PICTURE THEATRES

Evening Star, Issue 22817, 27 November 1937, Page 15

PICTURE THEATRES

THE NEW PROGRAMMES

HUMOUR AT ITS BEST * NOBODY'S BABY ’ AT ST. JAMES With thoso; excellent, droll comediennes, Patsy Kelly and Lyda Roberti, in the leading feminine roles, splendidly supported by the always entertaining Lynne Overman and Robert Armstrong, ' Nobody’s Baby,’ presented by Hal Roach and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, is as comical a film as has been seen in Dunedin. It opened a season yesterday at the St. .lames. It is admirably produced, and lias been directed by Gus Meins with an unusually fine eye for funny situations. The story it uproariously unfolds is sheer farce, but above the level of slapstick. And it is well worked out, giving a sometimes brilliant quartet scope for some delicious, if boisterous, foolery; Packed with action and episodes as animated and humorous as the dialogue, ‘ Nobody’s Baby keeps one laughing to the end. It is the kind of farce-comedy that is either made a big success or turned into an ordinary humorous support film by those who hav© to direct and interpret it. For many of the situations could easily misfire unless developed vivaciously by those with the right flair for broad comedy and elaborate pantomime. And for these Patsy Kelly and Lynne Overman especially are always to bo depended upon. The picture again proves Lyda Roherti to be a front-rank comedienne with distinct individuality. Her kitchen scene with Patsy Kelly is one of the funniest in a film crammed with comic happenings. The picture is strengthened by the performance of Rosina Lawrence and Don Alvarado as the cabaret dancers, Yvonne and Cortez. The latter make a handsome pair who add a romantic flavour to the story, while providing some of its humour. It is around the baby of this tempestuous Couple that most of the comedy is so deftly and hilariously built. Rosina Lawrence is an actress and dancer who is well worth watching. She possesses the gifts and personality of one destined for much more important productions than ‘ Nobody’s Baby,’ for all the latter’s excellent entertaining value. Those who simply want a* hearty laugh should not miss ‘ Nobody’s Baby.’ * There is an outstanding list of short pictures. They comprise one of those -hly entertaining series, ‘ Crime Doesn’t Pay,’ and “ Our Gang ” comedy, in which the irrepressible gang of juvenilos appears, and the latest Fitzpatrick travel films.

EXCELLENT FARE

THE STRAND'S ATTRACTIONS Excitement and suspense are to the fore' in the new programme at the Strand -Theatre,” both pictures,: ‘The League' of Men ’ and ‘ Cafe Colette,’ containing almost more than their fair share bf both forms of entertainment. ■ 1 The League of Frightened Men is another adventure of popular Eero Wolfe, rotund detective who cats, drinks, and rests with considerable enjoyment. Edward Arnold first introduced this unique personality to Dunedin audiences in ‘ Meet Nero Wolfe,’ but good as his performance was, the latest screen player to assume the cloak of Nero Wolfe, Walter Connolly, gives a performance in every way as good. He gives a most interesting interpretation to the character. Lionel Stander, however; remains intact; the raspyvoiced comic carries on as Nero’s aide. Featured in other important roles are Irene Harvey, Eduardo Cianneli, Allen Brook, Victor Kilian, Nana Bryant, and Walter Kingsford. All these and others are involved in a most perplexing triple-murder case. • Even Nero Wolfe is for a time stymied regarding the solution. It seems that years before, 12 college students played a, joke on one of their fellows and accidentally crippled him for life. The victim, Paul Chapin, now a novelist, hobbles through life oh two canes. The dozen culprits, who since school days have turned into various walks of life—some more suc- ! cessfully than others—realise the intense bitterness Chapin feels toward them. They begin to receive notes threatening their lives. Soon one of their number is mysteriously murdered, another follows shortly. The remaining 10, frightened, retain Nero Wolfe to protect them from violent death at the hand of Chapin. The story twists surprisingly to a dramatic finish, with Nero finally collecting a largo fee and being able to return to his chocolate and beloved orchids. 1 Cafe Colette,' the supporting picture, is a sensational espionage thriller .interwoven with merry music, gay dancing, and heart-warming romance. It ' co-stars Paul Cavanagh and Greta Nissen. ‘Cafe Colette’ contains all • the essentials of a thrilling spy story, with its tense situations, its exciting and romantic interludes, and includes a stirring, unusual climax. The agents of.a foreign Power have secured the possession of the coveted formula of K. 33, a super-explosive. But the formula proving false, they seek the correct one with the aid of Vanda, a beautiful Parisian dancer (Greta Nissen). Unfortunately for the plotters sho has fallen in love with the proposed victim. Captain Roger Manning (Bruce Soton), a British agent.

