PARAMOUNT THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 50, 22 November 1941, Page 12

PARAMOUNT THEATRE

It is told in film circles how. when certain film magnates in another New Zealand town were uhown a private screening of “Buck Privates,” they turned it down as "unlikely to appeal to New Zealand audiences. A more enterprising cinema-owner snapped it up and the rest is — well, just history. “Buck Privates” has had a success that .is little short of astounding. A few months ago people looked at you vaguely if you mentioned Abbott and Costello. Now they say: “Ah- —‘Buck Privates’," and begin to grin reminiscently. The Paramount 'Theatre has put its finger right ou ’Wellington’s entertainment pulse by bringing this topical and crazy comedy back for a further season. The film is sheer vaudeville strung together with many brand-new jokes, several chestnuts, some news songs and the Andrews’ Sisters. If Uncle Sam's Army is as merry and mad as Bud Abbott and Lou Costello (he's the fat one) make it out to be, this should be a short and cheerful war. "Buck Privates” was most likely made with the primary object of showing young Americans how nice it was in the Army — but it lias served the extra purpose of making the rest of the world laugh, too.. . As different as Hitler and Churchill is the second film on the Paramount’s programme. It is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel. “The House of the Seven Gables,” adapted for the screen with George Sanders and Margaret Lindsay in the starring roles.