ENTERTAINMENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 8, 10 July 1934, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

REGENT THEATRE,

GRAND OPERA HOUSE.

DELUXE THEATRE,

PARAMOUNT THEATRE,

OUR THEATRE, NEWTOWN

BRITANNIA THEATRE.

KING'S THEATRE,

PRINCESS THEATRE.

REGAL THEATRE, KARORI

COMMUNITY SING,

SEASIDE PICTURES.

At the Seaside Pictures, Lyall Bay, tonight, there will be a doublcfeaturo programme. The main picture depicts the trials and tribulations of a newspaper correspondent who steals a chorus girl, plots a shooting in order to make newspaper headlines, falls into the hands of the Russian secret police, and otherwise keeps excitement going at a high pitr:h. The second picture, "The Crooked Lady," has a war setting.

STATE THEATRE.

0 ST. JAMES THEATRE.

MAJESTIC THEATRE.

RIVOLI THEATRE, NEWTOWN

ARTCRAFT THEATRE.

QUEEN'S THEATRE,

SHORTT'S THEATRE,

EMPIRE THEATRE, ISLAND BAY.

CAPITOL THEATRE, MIRAMAR.

A skit on the Hollywood picture industry is embodied in "Let's Kail iv Love," now showing at the Eegent Theatre. It is i the story of a temperamental Swedish actress who leaves a film producer in a | hole and what happens in consequence. At his wits' end to'finish.'the'film, the director, played by Edmund Lowe, finds a young girl in a circus, and, by providing her with a Swedish accent, turns her into a star capable of handling the job which his erstwhile "lead" has dropped. Things go reasonably well, and the "'find" (Ann Sothern) is getting into her stride when complications arise. The director, hardworking and dutiful man that he is, falls m love with the alleged Swede, but has to bite the dust when his incensed fiancee (Miriam Jordan) upsets calculations by exposing the new and glamorous Nordic star, who has acquired the requisite foreign accent by spending two months with a Swedish family. As the director persists in being in love, everything, works out in the end. Miss Ann Sothern. who is a newcomer to the screen, shows herself in an excellent light, and gives a convincing performance as the would-be Swede. ''The Bowery." The attraction at the Regent Theatre next Friday will-be 20th Century's production, "The Bowery," a story of the days when ( Xcw York's celebrated "Bowery" was at its height, when beer was beer aiid Carrie Nation was trying her utmost, to have it prohibited and to havo saloons closed. Saloons, dancing girls, the famous Carrie Nation and her anti-saloon crusades, and all Il,e persons and incidents associated with the Bowery in the days when it was really "tough," are faithfully reproduced in this film, which stars Wallace Beery, George Raft, Fay Wray, and Jackie Cooper. "The Bowery" has received most flattering notices both in America and in England. .It has a good plot, and is brimful of action from start to finish.

A millionaire, a stage ingenue, and a wiie who learns understanding too late, form an unusual triangle in "Sisters Under the Skin" at the Grand Opera House. The theme suggests that when a man tires of moneymaking and wants to play, a wife should accept her husband's invitation to frolic, otherwise another woman will take her place. John Yates. has made millions, and, nearing his fiftieth birthday, all he wants to do is to travel, and master the Beethoven Sonata. His wife, busy with trifling social calls, refuses to stop and play, so Blossom Bailey, a stage girl whom he meets under romantic circumstances in his own garden, goes with him on a tour of European playgrounds. When Zukowski. a musician, meets them in Paris, Blossom and he fall in love, but the girl is loyal to her benefactor and refuses love if it means despair to her wealthy patron. The girl and the wife meet, and like each : other, and there is a denouement when Yates learns the truth when he spies on' Blossom and Zukowski in the latter's_ apartment. The story is worked out to a" logical conclusion. Elissa Landi, Frank Morgan, Doris Lloyd, and Joseph Schildkraut are the principal players.'

Drama and comedy move hand in hand in "Manhattan Melodrama," a picture of the strange fate of two life-Ion;; friends, at the De Luxe Theatre. From the beginning of their lives, when Blackie Gallagher and James Wade are flung together into the East lliver after a steamer fire, their spheres are strangely associated. One is a serious student of law,, steadily moving forward in his career, the other a happy-go-lucky gambler and minor racketeer. It is from this point that the story of the film develops in strange ways until it roaches a point where one man has to chooso between his duty as he sees it and the very life of his friend.