Complications become further involved with the unexpected arrival of Manning’s sister (Sally Gray) to sing at the Cafe Colette, and the real reason for the girl’s engagement is quickly revealed when Vanda refuses to gel the information from Manning, An interested spectator of the whole affair is Paul Ryan (Paul Cavanagh), to all outward appearances a gay, carefree artist, but in reality an ace British intelligence officer, who plans to get at the real powers of the gang through Vanda. How it all works out is told in the thrilling, unusual climax previously referred to.

DRAMATIC MASTERPIECE

GRAND'S BRILLIANT PRODUCTIONS An attractive double-feature programme is at the Grand. The first film is the dramatic Twentieth CenturyFox production. ‘ Nancy Steele Is Missing,’ in which acting honours go to Victor M‘Lag!en, who will be remembered for his outstanding portrayal in ‘The Informer.’ He is east as a pacifist who kidnaps the baby daughter of a munitions magnate and leaves her in the care of some backblocks farmers. He is later involved in a brawl, and this eventually brings him a life sentence in prison. On his release 20 years later ho hastens to reclaim his charge, a role now taken by June Lang, but when he goes to claim a ransom for her he finds that the former munitions manufacturer is a broken man and he keeps the girl's identity a secret. A fellow convict discovers the facts of the situation and it is then that the story comes to an intensely dramatic climax. Peter Lorre portrays the convict in highly effective fashion, while the role of tne munitions maker is in the capable hands of Walter Connolly. 1 Nancy Steele Is Missing ’ was produced 'by Darryl F. Zanuck, and directed bv George Marshall. One" of the finest casts yet assembled for one picture appears in ‘ Ladies In Love,’ the other film. Loretta Young, Janet Gaynor, Constance Bennett, Simone Simon, Don Ameche, and Alan Mowbray are the principals.

SEQUEL TO ‘THE THIN MAH'

EMPIRE’S HILARIOUS OFFERING A sequal, whether it be a book or a picture, rarely lives up to the high standard' that has been set by the original. Ifc is not hard to understand, why, for quite often the most important and most interesting episodes in the lives of the characters are disposed of before there is ever any thought of a sequel. ‘ After the Thin Man, now entering upon its second week at the Empire Theatre, is a sequel to the world-famous ‘ Thin. Man,’ one of the cleverest and brightest mystery comedies ever filmed. .On the face_ of things' it would seem to be inviting disaster to attempt to produce a sequel to a film as highly successful as ‘ The Thin Man.’ _ So perhaps no greater recommendation could bo made in the interests of ‘ After the Thin _ Man ’ than to say it lives up to, if it does not actually better, the standard of the original, and it is a tribute to all concerned, from producer to the smallest “ bit ” player, that such is the case. ‘ After the This Alan ’ was made by the same company as made ‘ The Thin Man.’ The same director wielded the megaphone, ard William Powell and Myrna T.oy are again the stars. The story was written by Dashiell Hammett, the director was W. S. Van Dyke, and the tale begins when ‘ The Thin Man ’ left off, with Nick Charles, the most unorthodox of private detectives, and his wife, Nora on a train hoping to get a little peace and a belated honeymoon. They do not get it, of course. On arrival at San Francisco they are immediately hurled into the midst of all the bustle of that cosmopolitan city. It culminates in a scandal in Nora’s “ stuSed-shirt ” family, and Nick has to recover his flair for sleuthing from the moth balls into which he had hoped it was put for good. His reactions to his decrepit and pompous in-laws provide comedy at its brightest. Asia, the dog, a legacy from ‘The Thin Man,’ who has an eady part in the proceedings through the medium of a leisurely progress strongly reminiscent of an episode of ‘ The Thin Man,’ which became famous, has his domestic troubles when he reaches home, too, and they are highly amusing. In fact, everything is bright and diverting, but hung on a very slight story until a more dramatic note is introduced. Nora and Nick visit Nora’s relations for dinner on New Year’s Eve, and Nick is immediately assigned to the task of finding the husband of Nora’s sister, Selma (Elissa Landi). Finding him proves easy, but complications set in immediately. The worthless husband is murdered, and Selma is charged with the crime. Alternately helped and hindered by Nora and Asia. Nick gets to work in bis own peculiar style, and is soon enmeshed in as baffling a mystery as could be desired. In fact, probably the mystery aspect at this stage is better than that of ‘The Thin Man.’ An unpleasant racketeer (Joseph Calleia), a night club girl, a sinister Chinaman, and two more corpses play their parts before Nick trusts a little to luck and springs his surprise. The identity of the assassin is a real surprise, clouded deliberately and elaborately, _ but without anv suggestion that it is overdone. The east is strong in every particular, Sam Levene, Dorothy M'Nultv. James Stewart. Alan Marshall, William Law. and George Zucco being other stars who add their quotas to the general mirth. 1 After the Thin Man ’ is supported by a Pete Smith oddity, ‘ Golf Mistakes,’ a good traveltalk. ‘ India on Parade,’ and excellent newsreels.

