PICTURE THEATRES

Evening Star, Issue 22684, 25 June 1937, Page 7

PICTURE THEATRES

ST. JAMES Crashing through adventures in the jungles, Tarzan and his mate, as enacted by Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan, bring to the St. James another breath-taking adventure romance. This is Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s ‘ Tarzan Escapes,’ packed with thrills, telling the story of a human deceit directed against a primitive man of the jungle, and of the treachery of civilised man against the jungle friend of wild beasts who has never known the tricks of his “ enlightened ” brothers. ‘Tarzan Escapes’ takes the Edgar Rice Burroughs character into the country of giant vampire bats; its thrills include a battle between an army of elephants and savage warriors, the routing of lions by an elephant stampede; a dash through a crocodile-infested river, and other exciting details surrounding the primitive love story of the series. In the new story Tarzan is betrayed and captured by" the man who pretends friendship, and who plans to exhibit him.as a wild 'man. His faithful mate, played by Miss O'Sullivan, and his jungle friends aid in a sensational escape. Weismuller as Tarzan swings across wild gorges, on strange vine bridges, and swims perilous rivers. Miss O’Sullivan is her charming character, as in former Tarzan pictures, and Benita Hume, British actress, plays the heroine’s sister. John Buckler enacts. the animal collector. William Henry plays Miss O’Sullivan’s cousin who remains loyal. STRAND Romance, comedy, and exciting melodrama provide the back drop for Mary Astor’s starring debut in the title role of Columbia’s ‘ Lady From Nowhere,’ which opened at the Strand to-day. This film marks Miss Astor’s first important starring role, following her remarkable performance in ‘ Dodsworth.’ Opposite Miss Astor in the leading male role is Charles Quigley, a new screen “ find.” Others in the cast are Thurston Hall. Rita La Roy, Norman Willis, Gene Morgan, Victor Kilian, and Spencer Charters. The story concerns a pretty manicurist who is witness to a gangland murder, and as a result has to flee for her life. She lands in a small town, and is taken in charge by a local reporter. She tells him she is an heiress who has run away to escape an unpleasant marriage. Things begin to pop when the gangsters, the real heiress’s father, and tho police all converge on the town. The spine-chilling melodrama of a demented murderer who lives and plots his sinister crimes in a chamber of horrors waxworks is unfolded in ‘ Killer at Large,’ which will also be screened. Mary Brian, Russell Hardie, .and Betty-. Compson head the large cast. The Louis-Sharkey fight, film completes the programme. RECENT ‘God’s Country and the Woman,’ the new technicolour film featuring George Brent and Beverly Roberts, which to-day commenced a season at the Regent, is one of those rare productions that appear occasionally—a (compelling man’s picture and an intriguing woman’s attraction in_ one. Many novel twists have been introduced in a manner that will capture general attention. It is adapted from a book by James Oliver Curwood, and tho quality of its acting and direction has endowed it with a stirring drama. The plot is well developed, with dialogue and -action smoothly blended. Essentially the story is one of conflict —mental, romantic, and physical. It moves at a steady, attention-holding pace, in an atmosphere alternately tensely dramatic and gaily amusing. A story of lumber men and women, it is set among the lumber camps of tho North woods, the scenic beauty of which is accentuated by the artistic use of technicolour. Briefly, it tells how a gay playboy became a man, and how a masculine woman became a true one. But there is far more to the film than that; it has plot and counterplot, a disguised identity, tens© drama, appealing romance, and laughter-provok-ing comedy. In addition, there is thrilling action inserted at the most opportune moments. George Brent handles his part deftly, and Beverly Roberts gives a capable performance in a role very different from that in her debut film, ‘China Clipper.’ Robert Barrat, - Alan Hale, and Barton Mac Lane head the supporting cast, which also includes Joseph King, Billy Sevan, Bert . Roach,- Roscoe Ates, and El Brendel—three most able comedians—and that great star of silent films, Herbert Eawlinson. STATE Eclipsing even the triumph of ‘ Evergreen.’ Jessie Matthews’s latest film, ‘lt’s Love.Again,’ is now at the State. The story tells how' Peter (Robert Young), a columnist on a fashionable London newspaper, is so destitute of real news that, at the suggestion of his asinine friend, Freddie (Sonhie Hale), he creates an imaginary society woman whom he names Mrs SmytheSmythe, and surrounds her with exotic glamour. Elaine _ (Jessie Matthews) a young dancer anxious to secure recognition, upsets everything by impersonating the fictitious Mrs Smythe-Smythe, whose glamorous, mysterious personality is now the talk of the town. She and Peter eventually get together, and after a series of piquant complications she finds fame, and he wins her, without either being any tho worse for their outrageous escapades. Jessie Matthews is splendid as Elaine; her acting, sense of comedy, and singing are a sheer delight, and her dancing is truly marvellous. In the course of the film, Jessie Matthews and her father-in-law, Robert Hale (Sonnie’s parent), indulge in an orgy of wilful destruction. Robert Hale, appearing as Colonel Egerton, a famous big-game hunter, finds himself pitted against “Mrs Smythe-Smythe ” at a party, at which the hostess (Athene Seyler) is under tho mistaken impression that Jessie is a past-mistress at the art of “ Shikar.” A shooting match is therefore arranged, and the warrior and the lady fall to with a will.

