CURRENT ENTERTAINMENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 61, 14 March 1939, Page 5

CURRENT ENTERTAINMENTS

REGENT THEATRE. "Jezebel," a colourful and exciting romantic drama of the South of the U.S.A., shortly before the Civil War, is showing at the Regent Theatre. Bette Davis is co-starred with Henry Fonda, George Brent, and Margaret Lindsay. Miss Davis, who won the Academy Award for this film, declares that this is the best picture part she has ever had. She is wilful, spoiled, tempestuous, young Dixie belle who achieves the name of the wicked Biblical character Jezebel because she defies Southern tradition. She breaks hearts with dashing unconcern. She smokes, she prefers juleps to sherry— in short, she is a modern miss in an old-fashioned setting. She has two favourite suitors, one a conservative young banker, played by Mr. Fonda, and the other a handsome young rake, portrayed by Mr. Brent. The period is that of the great yellow fever scourge in New Orleans in the early 1850's. Costumes, settings, dialogue, and all the other atmospheric conditions of the day are faithfully reproduced.

MAJESTIC THEATRE. A new and unusually youthful comedy team, Judy Garland and Freddie Bartholomew, is presented in the pleasing, light-hearted "Listen, Darling," now showing at the Majestic Theatre. Judy Garland has for once been allowed to forget the fact' that she first entered the films as a "swing" singer. She does sing, but her songs are of a type which fits neatly into the story. The story is that of a young widow (Mary Astor) with two children who has decided for her children's sake to marry again. The man chosen for the* purpose does not please the daughter (Judy Garland) or her friend (Freddie Bartholomew). A bold step is decided upon, following which the mother is enticed aboard a trailer, locked in, and whisked away for a holiday in the country. This is the beginning of a series of wild adventures which fortunately have a very happy ending. Excellent supports include a Robert Benchley comedy, a Passing Parade feature, a technicolour traveltalk on Egypt, a "Crime Does Not Pay" film, and the latest newsreels.

ST. JAMES THEATRE. The ever-popular background of the racecourse is the setting for "Stablemates," which is the main attraction .at the St. James Theatre. The picture is noteworthy for at least the fact that throughout its length there is practically a cast of only three—a man, a boy, and a horse. Mickey Rooney is cast as the waif who is employed as a stable boy, and Wallace Beery as the . tramp and racecourse hanger-on. Mickey's owner has a horse which should be great if it did not have the habit of "fading out" at the critical point of a race. Disgusted with the animal's performance the owner decides to send it to the "glue factory," but Mickey takes the horse in.lieu of wages overdue. The horse's life is saved, but Mickey has a problem on his hands till the tramp comes on the scene. The tramp was formerly a famous "vet," who is wanted by the police for having "doctored" a horse, and he soon discovers why Mickey's horse is a failure.

PARAMOUNT THEATRE. Luise Rainer has artistry that is still a comparatively unknown quantity; but it would be difficult to find a more versatile role, giving such play to her excellent talents, *■ than that of ■Frou-frou in "The Toy Wife," which is continuing its Wellington season at the Paramount Theatre. In the film the tragedy of a marriage between a seri-ous-minded young business man and a frivolous, irresponsible young girl is developed; domestic incompetence, lack of reasoning power, and a dearth of understanding on the part of the wife (Luise Rainer) bring about a broken home and disillusionment for the husband (Melvyn Douglas). A carefree gambler, played by Robert Young, who believes he genuinely loves Frou-frou, is a factor in the wrecking of the home, but even he finds happiness with the girl short-lived. Sadness is not even given a respite with, the climax.

REX THEATRE. With Margaret Lindsay and Glenda Farrell teamed as a pair of young women lawyers, "The Law in Her Hand" is showing at the Rex Theatre, The picture literally starts, with a bang when a racketeer hurls a bomb into a restaurant where the two feminine lawyers are being photographed at luncheon by a news cameraman. The associate attraction, "Where's Sally?" is a hilarious comedy, featuring an attractive team of English radio and screen stars, including Gene Gerrard and Claude Hulbert.

