PICTURE THEATRES

Evening Star, Issue 23729, 9 November 1940, Page 7

PICTURE THEATRES

THE NEW PROGRAMMES SONGS THAT MADE HISTORY DON AMECHE PLAYS STEPHEN FOSTER Telling a colourful, romantic, and fascinating story. ‘ Swanco River, winch lorn x the new programme afc the OcU o on, \a lavish entertainment. Produced in techmcolour, it is a musical treat with the melodious Stephen Foster songs presented m a most natural and charming manner. Ihe story tells how the composer, Stephen C. Foster, became famous and wealthy and how his young wife is instrumental m snvhim from his one failing. And as the siory is told there are interspersed some ot the songs which have made history. The beloved and famous melodies that are America’s only real folk music, and the thrilling story of the man who wrote them are* featured. One leaves the theatre with ears ringing with the melodies that seem to express the very heart of America— ” he Old Folks at Home ’(* Swanee River ), ‘ Old Black Joe,’ ‘ My Old Kentucky; Home, ‘ He Camptown Races,’ ‘ Jeame With the Light Brown Hair,’ ‘ Ring, King de Banjo,’ and ‘Oh! Susanna!’ A 1 Jolson is heard in the musical numbers after a long absence from tho_ screen, while the Hall Johnson Choir assists. „ ' Swanee River ’ reveals Stephen O. Foster’s happy young manhood, his early struggles, the introduction of his songs by Christy’s Minstels, his meeting with and marriage to “ Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair,” his rapid rise to fame and carefree life with his wife and daughter; then, with relentless realism, it reveals Foster’s emotional instability, his disappointments, his gradual disintegration, and eventually his death in a shabby Bowery rooming house. Don Ameche plays Foster just as he _ was —sweet and tender, headstrong, inspired, and emotionally unstable. As Jane, Andrea Leeds is a proper inspiration for some of America’s greatest music. A 1 Jolson puts over the role of Christy, the, black-face minstrel man, with a humour and vigour unparalleled in his long career. ‘Swanee Eiver ’ recalls those colourful, romantic days of minstrels and river boats; the nostalgic touches are an added attraction to this picture that has everything else. • Featured in the supporting cast are Felix Bressart, Chick Chandler, Russell Hicks, George Reed, and the Hall Johnson Choir, whose singing of the Foster songs is memorable indeed. Sidney Lanfield directed with a sureness of touch and feeling for the story that makes it a genuine delight. Darryl F. Zanuck was in charge of production. John Taintor Foote and Philip Duhno wrote the screen play, for which few liberties on the facts of Foster’s life had to be taken, so dramatic were the essential details.

1 OH, JOHNHY ’

SONG HIT AT STRAND Picturing the hilarious adventures of a travelling salesman and a runaway heiress in a story which blends music with gay romance, Universal’s ‘ Oh, Johnny, How You Can Love,’ commenced yesterday at the Strand. The picture features two new songs by Frank Skinner and Paul Gerard Smith, and offers enough thrills and fast action to satisfy every movie-goer. Johnny Sandham (Tom Brown), young travelling salesman, meets pretty “ Kelly ” Archer (Peggy Moran), runaway heiress, when their cars collide. “ Kelly ” hitches a ride with Johnny, but his truck is caught in a battle between police and gangsters. One of the latter; Weasel (Allen Jenkins), deserted by his pals, orders Johnny and “ Kelly ” to drive him toward the Canadian border. Halted in a small town, the judge sends the trio to a combination garage and autocourt, where they must stay until the truck’s brakes are repaired. Thistlebottom (Donald Meek), camp manager, exhibits his inventions, including automatic doors and disappearing beds. Junior (Juanita Quigley), camp pest, is shooting fireworks to celebrate July 4. Johnny tells Weasel he is kidnapping “ Kelly ’’ for an enormous ransom. At a community sing in the camp Betty (Betty Jane Rhodes) sings ‘ Oh, Johnny, How You Can Love,’ which makes Johnny and “ Kelly ” admit their mutual affection. Meanwhile Weasel’s gangster pals arrive, and demand a cut in the anticipated “ ransom.” Battling the criminals, Johnny uses fireworks. Then, in the bathroom with “ Kelly ’’ and Junior, he presses all.the control buttons. Automatic doors and windows fly into action and knock the gangsters out Police arrive to arrest them, and Johnny drives away. Suddenly Kelly,” too, swings on to the truck and starts humming the song ‘ Ob, Johnny,’ as the boy takes her in his arms. ‘ She Couldn’t Say No,’ the second attraction, features a comedy star who rose to stardom like a rocket. He is Tommy Trinder. His rise in the last year or two was sudden, but his early years contain the usual stage story of hard work and small returns. First in a music hall as a boy vocalist, he performed later in working men’s clubs at 7s 6d a night, when his voice broke At 19 he had a good break, becoming principal comedian with Archie Pitt at £ls weekly. At 21 he toured South Africa, then came five years of seaside concert party work. A Brighton engagement brought him to the notice of Jack Hylton. In April, 1939, radio first heard him as a last-minute deputy in ‘ Music Hall,’ and the rest of his career is s familiar story. Topliner in radio, star turn of exclusive West End cabarets, star of the Palladium’s famous shows, and now a film star, a briliant record for the yonugest star comic in Britain.

