PICTURE THEATRES

Evening Star, Issue 23093, 20 October 1938, Page 19

PICTURE THEATRES

Miriam Hopkins, who has been responsible for some brilliant perforninnccs in tbo past, is the star of ‘ Wise Girl,’ the delightful production which ends to-night at the State. The story duals with the efforts of a society girl to obtain the custody of a dead sister’s two children. ' MOUNTAINEERING RITZ BROTHERS. The three Ritz Brothers are featured in ‘ Kentucky Moonshine,’ which .will be featured at the State to-morrow. Aside from all the mad antics, the picture contains three new songs by the same team which made the college picture a tuneful sensation. Lew Pollack and Sidney Mitchell wrote 1 Moonshine Over Kentucky,’ ‘ Reuben, Reuben, I’ve Been Swingin’,’ and ‘ Sing a Song of Harvest.’ To make sure these melodies are properly sung, producer Darryl F. Zanuck secured Tony Martin and Marjorie Weaver, who is the romantic interest. The plot, what the Ritz Brothers leave of it, is fairly plausible. A radio company sends its talent scout, Tony Martin, down to Kentucky to get some real hillbillies. Marjorie Weaver, waiting for an audition, overhears the plans and rushes back to her theatrical boarding house to tell the Ritz Brothers. They go down to the hills, disguise themselves as mountaineers, get mixed up in an old feud, hoodwink Tony Martin into putting on a broadcast in the mountains, and when the smoke clears away a romance nearly goes on the rocks, is patched up again, and fame on the radio comes to everyone. The film includes Slim Summerville, John Carradine, Wally Vernon, Berton Churchill, and Eddie Collins in the cast. Darryl F. Zanuck selected David Butler to direct ‘ Kentucky Moonshine,’ with Kenneth Macgowan associate producer. Art Arthur and M. M. Musselman wrote the screen play from the original story by Musselman and Jack Lait, jun. OCTAGON With the presence in the cast of the sparkling comedy, ‘ Break the News,’ ending to-night at the Octagon, of two such widely-popnlar comedians as Jack Buchanan and Maurice Chevalier, here is entertainment out of the common. A NORWEGIAN FESTIVAL. ‘ Happy Landing,’ a show aglow with joy-laden wonder, winging from gay Norseland festivals to New York winter time spectacles, will come to the Octagon to-morrow with a Sonja radiant beyond imagining. This 20th CenturyFox musical stars Sonja Heme and Don Amenhe. It tells the story of a songwriting band leader (Cesar Romero) who flies across the Atlantic for a publicity stunt and comes down in a Norwegian fog-bank—almost in the middle of a folk festival known as a “ Bride’s Fair.” The custom which starts the trouble is a rule that if a young man dances twice with the same girl at the party he has proposed. The band leader, a little bit amused because one lovelorn little girl is giving him plenty of his favourite food—hero worship—dances twice with Sonja Herne. That starts the silvery, sumptuous show on its way. Don Ameche, the flying baton-wielder’s companion, knows there is little or no sincere interest in Romero’s attentions, inasmuch as he is very much engaged to an American girl, played by Ethel Merman. From this point on a whole new world of happiness opens for film fans. A Sonja breathlessly in love, breath-taking on the ice, thrills as she never thrilled before 1 There are the colourful American winter carnivals, the glittering gaieties of Paris and Miami, the breathless ice ballets of New York roof gardens—and songs, songs, songs 1 The songs by Pokrass and Yellen include ‘ Hot and Happy,’ ‘ A Gipsy Told Me,’ ‘ You Are the Music to the Words of My Heart,’ and ‘ Yonny and His Oompah.’ Walter Bullock and Harold. Spina, who wrote most of the hit tunes for ‘ Love and Hisses,’ contributed ‘ You Appeal To Me ’ to the score of ‘ Hot and Happy.’ Jean Hersholt, Ethel Merman, and Cesar Romero are featured in the cast of 1 Happy Landing.’ ST. JAMES Sapper’s famous character, Bulldog Drummond, returns to the screen in ‘ Bulldog Drummond’s Peril,’ based on the novel ‘The Third Round,’ which ends tn-ncriht at the St. James, with I College Swing,’ an entertaining production in which an exceedingly competent group of comedians, Grade Allen, George Burns, and Edward Everett Horton help to keep the fun going at a merry pace. PARACHUTING MURDERER. Coming to-morrow to the St. James is ‘ Non-Stop New York,’ directed by Robert Stevenson, and starring John Loder, Anne Lee, Jerry Vernon, Athene Seyler, Ellen Pollock, Frank Cellier, and Drusilla Wills. The story centres on a chorus girl who becomes inextricably embroiled with a notorious American gang. The police refuse to believe her story on the grounds that she is seeking publicity, and she is forced to play a lone hand in bringing the criminals to justice. A transatlantic airliner is the setting for this drama, and it is while the giant boat is flying through space at 300 miles an hour that the film unfolds its tale' of murder, blackmail, and romance. Excitement rises when the blackmailer is found shot, and a climax is reached when the murderer leaps into the night on a parachute, leaving the plane lurch ing through the air out of control. John Loder appears as a Scotland Yard inspector, and Anna Lee is the little chorus girl who stows away on the plane. The adventures of a typical American family, with much of its comedy and no little of its drama, are packed in ‘ You’re Only Young Once.’ which will be the second feature. With the able Lewis Stone in the featured role, supported by an excellent cast which includes Cecilia Parker, Mickey Rooney, and Fay Holden, the story is fast-moving and well presented. The narrative describes an American family group of five on their first vacation in II years. The complications which ensue when daughter and son become involved in romantic adventures disturbs the even tenor of family routine. It is Lewis Stone, as the father, to the rescue. He saves the children from dangerous situations through an acute understanding and handling of their problems. The supporting cast includes Frank Craven, Ann Riltherford, Eleanor Lynn, Ted Pearson, Sara Hadcn, Charles Jndels, and Selmer Jackson.