ROX¥ THEATRE. "A Slight Case of Murder," a farce film that frankly and unreservedly makes fun of the whole business of gangsterism and racketeering," is the main feature at the Roxy Theatre. It is a Warner Bros, production with Edward G. Robinson as star. Laurel and Hardy as a pair of desperadoes in the gay nineties are at their funniest in "Way Out West," the supporting feature.

REGAL THEATRE, KARORI. Simone Simon's star as a singer is just rising. That the exotic little French actress will become a great singer of the screen is the prediction of of America's foremost voice coaches. Don Ameche, Simone Simon, and Robert Young are starred in "Josette," showing at the Regal Theatre. Bert Lahr and Joan Dayis head the featured cast. "Back in Circulation," starring Pat O'Brien and Joan Blondell, which is the second' feature, is an engrossing newspaper drama. The first suburban screening of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" will be held at the Regal Theatre next Tuesday, Wednesday, £.. 1 Thursday with a special afterschool matinee on Wednesday, at 3.30 p.m.

STATE THEATRE, PETONE. The idea that money and the accumulation of money are not the main purposes of life is brilliantly expressed in a delightful comedy-romance at the State Theatre. "Holiday." the Columbia production of the Philip Barry Broadway stage hit is a blessed change from the bright and scintillant whimsies of modern times. With Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant co-starred, the State Theatre attraction vibrates with life and humour.

GRAND THEATRE, PETONE. A splendid double-feature programme is showing at the Grand Theatre. The main feature is "The Last Train From Madrid," a drama played against the background of the present Spanish war. Dorothy Lamour, Lew Ayres, Gilbert Roland, and Karen Morley head the cost. Martha Raye, Bob Hope, Betty Grable, and Jack Whiting have the leading roles in "Give Me a Sailor," the second film.

PALACE THEATRE, PETONE. "Gambling Ship," which is showing at the Palace Theatre, presents a fastmoving tale of a gambling syndicate's efforts to combat a girl who inherits a gambling ship. Helen Mack has the leading feminine role. Glenda Fai-rell in "Exposed," the associate attraction, is the candid camera girl whose photographic evidence is instrumental in capturing a ring of racketeers. Otto Kruger and Herbert Mundin are also featured. i

CITY AND SUBURBAN THEATRES

KING'S THEATRE. One of the most entertaining come- | dies to be screened in Wellington for a long time is "The Young in Heart." ;Now showing at the King's Theatre, ;the film has as its featured players .•Douglas Fairbanks, jun., Paulette God'dard, Janet Gaynor, Billie Burke, I Roland Young, and Henry Stephenson. j Roland Young, as is often the case, will be considered by the majority of those who see the film as giving the most amusing performance, but the others all portray their parts well. The film i deals with a family of very indolent people who prefer to chase around Europe in search of legacies and forI tunes rather than work for their living. i They become very hardened —so they think—when they start out to work for an old lady's fortune, but when | they are faced with the possibilty of 1 the old lady dying, they find that their affection for her outweighs their avariciousness.

DE LUXE THEATRE. Good, exciting entertainment is provided by the double-feature programme showing at the De Luxe Theatre. A casino at sea gives the name to "Gambling Ship," which carries off the honours of the programme. One of the strange things about the gambling ship is that it is run on honest luies by Steve Riley (Selmar Jackson) and that a large share .of the profits go to support an orphanage. However, the activities of the honest gambler do not suit "The Professor," secretly a gang leader, who runs another sort of gambling resort, and when Riley refuses to talk business the Professor re-1 sorts to other methods and Riley is murdered. His daughter, Mollie (Helen i Mack), then learns for the first time the real source of her father's wealth, but insists on carrying on his gambling! ship. The other big picture is "The Daredevil Riders," in which Beverley Roberts heads the cast.