BING CROSBY AT STATE

‘WAIKIKI WEDDING' ENJOYABLE FARE If you enjoy the crooning and acting of Bing Crosby, the raucous comedy of Martha Ilaye, and the meanderings of Bob Burns, you should enjoy ‘ Waikiki Wedding,’ tho Paramount film at the State, where it commenced yesterday, a large audience being present at both screenings. If you don’t ! From a musical-comedy viewpoint the picture has a good deal to commend it, with its picturesque settings on the island of Hawaii, the excuse for hordes of undulating hula girls, music of guitars, and drums throbbing in the tropical moonlight. Some of these scenes of native revelry, though they obviously owe a lot to Hollywood as well as to Hawaii, have a barbaric quality that is quite exciting, nud the ‘ Dance of the Drums ’ in particular is a fine piece of musical spectacle Moonlight on the water, a palmfringed shore, and a beautiful girl in

the bow of his boat—here is the perfect setting for the Crosby talent, and ho maker, the most of it, but his songs are notable more for their quantity than for their quality. Crosby is quite as good a comedian as he is a singer, and he certainly does bis best with material of this story about a publicity many employed by a pineapple company, whose job it is to entertain a beauty contest winner on her visit, to Hawaii. The girl is bored by the civilisation of Honolulu, so Crosby undertakes to show her the primitive Hawaii of romantic legend. Where it does not exist he creates, even to the extent of arranging to have the girl kidnapped by the natives for “ sacrilege ” to their tribal gods. A rescue and a volcanic eruption are nicely stage-managed, and the Crosby voice serenading the moon from the deck of a yacht completes the process of making her think that Hawaii is just too, too romantic. And her heroic, crooning rescuer is, of course, the centre of these halcyon days and nights. It is equally inevitable that she should discover later that it has all been a hoax, and then the hero is hard put to it to convince her that what he did was for love as much as for publicity. A very great deal of the footage is devoted to the strident coined v of Martha Raye, as the heroine’s friend, and the typically American humour of Bob Burns, as Miss Raye’s persistent but somewhat dullwitted suitof. While their taste may seem strange to other people, it must be recognised that there are a great many picture-goers who enjoy the Burns-Raye combination. In the States they have created a furore, but even some of their more ardent admirers in this country may think that this picture contains rather too much of a good thing. Shirley Ross (seen as the heroine of the most recent ‘ Big Broadcast ’) is a conventional leading lady with good looks and a pleasant voice; George Barbicr splutters and fumes in his accustomed manner as the pineapple magnate by whom Crosby is employed. Lief Erikson supplies some burlesque as the husky “ other man.” Splendid short pictures include one of the universally popular ‘ Popeye the Sailor ’ series, a film dealing with sport, newsreels that contain the latest happenings abroad, and ‘ The Organ Grinder’s Swing.’

