PICTURE THEATRES

Evening Star, Issue 23351, 22 August 1939, Page 13

PICTURE THEATRES

GRAND Realism is tho keynote of ‘ North of Shanghai,’ the gripping drama which is the feature to conclude to-night at tho Grand. The picture is set against tho grim background of the SinoJapauese conflict. The associate feature is ‘ Whispering Enemies,’ in whioli Jack Holt is seen as a wealthy commercial magnate who adopts a novel method of dealing with enemies who have been slandering him. QUINS’. THIRD FEATURE. The Dionne quintuplets appear in their third Twentieth Century-Fox feature picture, ‘ Five of a Kind,’ coming to-morrow to the Grand. They graduate from the roles of their previous productions and emerge as real little troupers. One of the highlights of the picture and the big thrill for moviegoers is, tho critics say, to see these famous youngsters actually performing a vital part in a high-speed, big-city action romance. In addition to the rendering of their vocal and dance numbers, they broadcast on the radio and are transported to New York for a appearance in a Broadway auditorium through nothing less than television. The oast surrounding the quintuplets is headed by Jean Hersholt, Claire Trevor, and Cesar Romero, with Slim Summerville, Henry Wilcoxon, Inez Courtney, John Qualen, Jane Harwell, and Pauline Moore also featured. Executive producer Sol. M, _ Wurtzel was in charge of the production, with Herbert L. Leeds director. Lynn Bari and June Lang are two young Indies out to see the world and have excitement in Twentieth Century-Fox’s 1 Meet the Girls,’ them first screen escapade together. The film, which will be the second attraction, is the first of what is to be described as the new Big Town Girls series. STATE A great feast of fun is being served up to audiences at the State, where the Twentieth Century-Fox production, ‘ Keep Smiling,’ starring England’s greatest comedienne, Gracie fields, started a season. From the first riotous moment, when she is seen as a burlesque “ Tommy ” having difficulty with her uniform, to the last triumphant scene at a luxury beach pavilion, Miss Fields is the life and soul of the year’s brightest screen party. Tho director of Grade’s last big success, ‘ We’re Going to be Rich,’ has again derived the utmost from his story and cast. The story of this picture provides filmgoers with a refreshing and happv tonic. Gracie herself is, in fact, all tfie film, despite the zealous trouping of her fellows in the cast. Clowning her way through the narrative in the familiar manner beloved of her millions of fans, she appears as a concert party comedienne who lends her troupe to victory against long odds, and is given the final thrust to prosperity by the high-minded gesture of a young piano virtuoso who gives a classical recital on the opening night. It is a somewhat free and easy story, handled in a free and easy manner, telling of the adventures of a performing troupe up and down the country, with a spot of villainy and a confected vein of romance thrown in as makeweight. Gracie, during the course of the film, is heard in a sextet or so of songs —some grave, others gay, and at least one religious. She puts every ounce of her mercurial personality into passages which would probably be meaningless without her. She has never been better served musically than in ‘ Keep Smiling,’ and she gives a magnificent performance. NEAGLE AND WALBROOK, The glowing love romance of a great Queen, the march of Empire, worldshaking historical episodes that cover a span of over half a century, come to the screen in ‘ Sixty Glorious Years,’ produced by Herbert Wilcox as a companion production for his ‘ Victoria the Great.’ It will be shown on Friday at the State. Against an impressive background of time’s weaving pass notable men and women whose lives have furnished inexhaustible material for dramatist and novelist. 1 They live again on the silver sheet, these people who made history and left behind them unforgettable names on the chronicles of their age. As formerly, AnnaNeagle has the role of Queen Victoria, and Anton Walbrook that of the Prince Consort, Albert, Pomp and magnificence mark the drama’s opening, with the slim figure of the girlish Sovereign delivering an address to Parliament on January 16, 1940. The Duke of Wellington, national military idol, played by C. Aubrey Smith, is seen commenting in undertones to his friend and political all} - . Sir Robert Peel. Besides the nobles of the period, the commoners muster in force to hail the ushering in of a new era in old England. EMPIRE Empire audiences are showing their approval of Universal’s latest comedy. ‘ You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man,’ in no uncertain terms. W. C. Fields and Charlie M'Carthy (with Edgar Bergen and at times the uncouth Mortimer Snerd) are the reasons for the fiilm’s success, and they both excel themselves. Charlie M'Carthy is seen more often than in any previous feature, and is at all times extremely funny. Mortimer Snerd, the hayseed accomplice of Charlie’s, is also heard and seen to advantage. An especially funny sequence has as its setting the basket of a balloon once captive but now floating free over the landscape. Edgar is anxious. Charlie airsick, and Mortimer enthralled by tho view, though wondering what holds them up now that, the rope has been cut. More orthodox, though strictly individual, is the comedy provided by W. C. Fields. An impecunious, dishonest circus manager and impresario. he runs foul of sheriffs and his employees, displays open hostility to Charlie, and nearly wrecks his daughter’s romance. The daughter is an attractive newcomer by the name of Constance Moore. The background of circus life provides many opportunities for comedy. An ingenious shower bath is used by Fields when he commands one of the show’s elephants to squirt trunkfuls of water over him. (“ Hold the next one a bit longer; that was too cold.”) ‘‘ALLEY KIDS” IN SOCIETY. Hilarious adventures of a gang of East Side alley kids as invited guests at a fashionable Long Island estate are revealed in ‘ Little Tough Guys in Society,’ which will be commenced on Friday at tho Empire, with Misclm Auer, Mary Boland, Edward Everett Horton, and Helen Parrish. Not only does the film present three of the screen’s foremost comedy stars in a smartly-tailored story, but it introduces Universal's famous group of