"Son of ;v Sailov." a comedy hit. comes! to the Do Luxe Thentvo on Friday. Joe [K. Broivn and Johnny Slack Brown are the stars. They ar.e not relate*!, either in life or in pictures. But in the course of the story, their paths cross and re- | cross so- many times that it takes half a dozen admirals' and also the entire Pacific Fleet to-, get'them-untangled. Joe K. Brown and Johnny Mack Brown are pals on the same aeroplane'carrier and fall in love' with tlie savnr* mrl.

Enthusiastic audiences continue to warmly approve the excellent entertainment now screening -at the Paramount Theatre. The principal picture, "Up to the Neck," one of the smartest farces written by Ben Travere, raises the heartiest laughter. Ralph Lynn has never been more popular than in this hilarious comedy. He is supported by an unusually clever cast of players, including Winifred Shotter, and Mary Brough. The first part of the programme includes "Nation's Birthplace," "The Unexplored North-west of Australia," Lion Musical No. 10, and the latest Pathe Gazette.

Ivor Novello, actor, author, and director, is starred as a handsome but hard-up Russian prince who is taken in and befriended by a middle-class Jinplish family, in the brilliant comedy, "I Lived With You," which commences next Friday.

"Fugitive Lovers," a melodrama, tis to be shown at. Our. Theatre tonight. Robert Montgomery and Madge Evans have the principal roles. The action takes place almost entirely aboard a great greyhound bus bound west from New York City to Hollywood. On the first part of the programme is a comedy, a travelogue, and a nietrotone'News. ". .'

A bachelor gay on his wedding eve, preparing "The Love Nest" for his brideenter a lovely stranger in nifty pyjamas, demanding shelter for the night! Scandal —with limitless laughs in every tongue wag. This is the theme of the first fea-ture-film at the Britannia Theatre. The second feature ia "When London Sleeps," a mystery film, possessing a theme that is intensely gripping.

With motors tuned up, lucky pieces all polished, steel nerves prepared for new tests, Hollywood's battalion of death, the stunt flyers, spreads its wings once more in a thrill-drama of the air, in "Flying Devils," now showing at the King's Theatre, with Eric' Linden, Arline Judge, Bruce Cabot, Ralph Bellamy, and Cliff Edwards in a melodrama of the perils and loves, of exhibition aviators.

The current programme at the Princess .theatre is headed by '•Dinner at Eight." The story of the film is one of everyday life, and concerns itself with the incidents that occur in the lives of several people who are invited to the dinner given by Billie Burke, the tragedy, scandal, or comedy that has entered their lives. Jean Harlow plays the gold-digging wife of Wallace Beery.

Tonight at the Regal, "The Right to Romance," with Ann Harding, Nils Asther, Robert Young, and Sari Maritza, will be screened. The story tells of the fight of a young woman doctor, who finds that another woman has stolen her husband's love. On AVednesday and Thursday "Southern Maid," with Bebe Daniels, will be screened.

The weekly midday community sjiug will be held in the Town Hall tomorrow, commencing at 12.30 p.m. A specially attractive programme is being prepared by the song leaders, Messrs. Owen Pritchard and Will Mason, and patrons are promised an hour of gaiety. Mr. Frank Crowther will he at the piano, and Mr. Paul Cullen at the grand organ. The collection will be^n aid of the Mayor's fuud for the relief of distress.

( The extended season of George White's Scandals" at the State Theatre shows no wane in the popularity of this magnificent spectacle, and comedy, ■iho tenuous thread- upon which the merrymaking and gorgeously original ballets are strung is the behind-scenes loves and hates of the big family ?r ~ ara -taking part, and while Rudy \ allee and Alice Faye fall in and out most etteetively and ' rapidly, as "Jimmy Margin and "Kitty Donnelly," others including Jimmy Durante, as "Happy," and his Kirl, do not leave them a monopoly in this respect. The producer's Machiavellian strategy and personality,- however, is equal to all emergencies. Humour abounds throughout, and talent is impartially distributed throughout the huge cast. It is in the artistic and novel spectacles that ; Scandals" excels. If there is a fault it is that the wealth of detail, exquisitely arrayed, is on the screen scarcely long enough to be appreciated, as scene succeeds scene in amazing variety. ' Behind scene and stage glimpses alternate with views of the audience, an alluring member of which plays a large part in the story, "he mirror effects of pools in a spacious tlag-pathed garden • present a wonderful reversal of one beautiful billowy ballet, and the architectural intricacies provided for other tiered ballets-are wonderful.