HEIR TO EARLDOM

CHICAGO GANGSTER’S EXPERIENCES A most unusual story, fine acting, and a good deal of satirical humour have gone into the making of 1 'l’ho Earl of Chicago/ which opened yesterday at the Regent. Robert Montgomery, as Silky Kilmount, hathe leading part, and Edward Arnold, as Doc Ramsay, plays opposite him. Reginald Owen portrays an English lawyer, and Edmund .Gwenn Munsey, butler at Gorloy Castle. When Doc Ramsay comes out of prison, having served a seven-year sentence on a false charge, ho is not pleased to see Silky Kilmount waiting for him, for lie knows that it was because of Kilmount that he was sent to prison. Silky, however, wants a clever lawyer under his thumb, and offers Doc a job as manager of the. Kilmount Distilleries, a profitable enterprise made more profitable by strong-arm methods. Doc, thinking only of revenge, accepts and bides his time. Silky, as the Doc tells him, is a sybarite. Elis fiat and his office are furnished in voluptuous splendour, and his main aim iu life is to get more and more of the luxuries of creature comfort. With his new lawyer’s assistance his ambition is consider ably helped, and the business piles up in geometric progression as tho days go by. Then the English lawyer arrives, and the incredible facts come out that Silky, crude racketeer, is Earl of Gorley and owner of vast estates in England and on the Continent —several million pounds’ worth of tradition and real estate. . From the moment he arrives in England Silky feels out of place; he only wants the money, and all of Doc’s pleadings to “ see the sights ” are unavailing. Silky is not interested m the Bloody Tower—he has seen it in the movies, and it looks like a skyscraper before they put the walls up. Though ho cannot understand it, he rather likes the devotion of old Munsey and the other ■ servants and villagers, and ha even faces the awful ceremony of taking his place in the House of Lords when he finds that he can acquire a seat in “ Congress, ' as he calls it, as a matter of right, with out any of tho American preliminaries ol voting and election. But, despite his growing liking for customs that once prompted him to remark that he knew why the Mayflower was so crowded, lie still the money and his home in Chicago. The climax comes when ho discovers that his clever lawyer has purposely forgotten to tell him that the riph lands that he owns are entailed and therefore cannot he converted into cash. This show has many laugns m it, real laughs, because they are always close to tragedy. Montgomery’s acting creates an atmosphere of foreboding 'which is not let down in the end. All told, ‘ The Earl of Chicago ’ is a remarkable film, right out of the ordinary for the majority seeking pleasant entertainment, and yet well worth serious study.

