PICTURE THEATRES

Evening Star, Issue 23863, 18 April 1941, Page 8

PICTURE THEATRES

Paul Muni heads a fine cast, in ‘Hudson’s Bay,’ which has entered its second week at the State. The story opens in England with the banishment of Lord Crewe, ably portrayed by John Sutton, for his drunken pranks. Kin" Charles 11., played by Vincent Price, exiles the nobleman to savage Canada. There ho meets Paul Muni and Laird Cregar. A tremendous figure of a man, Cregar portrays Radisson’s fur trapper companion, Lord Gooseberry. The trio journey to Hudson Bay and return the following year with a fortune in polls. They go to England and organise a fur-trading company, and ia-ter return to America, bringing with them Morton Lowry, brother of Gene Tierney, Sutton’s fiancee. Lowry incites masacre when he gives whisky to the Indians. In order to prevent a war, Muni has him shot, in a dramatic episode. On their next trip to England their company is presented a charter at a regal ceremony, in which the lavishncss of the scene contrasts strongly with the wild surroundings of the frozen north.

STRAND

STATE

The Universal Studios engaged £0 veterans „f the boxing ring to give a realistic atmosphere to ‘ The Leather Pushers,’ the mam attraction on the Strand’s change of programme to-day. Richard Arlen and Andy Devine head the array of players. Among those assembled for the film were a number of top-notchers whose encounters with world champions arc features of ring history. They include Phil. Bloom, Joe Ghck, Vbi'd Bain, Sailor Vincent, Johnny Keriian, and Mickey Golden. Several wrestling exports, including Harry Raven, former United States amateur light-weight champion, and A 1 Billings, also appear in the P 'Appropriate to the comedy and dancing in Universal’s musical film, ‘ I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby, a strong supporting feature, arc three brand-new songs especially written by Frank Skinner and” Paul Gerard Smith.

OCTAGON

‘The Great Dictator,’ the Octagon’s outstanding attraction, produced and directed by Charlie Chaplin himself,, is so vastly different from any of his previous successes —for one thing, Chaplin speaks for the first t ime in ‘ The Groat Dictator ’—and it strikes such a topical note that it might easily become the greatest picture of the tiecade. Mr ' Chaplin may deny that his Adenoid Hynkel is a take on uC Adolf Hitler, but audiences will not agree with him. Nor will they have any difficulty in identifying Jack Oakufs Napoloni with the bombastic Mussolini. Never before were two dictators held up to greater ridicule while having their wellknown idiosyneracies so subtly portrayed. Paulette Goddard, as the Jewish girl, gives a delightful performance and shares in Chaplin’s final triumph; Jack Oakie draws an hilarious pen portrait of the dictator of Bacteria; Henry Daniel and Billy Gilbert arc superb as Garbage and Herring, dietator Hy'nkcl’s Minister of Propaganda and War respectively, and Reginald Gardiner and Maurice Moscovitch head the list of minor players.

GRAND

Once again portraying that romantic rogue of the screen, Warren William is >een in a further Lone Wolf adventure at. the Grand, where ‘ The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady ’ heads the current bill. Jean Muir supplies the romantic touch without which ho adventure of the debonair adventurer, who laughs at love and locksmiths, would be complete. A diamond necklace is the prize as the Lone Wolf solves a double murder, frustrates a gang of desperate jewel thieves, and rescues a distressed damsel in a whirl of reckless action. Eric Blore, Victor Jory, Warren Hull, and Roger Pryor bend the supporting cast. Introduced to the screen just a short time ago bv Columbia, the Little Pepper series has rapidly grown in popularity until to-day t lie Peppers rank with the Bumsteads and Iho Hardys as one of the foremost families of the screen. Edith Follows, gifted voung actress, once more appears as Polly Pepper in ‘ Five Little Peppers in Trouble,’ tlio associate film.

EMPIRE

Errol Flynn heads the huge cast of ‘ The Sea Hawk,’ which opened to-day at the Empire. The film concerns itself with the intrigues of Spain’s King Philip and his henchmen directed against the Court and possessions of England’s good Queen Bess, played by Flora Robson. Flynn is seen as Geoffrey Thorpe, daring captain of a buccaneer ship engaged in piratical pursufts against England’s enemies. With his lusty new of privateers he attacks home-bound Spanish galleons loaded with rich booty and robs them to swell England’s dwindling coders. Xu his capacity of a sort of Robin Hood of the seas he has the unofficial but wholehearted approval of his Queen. On one of these plundering expeditions he lakes prisoner a haughty Spanish nobleman, portrayed by Claude Rains. With tbs Spanish Ambassador is his lovely niece, Maria, played by Brenda Marshall. Thus begins a romance which blossoms into true love despite the barriers that strive to separate them. Abounding in dramatic incidents revolving about England’s famous sea hawks who sailed the seven seas in their pirate galleons, their sails full-bellied in the wind. ‘ The Sea Plawk ’ is a tale of the Old World in the sixteenth century. The first chapter of a thrilling new serial, ‘ Junior G-men,’ with the Dead End Kids in the main roles, will also be presented.