EMPIRE Fred Mae Murray, Harriet Hilliard, and the Yacht Club Boys are featured in ‘ Coconut Grove,’ which ends tonight at the Empire. Set against the background of Hollywood’s most famous night club the entertainment is a bright and breezy one.

SUBMARINE ACTION. ‘ Submarine D-l,’ a melodrama dealing with the exploits of Uncle Sam’s undersea boats and the gallant lads who man them, opens to-morrow at the Empire. The picture is authentic as well as stirring, for it was made with the complete co-operation of the navy, which turned over to the movie makers all its facilities at Newport, R. 1., Cocos Coco in the Panama Canal zone, and San Diego, California. There are scores of battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and aeroplanes taking part, and many hundreds of sailors and marines arc seen going through their peace-time and war game duties. So ‘ Submarine D-l ’ seems to be just what its makers term it—best “ service ” film Warner Bros, have ever made. Pat O’Brien and George 'Brent are co-starred and in a part that seems to be quite as important is young Wayne Morris, the lad who shot to the top ranking recently on the strength of one picture, ‘ Kid Galahad.’ Then, too, in the cast are such well-known troupers as Frank M'Hngh, Doris Weston, Regis Toomey, and Henry O’Neill. But after all it is the “ D-l ” itself—a new navy sub, which also bears the title of “ Dolphin,” that is the “ hero of the piece. The plot has largely to do with certain devices developed by Pat O’Brien and George Brent—one for sending imprisoned men in a sunken submarine to the surface safely by means of “ air lungs,” another for raising the vessel itself. Miss Weston sustains wdiat feminine love interest there is in the story, while Frank M'Hngh provides his usual brand of humour. Lloyd Bacon, who is at his best_ in stories of fast and thrilling action, directed ‘ Submarine D-l ’ from a screen play by William Wister Haines, based on a story by Commander rank Wead, U.S.N. REGENT ‘ Stolen Heaven,’ which ends tonight at the Regent, with a cast headed by glamorous Olympe Bradna and Gene Raymond, tells a story of the flight of two young jewel thieves from the police of half of Europe and plays it against a background of the best-liked pieces of such master composers as Liszt, Moskowski, Chopin, and Strauss. MISTAKEN IDENTITIES. Splendid entertainment will be offered at the Regent to-morrow, when the comedy, ‘ Romance For Three,’ is to be shown. The cast is an impressive one, and the story is admirably treated by Frank Morgan and Robert Young in leading roles. ‘Romance For Three’ has included in its cast many of the principals of the former comedy, ‘ Beg, Borrow, or Steal,’ one of the most successful productions of its kind in recent years. A wealthy and influential financier wins first prize in a slogan contest which he himself has initiated. He elects to go to a holiday resort in the alps for a prize, pretending on Ins arrival to be a poor man imitating a rich one. His family learns of the masquerade, however, and inform the hotel management, but a mistake in identities is made and another contest winner, Robert Young, whp actually is poor, is thought to be the financier who is relegated to a servant’s room in the attic, while Young is lavished with attention. Young and Morgan thoroughly enjoy the change of personalities and prefer each other’s company, much to the amazement of other wealthy guests at the hotel. When Morgan's beautiful daughter (Florence Rice) arrives to rescue her father from the indignities she has learned are being imposed upon him the position becomes more involved by her becoming engaged to the impoverished Robert Young. Insulted by the hotel management, Morgan and the remainder of the party leave. The film ends happily when Young is given a position in the firm controlled by Morgan and weds the girl. PETER LORRE—SLEUTH NEW CHARACTER FOR CLEVER ACTOR A cowboy who sings his way through adventures in the West and a private sleuth who quietly goes about his way to solve crime are the principals in the two pictures that came to the Grand yesterday. They are ‘ Mi; Moto’s Gamble ’ and ‘ Panamint’s Bad Man,’ and each'scored an instant success. ‘ Mr Moto’s Gamble,’ in which Pete Lorre is Mr Moto, is a worth-while film in the series, with plenty of exciting incidents and vigorous direction. The imperturbable little Japanese sleuth is given an assignment as a lecturer in criminology at an American college. He has the opportunity to put his precepts into practice following a murder that is committed in the presence of an audience of, 20,000 people. The victim is a prize-fighter who does not recover from the winning blow administered by Dick'Baldwin, his opponent. Mr Moto proves that the death was not an accident, but murder; and suspicion falls on Baldwin. The Japanese detective then sets out to solve the intricate puzzle with his own brand of deduction, and the trail leads him down many strange bypaths, involving him with a crooked fight promoter, gambling syndicates, and plain and fancy gangsters, as well as causing a certain amount of peril to his own skin. Members of the audience who fancy themselves as amateur detectives will enjoy the unravelling of the plot, but others may find the process a trifle too eomnlicated to be followed easily. As further proof that the Mr Moto series is to take up the running from the Charlie Chan series, it is to he noted that a major role is played by Keye Luke, who plays his now familiar character as Chan’s son and acts as Mr Moto’s assistant while his father is supposed to be on a holiday. When the modern “ racketeer ” replaced the oldfashioned rustler on the range the next step was only logical. To Smith Ballew, cowboy singer, goes the distinction of being the first detective of the West, in his newest release, ‘ Panamint’s Bad Man,’ the second film Crammed with typical outdoor action, the film introduces Ballew as a new type of law-maker. With the hold-ups of the Wells-Fargo silver express slopped by a simple expedient, Ballew then sets about catching the gang. STRAND ‘ Nurse Prom Brooklyn,’ the Universal production which ends to-night at the Strand witli ‘Last Journey,’ reveals many of the hitherto hidden methods used by the famous American police and G-men in tracking down a killer in a great city, and shows the little chance of escape that most criminals have. GENE AUTREY’S LATEST. Some of the most spectacular llainofighting scenes ever thrown upon a movie screen are promised in the Warner Brothers melodrama. ‘ She Loved a Fireman,’ which will open -to-morrow at the Strand, with Dick Foran as the hero Foran plays a new-clnnn fireman who conics under the command of a hard-boiled captain, portrayed by