'"There are ..always sinners to be taken in," says the deacon in "Half a Sinner" at the St. James Theatre, iue deacon, as played by Bertou Churchill, is a charming mixture of crooked religion and religions crookedness. His crookedness is really religious because it is practised to extricate the heroine and the hero (Sally Blanc and Joel MeCrea) from the claws of other crooks; but his religion is a" veneer more calculated to fill theatres than to fill churches. To see the deacon cut the cards is to have a heap of fun, and to hear him unroll the parsonaical drawl at a mothers' meeting, or sidestep the amorous advances of Mrs. Clark (Alexandra Carlisle), is to have something to smile over.

Three celebrities of the cinema world— Irene Dunne, Ralph Bellamy, and Constance Cummings — provide brilliant comedy-drama in "This Man Is Mine," the nest" attraction for the St. James Theatre. In a marital triangle story which reveals the fact that socialities are much like their proletariat brothers and sisters when it comes to domestic atrife, Bellamy is lured from his screen mate, Miss Dunne, by an habitual home-wrecker, played by Miss Cummings. When he loses the siren to another man he goes home to repent on Miss Dunne's shoulder, but finds much to his surprise that the hand of welcome is a hand of iron. "This Man Is Mine" is what may truly be termed a comedy of manners which goes from the ridiculous to the sublime and from 6iibt!e satire to broad comedy.

Generous entertainment measure is offered this week at the Majestic Theatre. "Three-Cornered Moon" is the story of a typically oomlortable American family and their fight against the depression. The picture is no tale of woe and misery, but a lively record of a family's courageous battle against circumstances. Packed with delightfully inconsequential humour, it cannot fail to win approval from all who see it. Claudette Colbert is the heroine, and Richard Arlen is her beau, and Mary Boland plays the part of Mrs. Nellie Rimplegar. "The Last Roundup" tells Zane Grey's story of "The Border Legion." '

Commencing tonight "Vanity Fair," the screen version of 'William Thackeray's immortal romance, is presented to Wellington audiences for the first time. Myrna Loy portrays Becky Sharpe, the notorious ramp heroine conceived by Thackeray in his sensational novel. Opposite her is Conway Tearle, playing the part of llawdon Crawley. Sir Pitt Crawley's role is enacted by Lionel Belmore, and Barbara Kent is Amelia. Anthony Bushell plays Dobbin, and Walter Byron has the part of George Osborn. "Vanity Fair" is exceptionally well acted and excellently produced. The second attraction is "Too Young to Marry," with. Loretta Young and Grant Withers.

A rollicking, robust comedy-drama, "I Like It That Way," opens this evening at the Arteruft Theatre. Roger Pryor ami Gloria Stuart are the principals in this modern, up-to-the-minute film. The story is a happy mixture of sophisticated dialogue, scintillating songs, and dancing feet. Through this light and frothy frolic runs the serious vein of a good girl who is determined to stay that way when life compels her to sacrifice herself to the great god Mammon. The supporting players include Marian Marsh, Shirley Grey, Noel Madison, Lucille Gleason, Mickey Kooncy, Ouslow Stevens, Merna Kennedy, and Gloria Shea.

."The Mask of Fu Manchu," with Boris Karloif in the role of the sinister Asiatic wonder-worker, is at the Queen's Theatre. The dramatic thrills include the kidnapping of a scientist, the torture of the bell and the spiked room, the great Feast o£ the Mongols, ' the hurling of the man-made lightning, and adventures in the strange laboratory of Fu Manchu and the rescue of his victims. The second attraction is the comedy-drama, ''Caught Short." . . ■

Critics in Australia and elsewhere have been unanimous in their praise of "Lady for a Day," at Shortt's Theatre. The east is headed by Warren William, May- Robson, the grand old lady of the stage and screen, and Jean Parker, one of the youngest stars o£ the screen. The picture is founded on Damon Ranyon's short story, "Madam La Gimpj" a story of Broadway's night life, a fantastic fairy tale, and- yet real and human, gripping in its touching drama and lightened by appealing humour.

"Morning Glory," starring Katherine Hepburn, screens for the last time at the Empire Theatre this evening. The story concerns the pitiful struggles of a young girl who, convinced of her ability as an actress, climbs from the gutter to fame and fortune. A two-reel comedy, a sound cartoon, and a Pathe Newsreel aud travelogue, will also be screened. "This Is the Life" heads tomorrow's programme, which will be screened in aid of the Berhamporc Football Club.

"I Am Suzanne," featuring Lilian Harvey, with Gene Raymond and Leslie Bauks, will be shown at the Capitol Theatre tonight. The film offers something new in that its background is found in the unique setting of a puppet show in direct contrast to which are three spectacular revue numbers.