REGENT

As tlie first of a list of striking features to be presented at the Regent in the course of coming changes, ‘ Susan and God ’ opened its Dunedin season to-day. Based on a stage production of the same name bv Rachel Crothcrs, with an unprecedentedly successful run on .Broadway to its credit, the film version has as its leading players Joan Crawford and Frcdric March, an ideal team to interpret this sparkling comedy drama. The adaptation of Miss Crothors’s famous stage play to the screen was brilliantly executed by Anita boos. Following the original faithfully in stnrv, the film play naturally brings greater scope to the unusual situations created by the author. The scintillating dialogue that made the play so delightful lias been retained in its entirety, with a few welldeveloped additions besides. Dizzy with comedy at one moment and bristling with drama the next, the picture version of ‘ Susan and God ’ does credit to the great play on which it is based. Joan Crawford is riding high on a newer and bigger wave of fan popularity than ever before in her career.

ST. JAMES

Zorina, the dancing star of ‘ T Married An Angel,’ the recent Broadway musical comedy hit, heads the cast of ‘ On Your Toes’,’ which opened at the St. James today. When Zorina, born Brigitta Hartwig, could walk she could also dance, and at the age of eight she made her first public appearance in a dance recital in Oslo. So great was her promise that her parents decided to continue her study under the best masters of the ballet, and they took bet to Paris, when she studied with Nicolas Legat, teacher of Pavlova and Nijinsky. Comedy is the main goal of ‘On Your Toes,’ with even the twinkling toes of the lissome Zorina directed to that end. Supporting her is a large cast of the screen’s best comedians, headed by Eddie Albert, and including among others Frank M’Hugh, Alan Hale, James Gleason, Leonid Kinskey, Gloria Dickson, Queenie Smith, and Erik Rhodes. ‘On Your Toes ’ is based on the Rodgers and Hart-George Abbott musical which had year-long runs on Broadway and in London. Another Warner Bros, production, ‘ The Midas Touch,’ supplies strong support for the main feature. ‘ The Midas Touch ’ is the story of a Welshman who outgrows (lie superstitions of his native country and escapes the monotony of his mountain village to become one of London’s most powerful financiers and business gamblers.

MAYFAIR

In ‘ The Proud Valley,’ showing at the Mayfair, Paul Robeson is seen in the production which marked his reappearance oc the scren after his announced retirement from motion pictures. The associate feature, ‘ Adventure in Diamonds,’ a sparkling story of intrigue on the dark continent, feature; George Brent, Isa Aliranda, John Loder, Nigel Bruce, and Cecil Kellaway.

HIS MAJESTY’S

‘ Man About Town ’ heads the new programme at His Majesty’s. Jack Benny, who, with- his aide, Rochester, provides some of the. brightest wisecracks, both direct and implied, seen in films of this sort, is the star. His sense of timing and satire, however, make this type of comedy extremely effective. Sophisticated to a degree, abounding in bright, sparkling humour, and presented by an all-star cast, ‘ Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife,’ the associate attraction, is unquestionably one of the best films of its type. Gary Cooper is the hero.

MUNICIPAL, GREEN ISLAND

To-morrow afternoon and evening, and again on Monday evening, * Pinocchio ’ will bo shown at the Municipal, Green Island. ‘ Pinocchio,’ Walt Disney’s successor to the sensationally successful ‘ Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,’ is his own challenge to his first feature-length production. ‘ Pinocchio ’ is more significant than a fairy tale. In its story of the puppet who is given life without conscience there is more than meets the eye—a moral for those who want one. But with or without the lesson it offers, ‘ Pinocchio ’ is an imaginative story integrating the real with the fantastic, casting human characters with animals that speak. Lest the story be mistaken for truth, there is a blue fairy, for Disney’s fantasy has the faculty of expressing life as you wish it were. One is liable to forget such beauty exists only iu the realm of imagination. ‘ Pinocchio,’ which is presented in multiplane techuicolour, is set to music, six new songs having been composed for it by Leigh Harline.