COVERED WAGON DAYS

FLYNN STARS IN U.S.A. EPIC With a cast headed by Errol Flynn and Miriam. Hopkins, ‘ Virginia City ’ was released yesterday at the Empire. The picture tells a fast-moving story of the troubled times of the American Civil War, when the Confederates were trying desperately to got more money to finance their fast-diminishing supplies of goods and ammunition. Errol Flynn, as Captain Bradford, a Union prisoner of war, is discovered in an attempt to break prison by Randolph Scott, who plays the part of a Southern supporter. In spite of precautions taken against him, Bradford manages to escape with two of his men, and goes to head-, quarters, to be told that a wagon train laden with five million dollars’ worth of bullion, is to leave Virginia City for the south. He is given the job of stopping the gold from reaching its destination. Discarding his uniform, Bradford boards one of the famous Wells Fargo stage coaches, and, as a civilian of a peaceful nature, meets :and is instantly attracted to Miss Julia Haines (Miriam Hopkins), who is also travelling to Virginia City. Julia is in reality a spy, and a partner of Vance (Randolph Scott), but is well disguised in her role of a tough cafe entertainer in one of the notorious gambling saloons in the mining town which is a byword for vice and general misbehaviour. When Bradford goes to the hotel in search of clues which might lead him to the gold, ho recognises the girl and is bitterly disappointed to find her in such an atmosphere. His duty, however, leads him to oilier things, and he finally finds the dilapidated blacksmith’s shop where the gold is hidden. In spite of his efforts, the wagon, laden with the gold and guarded by many faithful men ami women manages to leave the town, and Bradford and his two scouts, aided by Union soldiers, set out in pux’suit. A series of oxciting episodes follow, and Juan Morel, a Mexican bandit and leader of a strong force of guerrilla soldiers, takes a band Morel (played by Humphrey Bogart) and bis men attack the wagon train, and an ironical situation ensues when Bradford and his men have to interfere and fight on the side of their enemies till Morel is put out of action.

This film has plenty of excitement and action, while the presence of such stars as Miriam Hopkins and Errol Flynn, so ably assisted by Randolph Scott, ensures an extremely high standard of acting. The settings and scenes of the great desert over which the wagon train passes are very good.

‘ SCATTERBRAIN'

MERRY COMEDY OF ERRORS The theme of ‘ Scatterbrain,’ one of (ho funniest films seen here in years, is ably expressed in the title. Ami playing what might be termed the title role is Judy Canova, the “Jenny Lind of the Ozarks.’’ The opening at the St. James yesterday proved that all that has been said about ‘Scatterbrain’ is correct; the performance is as catchy and attractive as its themo tune, which in a few days has bccomo well known to everybody. Supporting is ‘Tundra, an Arctic epic of good quality. The story of ‘ Scatterbrain’ is of Eddie Maclntyre, breezy Press agent, talent scout, and right-hand man to J. R. Russell, pro-ducer-director of Perfection Pictures, who contrives the scheme to “ plant ” his girl friend, actress Esther Harrington, in the Ozark Mountains and then “ discover ” her

for tho role ot Ruthybelle in Perfection’s forthcoming production, ' Thunder Over the Ozarks.’ With the full approval of Nicholas Raptis, Goldwynian president of Perfection Pictures, Eddie farms Esther out to a real hillbilly family, where she is to remain until she is “ discovered ” —tho discovery, of course, to be accompanied by groat fanfare and publicity. J. R. Russell has heard a recording of Esther’s voice, but he has never seen her, .and when he arrives at the Ozarks he “ discovers ” the wrong girl, and signs up Judy Hull, daughter of the genuine hillbilly family, instead of Esther. The mistake is not discovered until Judy arrives in Hollywood. She immediately becomes Perfection’s public problem No. 1. Because there are no loopholes in her contract Perfection will be obliged to retain her; yet if they use hor in a picture her hillbilly antics will make them the laughing stock of the industry Moreovexy if they admit their error they - will be placed iu a ridiculous position before tho moviedom Press, which lias widely publicised their “ find.” At length a loophole is discovered in contract; her contract is null and void if she marries J. R. Russell informs Eddie that inasmuch as he got Perfection into the mess it is up to him to marry Judy to break her contract. Eddie, aghast at this eventuality, pei’suades Raptis to hire Professor de Lemma, a specialist in mind transference, to persuade Judy that she does not want to be a movie star, but wants to return to her cows and pigs and chickens. The professor is to work this miracle at a special Press party at which Judy is expected to make the announcement that she will forsake her screen career and return to the Ozarks. The rest of the story is too good to tell. Never before in the history of motion pictures have the dangers and grandeur of tho great Alaska wilderness lying north of tho Yukon River been depicted by the camera on such a tremendous scale as in ‘ Tundra.’ The film reveals by its wonderful photography the marvels and horrors of this savage and desolate region, uninhabited except for tho presence of a few Eskimo communities around the Arctic Circle, hundreds of miles apart. The story covers tho exciting adventures of a white doctor, whose one-seater plane is wrecked in the- interior of this frozen hell, desperately fighting his way to an outlying post of civilisation.