Robert Armstrong. The two become bitter enemies even though Dick falls in love with Bob’s sister—the lovely, redhaired Ann Sheridan. During' the waterfront conflagration Bob is disabled and apparently doomed to death in the flames, when Dick, by superhuman efforts, rescues him, and then peace is restored all round. Others in the cast include Veda Arm Borg, Eddie Acutf, May Beatty, and Eddie Chandler. A Gene Autry picture. ‘ Boots and Saddle,’ is scheduled as the supporting feature Ronnie Sinclair, the new boy star from New Zealand, has an important part in this production. He takes the role of “ Spud,” an orphaned son of a British lord, who comes to settle his father’s cattle interests. A novel situation results from the youth’s desire to sell the ranch to Neale, an unscrupulous rancher, in order to settle his father’s estate. Neale wants to use the ranch to train horses for the army. Autry, meanwhile, has taken a kindly interest in the boy, and he proposes that “ Spud ” do the same thing, securing a Government contract and raising the horses on his own account, thus holding the ranch, and at the same time earning money to pay off its indebtedness. Neale, naturally furious when ho learns his plans are to be thwarted, resorts to foul means to prevent “ Spud ” from getting the contract. Judith Alien lias the leading feminine role in this new production. MAYFAIR Arrested for murder —Charlie Chan himself. That unbelievable situation occurs in ‘ Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo,’ which is now at the Mayfair, and presents the world’s “ ace ” detective at the world’s gayest playground. It is murder for a “ million ” when death deals a hand at the gaming tables. And Chan takes a raillion-to-one chance to solve a triple murder. Having portrayed Chan for nearly six years, and with this Twentieth Century-Fox production as his sixteenth characterisation of the sleuth, Warner Olancl by now is a more mystifying Oriental than even Keye Luke. This time the prefect of police, played by Harold Huber, greets Chan at the Casino de Monte Carlo. The picture shows that behind all of the gaiety and gambling, financial intrigues in the Bourse play for still higher stakes—a million dollars in bonds which will ruin one man and make another powerful. A bank messenger and his chauffeur are slain. A Casino har-tendev who holds a blackmail grip on one banker’s wife dies with the loot in a valise near his body “ Chcrchez la femme ” says the prefect of police, and through an intricate web involving a mysterious English girl, Chan achieves his most brilliant case. There are laughs in profusion, especially as Charlie Chan sets forth in a taxicab to accompany his son to a Parisian art exhibit. All in all, an excellent cast helps Gland ami Huber through the mystery maze. There are interesting fenturettes in support.