EMPIRE In a production sweeping with song and scented with romance. Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, those celebrated co-stars of ‘ Naughty Marietta.’ axe now at the Empire in ‘ Rose Marie.’ Under their magic spell the full beauty of 1 The Indian Love Call,’ ‘Rose Marie, I Love You.’ ‘Song of the Mounties,’ and other classics from the Herbert Stothart-Rudolf Friml score, live again. Filmed almost entirely out of doors, in the mountainlake country of tho_ Sierra Nevadas, the production is a pictorial sensation. Glimmering lakes, towering peaks, dangerous passes, all the beauty of Nature, serve as background for the romantic saga of the Great NorthWest. ‘ Rose Marie ’ is the story of a Canadian grand opera singer who travels incognito into the backwoods regions in search of her brother,_ a criminal from justice. Also searching for the brother is Sergeant Bruce,_ of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

They meet and fall in love, until she realises the mission of the other. The crashing climax and poignant ending of the story will be remembered long after most pictures are forgotten. One of the outstanding sequences is the ’ Totem Polo Indian Dance,’ the grotesque set mounted on a sandpit extending into a broad lake. Peopled by more than a thousand dancers, lavish in costume,- with music thrillingly beautiful, it sets a new standard for effect photography and spectacular direction. GRAND What happens when a newspaperman with a flair for gags sets out to give his former sweetheart the world’s most sensational wedding present, on the eve of her nuptials to 1 another man, forms a basis of the Paramount comedy-romance, ‘ Wedding Present,’ which is now screening at the Grand with Joan Bennett and Cary Grant in stellar roles. Miss Bennett and Grant are reporters on the metropolitan daily in the picture, the pride and despair of their hard-boiled city editor, George Bancroft, who is slowly turning grey because of their pranks. When Grant succeeds Bancroft on ■ the city desk. Miss Bennett leaves town, distressed because her former friend seems to be developing into a ‘‘ big two-telephone man.” She gets a job in New York and is planning to marry a writer of inspirational novels, Conrad Nagel, when Grant, who has quit as city editor, arrives and presents the, record-breaking wedding present which brings a reconciliation. A big heart for the criminal and no heart for his victims is often the keynote of modern parole systems according to ‘Don’t Turn ’Em Loose,’ which features Lewis Stone. James Gleason, Bruce Cabot, Louise Latimer, and Grace Bradley in a story involving a young criminal who brings disgrace to his honoured family and his beautiful sweetheart. OCTAGON The presence in a picture nowadays either of Gary Cooper, Carole Lombard, or Shirley Temple is a guarantee of success. But the presence of the entire three in one film, as it occurs in ‘ Now and Forever,’ which opened a season at the Octagon to-day, is at once an indication of unusual merit. The plot of the picture revolves round Shirley Temple and her efforts to make both her father (a reckless, improvident fellow) and Carole Lombard (an equally reckless and altogether attractive person) go straight. Cooper stops short of selling his daughter for 75,000d01, 'and, meeting her after an absence, is captivated by her winsome charm. The story works to an exciting conclusion, with the wishes of the three coinciding satisfactorily. The standard of acting of the principals, needless to say, is extremely high, and the direction and photography of the picture are both extremely good. In ‘ The Return of Sophie Lang,’ a story of jewel thieves with a strong romantic flavour, ' the stars are, Gertrude Michael, Sir Guy Standing, Ray Milland, and Elizabeth Patterson. • MAYFAIR The film adaptation of the wellknown novel by Jeffrey Farnol, ‘ The Amateur Gentleman,’ is now at the Mayfair, with Douglas Fairbanks, jun.. in the title role. Edmund Low© and Gloria Stuart are the principals .of ‘The Girl:on the Front Page,’ which is also showing. Bobby Breen, the nine-year-old singing discovery, is the star of ‘ Let’s Sing Again,’ which features George Houston, Henry Armetta, Vivienne Osborne, and others. ‘ Let’s Sing Again ’ is to be commenced at the Mayfair to-mor-row. The story is centred upon Bobby, an orphan, who is lured away bj a travelling tent show. Joe Pasquale, its handyman, takes Bobby under his wing. An erstwhile member of the Milan Opera Company, Joe recognises the potentialities of a fin© voice in Bobby. With hardship facing them every turn, Joe and Bobby make their way to New York, where they seek out an opera star whom Joe tutored years before. -At her house she gives a party in honour of the concert baritone, Leon Alba. A surprise climax revealing her guest, of honour as tho estranged father of Bobby produces a heart-throb ending said to be one of the most gripping denouements to flash across the screen of late. Something new in screen entertainment is to bo offered in the. associate feature. ‘ The Flying Doctor, an Australian film, with Charles Farrell, Mary Maguire,. James Raglan,_ Margaret Vyner, Joe Valli, and Erie Colman- heading the cast. GREEN ISLAND That inimitable team of screen lovers, Dick Powell with tuneful songs on his lips, and Ruby Keeler with her rhythmic dancing, together with Joan Blondell and Jack Oakie, head the east of Warner Bros.’ latest spectacular musical comedy, ‘ Coleen,’ which conies to the Green, Island theatre to* morrow. lu addition to the four stars, the cast, which is one of the most notable ever assembled for a production of this type, includes Hugh Herbert, Louise Fazenda, Paul Draper, Mario Wilson, and a score of other famous names besides two hundred beautiful chorus girls and dancing youths. There are two big spectacular specialty numbers created, and staged by Bobby Connolly, formerly dance director for the Zeigfeld Follies and other New York shows. Dick Powell is the serious minded young manager of an estate for a rich and flirtatious uncle, who had purchased a modiste shop for a “girl friend. Dick falls in, lov© with the efficient secretary or the shop, and manages to win her heart after a series of entanglements filled with hilarious comedy tor the audience, although heart-breaking to the young lovers. He also sings three songs. Miss Keeler has in© role ox the secretary, and introduces some remarkable tap dancing, both by herself and with that wizard of the stage, Paul Draper.