STATE THEATRE. To those who like thrills in a picture, "The Lost Jungle," at the State Theatre, wiM be welcome as good entertainment.^ Kamor is a lost island, where on roam in plenty the fauna of both Africa and Asia, lions and tigers, panthers and leopards, hyenas and bears galore. An expedition in search of the cradle of civilisation is wrecked on Kamor, and Clyde Beatty, hero of the big ring of mammoth circuses, leaves with the relief party. Their dirigible is wrecked, and they crash in the jungle. Beatty is acclaimed the world's greatest animal trainer, and the whole story centres round his absolute fearlessness in handling animals in the ring or in the wilds. There is, of course, the essential love interest, provided by Cecilia Parker, and thoroughpaced villainy on the part of Beatty's ring rival. As an associate feature James Ellison plays and sings in "Twenty-three and a Half Hours' Leave."

NEW PRINCESS THEATRE. Kay Francis's gifts as a portrayer of highly-emotional scenes are displayed to audiences at the Princess Theatre, where she appears in her newest starring vehicle. "Confession." This is the most powerful story in which the dark beauty has played during her nineyear career as a ; picture actress, outranking even her unforgettable "One Way Passage" and her recent triumph in "White Angel." Others in the cast are Basil Rathbone- and lan Hunter. The associate feature is New Universal Films' action drama. "Exposed," starring Glenda Farrel! and Otto Kruger.

TUDOR THEATRE. Transferred to the Tudor Theatre, "Suez," starring Loretta Young, Annabella, and Tyrone Power, shows the supreme effort of the elements to prevent the joining of the Mediterransan with the Red Sea. In this film and in this incident is proof that earth, air, and water—once thought to be the elements that constituted man and nis environment —are among the basic elements of man's entertainment. June Lang, Lynn Bari, and Erik Rhodes appear in the second feature, "Meet the Girls."

OUR THEATRE, NEWTOWN. The. first of Jane Withers's new series of major pictures, "Miss Fix-it," is the \ main attraction at Our Theatre. The! story deals with the hilarious and often j heart-tugging adventures of a boarding-1 school girl who goes to Hollywood to i visit her movie director-uncle, whom she has never seen. Finding him down on his luck, deserted by his fairweather friends, and unable to get a job, she sets about to patch up his shattered career, and winds up by making one for herself in the movies. Gloria Stuart and Henry Wilcoxon are •featured in the cast. Michael Whalen and Lynn Bari are starred in "Speed to Burn," the second attraction.

KILBIRNIE KINEMA. A reporter who goes hunting for goats on Christmas Eve with a missing heiress, two hours before he is scheduled to marry the newspapers leading girl reporter, provides the theme for the new Columbia comedy, "No Time to Marry," which is showing at the Kilbirnie Kinema. Richard Arlen Mary Astor, and Lionel Stander are featured. The screen demonstrates forcibly again that it can add new charm to the old beauty of the theatre in the time-honoured stage hit, "Madame X," which is the associate film. Gladys George is in the title role. The excellent supporting programme has been specially selected, j

CAPITOL THEATRE, MIRAMAR. A new side of prison life in America, that of the backward and inhuman prison camp, is revealed to the public for the first time by Paramount in its new screen drama, Prison Farm," which is showing at the Capitol Theatre, featuring Shirley Ross and Lloyd Nolan. "Non-Stop New York" is the associate attraction. An imposing cast of featured players includes Anna Lee, Desmond Tester, and Oscar Homolka.

EMPIRE THEATRE, ISLAND BAY. By far the most colourful and spectacular number £k*-*a Henie has yet attempted, her "Alice in Wonderland" ice ballet presents in amazing Henie fashion the adventures of Alice with the White Rabbit, the Walrus and the Carpenter, the King, the Queen, and Knave of Hearts, the Griffin, Dodo, Mock Turtle, and all the other characters of Lewis Carroll's beloved fantasy. The ballet is a high light of Sonja's newest picture, "My Lucky Star," which is showing at the Empire Theatre. Richard Greene is also starred. "City Girl," the story of a girl who tries the most daring racket of them all, is the second feature. The first suburban screening of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" will tie | held at the Empire Theatre next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with a special after-school matinee on Wednesday, at 3 o'clock.