TO-MORROW'S PROGRAMMES

Evening Star, Issue 25699, 24 January 1946, Page 9

TO-MORROW'S PROGRAMMES

REGENT. ' Practically Yours,' co-starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray, which will commence a season at the Regent to-morrow, has every necessary requisite to provide highclass entertainment. The supporting cast includes Robert Benchley, Gil Lamb, Cecil Kellaway, and Mikhail Rasumny. Benchley, Aasumny, and Kellaway are very much to the fore throughout the picture,' and their displays > of suave and sophisticated humour 'should delight all sections of picturegoers. The supporting programme includes a sportlight ' White Rhapsody,' another of the ' Talking of Animals ' series entitled ' Talk of the Town,' and the services' international boxing tournament at Wembley. EMPIRE. The Paramount production, ' I Love a Soldier,' which will commence a season at the Empire to-morrow, has a generous sprinkling of drama, comedy, and romance. The story deals with a returned army hero, played by Sonny Tufts, who meets a shipyard worker, Paulette Goddard, both falling in love with each other at first sight. Thereafter it becomes a duel to see whose logic is best so far as marriage is concerned. Sonny helieves in no delay, while Paulette thinks it wise to wait until after the war. Fun in plenty ih provided during the period Paulette ponders over her decision. The serious vein of the picture brings out some fine dramatic acting by Ann Doran, 'a young mother whose husband has cone to the war, and the lighter side is capably handled by Mary Treen and Walter Sande. ST. JAMES. Murder, espionage, and romance are the ingredients of the new Warne'i Brothers'' film 'Background to Danger,' which will commence a season at the St. James to-morrow. Starring George Raft and Sydney Greenstreet, the picture's strong supporting cast is headed by Peter Lorre, Brenda Marshall, and Osa Massen, the prettj Danish actress. George Raft is cast as Joe Barton, a G-man, who is in a lot of trouble when he meets Ana Remzi (Osa Massen). (Before he successfully extricates himself there ia olenty of gun play, several murders ; some grim encounters with an ace Nazi saboteur, a wild chase, where a Nazi car 'is shot over a cliff, and a lastminute rescue of important plans that were to 'be used by the Nazis to disrupt Russian-Turkish relations. STATE. ' Little Lord Fauntleroy,' which will commence a season at the State tomorrow, has a brilliant cast headed bs Freddie Bartholomew, and includes Dolores Costello Barrymore, C. Aubrey Smith, Guy Kibbee, and Mickey Rooney. The picture is based on the famous, book by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The associate, feature, ' Dangerous Journey,' is a camera record of the two world-renowned explorers, Ar-mand-Dennis and his wife, Leila Roosevelt. Together they dared the ferocity of wild animals, the legendary terror of primitive warring natives, and hidden, inconceivable marvels strange tu the eye of man, to be rewarded witli the spectacular motion pictures of the hunting and capturing of the wild elephant,, the giraffe-necked women, tho seven-foot .giants of Watusi, the Burmese Inthue, who tow their crude, 60ft " canoes" with their legs instead of their arms, and one of the mostamazing sights of all—the "snake kiss"— performed by ,a Burmese priestess of the Snake Cult. OCTAGON. Hollywood's newest screen offering, ' The Woman in the Window,' which will commence a second week at the Octagon to-morrow, tells a fascinating story of two well-meaning people caught in the web of deadly circumstance. Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett head the distinguished cast. The unusual plot presents Robinson as a scholarly professor and Miss Bennett as an artist's model. Without warning the two find themselves in a situation full of peril, a slain man's body on their hands, and the ruin of their respective lives in the balance if they are discovered. How they endeavour to extricate themselves, only to watch helplessly as the police come closer and closer in the search for the supposed murderer, leads to the many suspenseladen moments of the plot. Further complications are added as an associate of the dead man begins to blackmail the two victims, and as it becomes evident that their only escape is to kill him. STRAND. 'Detective Kitty O'Day.' which will commence a season at the Strand tomorrow, qualifies as one of the best comedies of the year. Although the film has a succession of murders as its background, it nevertheless emerges as a comedy gem. Jean Parker is starred in the role of an amateur feminine detective, and has never been seen to better advantage. Peter Cookson is excellent as her boy friend, and Tim Ryan provides a large share of the humour as a police inspector. Shortly after the story opens Miss Parker finds her employer murdered, and herself and her boy friend in the list of suspects. Their efforts to solve the crime result in a discovery of other murders, but the turnings of the plot only serve to bring about still further laughable situations, Robert Lawery and Phyllis Brooks are stirred in the associate feature, ' High Powered.' A further episode of the new serial, ' The Master Key,' will also be shown.