ENTERTAINMENTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 January 1939, Page 8

ENTERTAINMENTS

OPERA HOUSE. Interest is at a high pitch for the screening to-night, to-mor-row and Thursday, of “Victoria. the Great,’’ proclaimed as offering the triple lure of historical accuracy, spectacular power and romantic fervour. The production gorgeously dramatises the life of Great Bri taint's famous sovereign, a|s girl and queen, as wife and widow, and particularly her epic love for her Consort, Prince Albert, of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. It is the inside story of Victoria’s romance with Prince Albert, their courtship, marriage and wedded life, that strikes the human interest note resoundingly. bj T demonstrating that the love which “makes

the world go round” is alike to royalty and commoner to modern as well as Victorian times. Anna Neagle. England's favourite screen actress, appears as Queen Victoria, co-starred with Anton Walbrook, international stage and screen star. IT. B. Warner, as Lord Melbourne, and Walter Rilla, as Prince Ernest, are featured players. No picture heroine could be

more wistfully attractive than this young girl of eighteen, so suddenly burdened with tremendous cares of State and confronting problems of international importance. Previews reveal that the part is played with superb emotional power by Miss Neagle. Nor will spectators easily forget such a thrilling episode as the attempted assassination of the

Queen, the gallantry of the courageous Prince, vividly portrayed by Anton Walbrook, in shielding her with his body against the would-be mu-.-

(lever’s bullets. Of particular interest to New Zealanders is the exciting 1 scene where Victoria’s timely intervention and fearless coercing’ of her Prime Minister, prevents the sending of an insolent dispatch to Washington, which would inevitably have caused a bloody war between the United States and England in 1861. You see running under its own steam, the identical locomotive and train in! which the Queen and her husband started off on their honeymoon: also the State carriage in which the Queen rode to her Diamond Jubilee. These are but. two of many instances of ac-i curate detail which furnishes a solid background of facts for “Victoria the Great." The last thousand feet of the film, visualising the Diamond Jubilee, is in Technicolour.

REGENT THEATRE. The last screening at the Regent Theatre of “Reckless Living" and “A Slight Case of Murder." will be tonight. "BLIND ALIBI." How an innocent, man is imprisoned lor a crime cormnirted in tiie cause of justice, is dramatically depicted in “Blind Alibi." Richard’Dix’s starring film at the Regent, to-mor-row. A sculptor is forced to go outside the law to defeat the. efforts of a! blackmail ling to tarnish the- name of! his marreid sister and her politicallyproininent husband. To obtain certain indiscreet letters writicii by his* sister as a schoolgirl, Dix, as the de-j ((■’■mined sculptor, resorts to .‘health. Mo assumes blindness. Conflict eu-j tors with the efforts of a blackmail! gang Io regain hidden loiters. while] there is a novel cornu neo. bc-(wee:ij the- masquerading sculptor ami the! Beautiful assistant curator of a. mu- i seum, where (lie letters have been i cached. The loyalty of a guiding dogr is an tippealing feature. With the < success of Dix’s shady mission, comess

his sacrifice of freedom, but even this Ims a happy reward in iiis romance.

HILLBILLY TRIO.

Cicero (Frank) Weaver, of the I Weaver Brothers and Elviry, original [ hillbillies and vaudeville headliners for 25 years, made his professional debut at the- age of 16 with the Texas Steer Quartette, a. feature of the Jack Roymond Stock Company. It travelled for years through Missouri and the south of the U.S.A. Later. Cicero teamed with his brother, Leon and introduced the musical saw. They have affidavits to prove it. Ts> Cicero goes the credit for originating instiuments which the,y have popularised and which they play in '‘Swing Your Lady,” to be screened as a second feature at the Regent to-morrow, Thursday and Friday.