vaudeville actors, the Little Tough Guys, into high society. Filmed from an original screen play by Edward Eliscu and Mortimer OtFner, the story tells what happens when a socialite mother, Mary Boland, “ adopts ” a lot of alley kids as companions to help her indolent son, Jackie Searl, discover the joyous possibilities of youth. Miseha Auer appears as an eccentric psychiatrist and Edward Everett Horton depicts the watchful English butler who is horrified by the antics and behaviour of “ the little gentlemen from the settlement house.” ST. JAMES Among the juvenile actors of the present day Mickey llooney Has built around himself a reputation that stands high in the estimation of the picture-going public, and justly so. In ‘ The Scrapper,’ the main current attraction at the St. James, he has a part w'hicli enables him to make very full use of his dramatic ability. He is a “ scrapper fpr his father, a. shellshocked war hero, a man whose gallant deeds in wartime won him decorations and. paeans of praise, but with the war over his wartime gallantry is forgotten. His sou’s loyalty never wavers. Anne Nagel and Frank Shields have the principal supporting roles. Also on the programme is ‘ Men Are Such Fools,’ adapted froni a story by, Faith Baldwin. The'story deals with married women going to business and what happens when they find that charm helps a career. The chief players are Wayne Morris, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart, and Hugh Herbert. REGENT ‘ Four’s a Crowd,’ which is at the Regent, has only one objective, and that is to make the audience laugh. It is a bright sophisticated comedy of the modern type, with a swift-moving story complicated by a rapid succession of novel and humorous situations. Tho four persons with whose adventures it is mainly concerned are a newspaperman, Bob Lansford (Errol Flynn), a spoiled but charming heiress, Lorn Dillingwell, played by Olivia de Havilland; a clever and smooth-tongued girl reporter', Jean Christy, portrayed by Rosalind Russell; and a rich playboy, Patterson Buckley (Patrie Knowles). The plot is provided by Bob Lansford’s desire to get a portion of the fortune owned by the heiress’s grandfather (Walter Connolly) and his efforts to court both girls simultaneously; the indecision of, the heiress as to which of the two men she loves; the girl reporter’s desire to capture Bob for herself; the playboy’s wish to marry Lorri; and the old grandfather’s determination to keep both his granddaughter and his millions. The story begins when Patterson Buckley inherits a newspaper and then decides to end its existence because it is unprofitable. Jean Christy, one of the reporters, tells him w r hat she thinks of him, and persuades, him not only to keep it alive, but to engage Bob Lansford as its managing editor. Lansford puts the paper on its feet, bis main device to arouse interest being to launch a series of attacks on grandpa’s business manipulations. Complications ensue. SPENCER TRACY TRIUMPH. Many films have come to Dunedin from Hollywood preceded by extensive publicity campaigns. If ever there was a picture, however, which lived up to the apt slogan, “ a great emotional thrill,” Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s ‘ Boys’ Town,’ which will be commenced at the Regent on Friday, is said to be it. Keen theatregoers have had many opportunities ot appreciating the fine acting of Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney in films in which they starred separately, but here they are said to have produced their crowning masterpiece. Not since Tracy was being acclaimed for his fine work in ‘ Captains Courageous ’ has he been seen to such advantage. Here, in 1 Boys’ Town,’ in the part of a priest, rather reminiscent of the role he played in ‘ San Francisco,’ yet many times more appealing, he ” lives the part of Father Flanagan, actual American citizen, who founded the famous institution for homeless boys—Boys’ Town. Mickey Rooney is seen as Whitey Marsh, who is placed under Father Flanagan’s care, and who fancies himself as - a “ tough ” character. The drama reaches its peak in the subjugation of Whitev’s unruly characteristics by the forceful personality of the priest, and the obligations imposed by the communal life of Boys’ Town. STRAND ‘ Pirates of tbe Skies,’ the maiii attraction at the Strand, is an exciting story of modern bandits pitting themselves against equally up-to-date police. Kent Taylor, Rochelle Hudson, and Lueien Littlefield are starred in this production and all give good performances. The manner in which the criminals obtain their information is clever, a dictaphone in a cafe, pigeon pie, and carrier birds all helping in their activities. ‘ His Exciting Night.’ which is a comedy starring Charlie Ruggles, is the supporting film. Written from the play ‘ Adam’s Evening,’ by Katherine Kavanaugh, the script is hilarious, but Ruggles with his own style makes it doubly so. _ In support are Stepin Fetchit, Marion Martin, Maxie Rosenbloom, and Ona Mauson. MAYFAIR An entertaining double-feature programme, which contains drama and tense excitement, coupled with uproarious humour, is to finish to-night at the Mayfair. The two films are • Spawn of the North.’ a drama which stars George Raft, and ‘ Convict 99,’ an English comedy with the inimitable Will Hay once again seen as the muddling Dr Benjamin Twist. HILARIOUS BROOKLYN TALE. Although it starts in a Western locale, ‘ Cowboy From Brooklyn,’ the Warner Brothers’ musical farce which will commence a season at the Mayfair to-morrow, with Pat O’Brien, Dick Powell, and Priscilla Lane in the main roles, is definitely not a Western picture, for it takes nothing in tho Western scene seriously. It is an hilariout tale of the complications which ousuo when a New York theatrical producer, played by O’Brien, comes to a Wyoming “ dude ” ranch and assumes that a trio of stranded musicians who dress up in cowboy duds while they entertain the guests are authentic cowboys. Taking tho leader of the trio, played by Dick Powell, back to New York and launching him on a highly successful radio career as a cowboy crooner, ho discovers that his cowboy is reallv a Brooklyn youth who has never ridden a horse. In support will he the entrancing character study which has captivated critics the world over, ‘ Owd Bob.’