PICTURE THEATRES

Evening Star, Issue 21005, 20 January 1932, Page 7

PICTURE THEATRES

RECENT In ‘ Palmy Days,’ which is now being screened at the Regent Theatre, Eddie Cantor and Charlotte Greenwood provide comedy of a sort which cannot fad to please and amuse all. Cantor has a humour all of his own. His humour is of a kind which few actors have the ability or the constitution to affect. In speech, in action, and by implication he is screamingly funny. He call keep up a running fire of wisecracks and jests the while he,performs acrobatic feats of the most amazing kind. Then, of course, there is the romantic side of the tale, which is entrusted to very capable performers, at the head of whom are Charlotte Greenwood and charming little Barbara Weeks. Charlotte Greenwood throws her immense bulk about a marvellouslyequipped gymnasium while she sees to the physical fitness of the bakery employees, maintaining a continual fire of nonsense in her own peculiar style. Among the musical numbers which punctuate the show are ‘ Bend Down. Sister,’ sung by Charlotte Greenwood and chorus, and ‘ I’m Glad She Said Yes, Yes,’ which appears to be Cantor’s particular refrain. Special mention, however, must bo made of the incomparable ballets engaged in ‘ Palmy Days.’ Such precision and artistry have seldom, if ever, been seen on the screen in such circumstances. The supporting pictures are of an equally high standard. ST. JAMES 'A film with an exciting plot and filled with deep mystery and adventure is ‘ Transatlantic,’ which is still drawing large audiences to the St. James Theatre. The story has to do with really two heroines—-one of the somewhat unhappy wife of 'a husband infatuated with an ■ adventuress and the other a charming girl whose American ‘ father has at last saved sufficient to take his daughter for a grand tour of Europe. There is also the dashing, manly gambler who is to check the machinations of the gang who are out to despoil the infatuated husband, manager of the Graham Investment Corporation, and also to bring husband and wife together again. The gambler (splendidly enacted by Mr Edmund Lowe) is übiquitous, and he has an almost uncanny intuition of what is going to happen. He breaks up the intrigue between Grahqpi and the adventuress (Miss Greta_ Nisson gives a striking piece of acting in this part), and enables the husband and wife (Myrna' Loy) to be restored to happy married life, and he is also responsible for lifting the charge of attempted murder of Graham from Mr Kramer (Jean Hersholt) and sheeting it home to the right man. In the final scene the gambler takes a reluctant farewell of Kramer’s daughter (Lois Moran). The girl makes a last advance, but is told it is too late—the gambler must take the bitter with,the sweet (to quote his loquacious steward)), and so the story ends. There is a strong supporting programme. EMPIRE Norma Shearer and Lionel Barrymore provide outstanding entertainment at the Empire Theatre in ‘ A Free Soul.’ Barrymore’s work as the drunken but brilliant barrister, Stephen Asche, the father of Jan (Norma Shearer), will long be remembered, his dramatic defence of Dwight Winthrop, played by Leslie Howard, charged with the murder of the gangster, being a piece of work which undoubtedly won him the . gold medal for 1931 for the best male character for the year. Every little gesture—and he is a master of gesticulation—every inflexion of his voice, every pause, has a deeply compelling power that cannot fail to create a vital impression on the minds of the twelve good men and true. Here in truth is a picture that, full of dramatic interest, swift in action, achieves a genuine climax that does not fall into an anti-climax. The audience leaves the theatre with its mind full of that closing trial scene, of the tense, expectant faces, of that single, impassioned figure tearing the truth out of his daughter in the witness box and the heart out of himself, dominating the iury_ with his marvellous oratory, and fighting a losing , fight, against outraged nature. There is also an attractive supporting programme. OCTAGON Jackie Coogan has the role of Tom Sawyer and Junior Durkin fills the title part in the picture, ‘ Huckleberry Finn,’ which heads the programme at the Octagon Theatre. Junior Durkin achieves an instantaneous success. His presentation of the very human but by no means easily managed youth, Huckleberry Finn, the despair of his teacher, the laughingstock of the village children, and the incurable dreamer, is something of which a much older actor might well be proud. Perhaps even more than Jackie Coogan he succeeds in lending to the picture that air of complete naturalness without which it would inevitably fail in its appeal. to the audience. Briefly, the story has to do with a pair of American boys of the middle of last century, who grow up in a village upon the banks of the Mississippi, the one incurably a dreamer, the other very much concerned with the present, but burning with a thirst for adventure. Huckleberry Finn, the dreamer, has been adopted by a widow who endeavours to give him the tvoe of training which she imagines will fit him to take his rightful place in life. There is a strong supportng programme. KINI EDWARD England has her world-famed Scotland Yard, the United States its Secret Service, France has the Surete Generale, and modern Russia has the dreaded Tcheka. Combined; these are the most efficient organisations in the world for the detection and prevention of crime. The Russian intelligence system supplies the story for ‘ The Spy,’ which will begin its engagement to-night at the King Edward Theatre. The cast is a prominent one, headed by Kay Johnson. Neil Hamilton enacts the male lead, with John Halliday in the title role. Dorothy Seacombe is featured in the second picture, ‘ Leave It To Me.’ STRAND Two films of outstanding merit arc occupying the attention of audiences at the Strand Theatre. The story of ‘ The Matrimonial Problem ’ concerns the confusion that overcpmes_ a modern French family when a first husband, supposed dead for five years, returns at an inopportune time as a victim of lost memory. Without any ‘knowledge of the intervening years, he proceeds to take up life where he left off. And, of course, it is here that the really complicated Jiart of the story commences. His wife ms married another man, and has a child by her second husband. Then comes the astonishing development that the first husband has also been busy during his five-year period of lost memory, as he has a wife, two sets of twins, and a multitude of lady friends. He is supposed to have been killed in a

railroad accident five years before the opening of the story. His identity is restored by a hypnotist. Then he recalls his first wife, and forgets his second wife and the two sots of twins. Lilyan Tashman, Florence Eldridge, Beryl Mercer, Frank Fay, and James Gleason play the loading parts. The second picture is ‘ Sinners’ Holiday,’ a melodramatic romance with an accomplished cast. '