CISCO KID AT GRAND

J. G. REEDER MYSTERY SUPPORTS Made famous on the screen by Warner Baxter, O. Henry’s romantic character, the ’Cisco Kid, is given a new lease of life by Cesar Romero in ‘ Viva Cisco Kid,’ the main feature on the Grand programme. Romero is idea! as the romantic-minded kid, and ho carries off his portrayal with gusto. As in former days, the Kid has an eye for the ladies, and his admiration for Jean Rogers in this episode of his adventures once again interferes with his banditry. As bis devoted lieutenant, Chris-pin Martin is all that could be desired. The supporting film, an outstanding example of British mystery stories, is ‘ The Missing People,’ which concerns. the mysterious disappearance of 27 people in one year. No one realises that these disappearances are in any way connected till. J. G. Reeder unearths the fact that each and every one of them had been a lonely, friendless person, and that all were in the habit of receiving monthly registered letters concerning certain sums of money. With these twp facts to work on the little man takes his umbrella into many parte of London, till he finally runs the villains to earth in an old mansion in Essex. This film has a genuine Edgar Wallace flavour, with all Wallace’s “ peculiar people ” very much in evidence. Sam Ha-kctt, the Cockney, has another part, and there is an unctuous family lawyer with a fondness for cate, to say nothing of a inVsterious Mr de Silvo, who seems to be the ringleader, but who can never he found when wanted. The right, slightly tense atmosphere is maintained throughout, and is enlivened with typical Will Fyffo humour and gesture in the role of the wily Mr Reeder. 1

1 ANNE OF GREEN GABLES'

FOLLDW-UP STORY AT STATE Bringing with it all the happy human appeal that made the charming “ Anne ” books favourites of thousands, ‘ Anno of Windy Poplars ’ commenced its Dunedin season at the State yesterday as the screen version of L. M. Montgomery’s novel. There are two love stories —that of Anne and the doctor, played by Patricia Knowles and Henry Travers, and the stormier romance of tho characters played by James Ellison and Louise Campbell. ‘ Anne of Windy Poplars ’ is an appealing down-to-earth drama that catches all the charm that characterised the novel by L. M. Montgomery, from which the film is taken. Playing the part of Anne is beautiful Anne Shirley, who was boomed to stardom by her portrayal of Anne in' ‘ Anne of Green Gables,’ and from whom she took what is no\y her own name. The story deals with the efforts of Anne to win the friendship of the town where she is stationed as school teacher, against the hostility of a powerful family, after whom the town is -named, who had ate tempted to get the job for ono of their, clan. How she finally succeeds in overcoming this enmity and prejudice is charmingly told in this heart-warming story. ‘ Anne of Windy Poplars ’ is a warmly human drama of a school teacher’s struggle to win the confidence and friendship of the town where she is stationed after all doors have been closed to her by tho hosiility engendered by a powerful family who wanted tho position for one of their own clan and Imped to force her to resign. Anne Shirley again brings to the character of Anne, from whom she took her own name, the spontaneity and sensitive naturalness which brought her stardom in ‘ Anno of Green Gabies,’

In support James Ellison heads the featured cast, which includes Henry Travers, Palric Knowles, Slim Summerville, Elizabeth Pal terson, Louise Campbell, Joan Carroll, Katharine Alexander, Minnie Dupree, Alma. Kruger, and Marcia Mac Jones.

JEANETTE MACDONALD MUSICAL

NOVEL CRIME THEME SUPPORTS The programme winch commenced at the Mayfair to-day is headed by ‘ Broadway Serenade.’ a musical which stars .Teanetto MacDonald, lan Hunter, and Frank Morgan. Supporting it is a prison drama, based on new angles to a modern theme. It is ‘ The Crooked Hoad,’ in which Edmund howc, Irene Hovvoy, and Henry Wilcoxon lake the major roles.