BRIGHT ENTERTAIHMENT AT REGENT

‘HIGH, WIDE, AND HANDSOME 1 Action, romance, excitement, and humour are all to be found in ‘ High, Wide, and Handsome,’‘heading a bright new programme screened yesterday at the Regent. There is a good story in a good picture, with acting, singing, and comedy of a high order. It is interpreted by a strong cast, and is notable for its stimulating musical score, the work of Jerome Kern, who has been responsible for so many popular successes, including the ‘ Show Boat ’ and ‘ Roberta ’ numbers. The scene of the' story is laid_ in America in the days when oil was just entering the boom stage—something that would light the lamps of the world and turn the wheels of industry as coal had done in the past. Randolph Scott, who tennis with Irene Dunne at the head of the cast, is shown as a young farmer with novel ideas on the subject. He pursues them, and his energies are rewarded when oil is struck in a “ gusher ” on his property. There are amazing scenes as the oil rush sets in and beautiful farming countryside is transformed with hundreds’'of derricks into a scene of industry._ That was until big business stepped in. The railway directors decided that the industry needed “ organising,” and that they were the men to do the job. Freight rates were raised to such a height that it was impossible for the farmers-cum-oil drillers to get their product to the refineries. The war was on. Led by Scott the farmers set out on the tremendous task of laying a pipeline across a long stretch of country, a pipeline that would .carry the oil direct to the refinery without the need to depend on the railway. They were lawless days, and the pipe-layers were constantly beset by gangs of “ toughs,” engaged by the railway to spoil the enterprise. The action is constant and thrilling. Irene Dunne, daughter of a travelling showman, and herself a singer and dancer, becomes the wife of Scott, and it is through her help that success eventually comes to the farmers-o£-oil. Through it all there are the music and the songs of Jerome Kern, and a wide variety of side interests, including the activities of a circus. It is thoroughly good entertainment, Irene Dunne is heard to particular advantage in ‘ Can I Forget You?’ ‘ The House on the Hill,’ and ‘ High. Wide, and Handsome,’ and certainly her melodious voice has never been better recorded. Dorothy Lamour, seen recently in ‘Jungle Princess,’ who is also gifted with a delightful singing voice, gives a finished rendering of ‘ The Tilings I Want.’ The shorter subjects are entertaining, interesting, and instructive, and include a bright ‘ Pop-eye ’ cartoon and several topical budgets giving glimpses of important events on the other side of the world.

'GORGEOUS HUSSY’

CRAWFORD, TAYLOR, AND TONE Joan Crawford as the beautiful and fiery Peggy O’Neal, tavern-keeper’s daughter who became the First Lady of the Land; Clarence Brown, who directed three of her greatest hits—‘ Possessed,’ ‘ Sadie M‘Kee,’ and ‘ Forsaking All Others ’ —again behind the camera; Robert Taylor, the screen’s most sensational “ find ” since Clark Gable, fresh from triumphs in ‘ His Brother’s Wife ’ and ‘ Private Number,’ playing a dashing young naval officer who woos tho Hussy and becomes her first husband; Lionel Barrymore, as Andrew Jackson, seventh President of tho United States; Franchot Tone, making his first appearance with Miss Crawford since their marriage, as tho Hussy’s second husband, cabinet member and political figure; Melvyn Douglas, seen recently in ‘ Annie Oakley ’ and Garbo’s leading man in ‘ As You Desire Me,’ playing the romantic, pridoful John Randolph of Roanoke, whose tragic love for Peggy O’Neal was tripped up by political issues; and James Stewart, whose talent sped him to fame in ‘ Small Town Girl,’ ‘ Wife Versus Secretary,’ and ‘ Rose Marie,’ as an early American newspaper man, the Hussy’s best friend—and best man —these are a few of the highlights of ‘ The Gorgeous Hussy,’ new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production from the best-selling _ novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams, which will bo seen to-night at the Green Island Theatre. A fictionised treatment of America’s most romantic period, it is primarily a story of the stormy circumstances surrounding the election to the Presidency of Andrew Jackson, and tho role that one girl played therein. ' Hare, tiic high priest of hilarity— Drayton, the duke of .delirious npn-

sense—what a perfect combination for the screen’s riotous comedy— ‘ Aren’t Men Beasts,’ which begins on Wednesday. Great as a play, and even greater as a film, with Robertson Hare and Alfred Drayton fulfiling the roles they made famous on the West End stage for two years, ‘ Aren’t Men Beasts ’ is the merriest riot of nonsense the screen has had in years, with enough laughs for a lifetime.