting and romantic film, “The Return of the Cisco Kid,’’ is this week the main feature at the State Theatre. While a hundred posses hunt the bullet-proof bandit whom no jail can. hold, and a thousand senoritas sigh for him, Cisco yearns for the one girl he cannot have. Cisco is played by Warner Baxter. Lynn Bari is the beauty for whose love the romantic bandit robs banks, burns down jails, and generally risks his ncck - Dashing Cesar Romero gves a characterization that is a fur cry from his usual suave type, as Lopez, Cisco’s faithful but bloodthirsty henchman. Henry Hull, who lately scored as the irascible newspaper editor in “Jesse James,” plays Lynn Bari’s sly but lovable old grandfather,. Kane Richmond playa Cisco’s successful rival for Lynn Bari s heart. _ , The thrilling story of a young advertising man wlto returns from a gay party and finds a murdered woman in the back of his car, “It Could Happen lo You,” is the other feature. Paramount Theatre Transferred to the Paramount Theatre, “Valley of the Giants” centres on the successful fight waged to prevent the utter despoliation of California s famous redwood forests by ruthless Eastern lumber interests (represented in the film by Charles Bickford) round the turn of the century. Though concerned with one local aspect of this fight, telling in highlyexcHing marine!' of the clash between one despoiler and an altruistic young lumberman, “Valley of the Giants is typical of the situations throughout the redwood a parallel between the methods employed by the exploiters of more than 30 years; ago and those of the men who have come to be known today as racketeers. Morris The featured players, Wayne Moiris and Claire Trevor, portray Bill Cardigan and Lee Roberts respectively. De Luxe Theatre The glamour, the restless surge, the Will-to-win of the Old West in Zane Greys well-wrought stoij , ucll tags of the Desert,” the screen version of which will bo the main a traclion at the De Luxe Theatre from today. A t en ft foot turns his back on rue soft. s^’ ,11S j cated life for the tough, earnest fi ? ht litmust wage in order to win back Ins “nie and self-respect. His representative in tlie West has been swindling him foi many years, and he suddenly decides to investigate why a once profitable land is now considered worthless. Heann., ° £ this trip, the scheming underline airs wes to have the tenderfoot “bumped off.” The cast is headed by Donald V oods, Evelyn Venable and Russell , “Undercover Doctor,” with Lloyd Nolan and Heather Angel as the principal players, will be the associate attraction. Tudor Theatre A commercial aviation field near a small South American banana port is operated by Cary Grant, ill “Only Angels Have Wings,” at the Tudor .1 heatre itoni tudav. Jeau Arthur, a show girl, whose troupe has broken up further south, arrives on the weekly banana freighter, en route to Panama. She falls in love with Grant and decides to stay; but Grant, a confirmed philanderer, turns ms attentions to Rita Hayworth, the wife 'of Richard Barthelmess, one of his newlyarrived flyers—n tangle, the unravelling of which is well worth seeing. Starting out, with a farcical treatment of a share-the-wealth plan, “Life Begins With Love.” the associate film, is a romantic comedy. In the role of a millionaire playboy who, in an inebriated moment, is willing to share his miliums, Douglass Montgomery plays opposite Jean Parker. The highlight occurs when Edith Fellows, who has succeeded in breaking up the young lovers, repents her action and is faced with the task of reuniting then 1