ENTERTAINMENTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 August 1939, Page 12

ENTERTAINMENTS

OPERA HOUSE—Now Showing: GEORGE FORMBY’S LATEST, “TROUBLE BREWING.”

George Formby, the screen’s most popular comedian, and bis twinkling banjo, again bounds into new popularity in his latest and funniest film, “Trouble Brewing,” which commenced an extended season to-day at the Opera House* As an eccentric wit, good natured’ to the point of amiable imbecility, George has a penchant of bursting into song at any old time. This time he is cast as a compositor in a great London newspaper office, whose burning ambition is to become a crime investigator. Aided by Googie Withers and Gus McNaughton, Formby runs to earth a gang of counterfeiters. Before George achieves his triumph, however, he and his amateur criminologists go through funny misadventures. McNaughton and George back, a horse, hoping to win sufficient' for his needs. They win, but the money paid is Counterfeit. The swindler Brands himself by Formby’s indelible ink invention for detecting crime, so that all they have to do is to arrest the villain. This takes them to an all-in-wrestling match, where George proves the victor against a bearded champion. Then there is the party given by a famous opera singer. George is called' upon to rescue an incriminating paper and finally they find themselves in a brewery, the headquarters of a gang of forgers, in which a never-to-be-forgotten battle ensues. George manages to trap the counterfeiters in a huge vat full of beer, the men becoming gloriously drunk, before they are carried off by the police. George finds time to sing three catchy songs, “Hitting the High Spots,” “I can tell it by my Horoscope,” and “Fanlight Fanny.” In addition to George Formy, Googie Withers and Gus McNaughton, the cast also includes Garry Marsh, Ronald Shiner, and J. Denier Warren.

REGENT — Final Screening of “SAFETY IN NUMBERS” and “GAMBLING SHIP.” Commencing Saturday: “BLOCKADE” and “HIS EXCITING NIGHT.”

Perhaps the timeliest of the season’s motion pictures, and. certainly the one presenting the most tensely dramatic action, is “Blockade,” which the film critic of Reynolds News, London, reports as “worthy of ranking among the greatest dramas that, the screen has produced.” This production stars Madeleine Carroll and Hemy Fonda. The background of this stirring photoplay is the Spanish Civil War. though the central theme of the story is the romance of Miss Carroll and Fonda, both caught in the seething maelstrom of the conflict. The events of the story lose none of their exciting quality through the fact that the production preserves a strictly neutral attitude and does not identify any character as a member of one faction or the other.

The story of “Blockade” -,pens with Norma (Madeleine Carroll) arriving in Spain to discover her father and an associate have been active in helping to foment a civil war. War breaks out and Marco (Henry Fonda), a farmer whom the girl has met and fallen in love with, becomes a soldier, kills Norma’s father as a spy and is obliged to arrest her as a suspect Released through a traitorous alliance' between her father’s former associate and a Spanish general, she is forced' to become their aide in espionage-- work and is sent to Castelmare as the bearer of a message to spies intent upon the destruction of a ship laden with food for the relief of the blockaded city. The trusted men are engaged in secretly selling their services to the other side. The plot is discovered by Marco as Norma, with a sudden revulsion of feeling over the plight of the starving townspeople, attempts to rectify the wrong she has done.

After a series of dangerous adventures, the pair confess their Icve when they find themselves facing death at the hand's of enraged soldiers. An unexpected happening in the high command brings the story to a thrilling climax.

The exceptional cast supporting Miss Carroll and Fonda is headed by Leo Carrillo and also includes John Halliday, Reginald Denny, Vladimir Sokoloff, Robert Warwick and Katherine De Mille. The asociate feature, “His Exciting Night,” which features Charlie Ruggles has a cast of expert comedy players. “His Exciting Night” presents Ruggles as a bridegroom, snatched from the church and placed in an embarrassing predicament with a gorgeous blonde. His attempts to explain to his wife and her family, and the complications which arise, furnish a fast and laugh-filled plot. With Ruggles are seen “Slapsie” Maxie Rosenbloom, Marion Martin Ona Munson, Stepin Fetchit, Benny Baker, Georgie Caine, Frances Robinson, Raymond Parker, Regis Toomey and Stanley Hughes. Patrons are advised to make early j '.;z g for this excellent programme. HOLY TRINITY CHURCH The annual spring show for the Holy Trinity Church will be held in the Town Hall on Friday, September 29, when novelties and bargains in every conceivable line will be the order of the day. The inaugural meeting convened by Mrs. F. A. Kitchingham was largely attended, and already sixty ladies are working to make this year’s function even more successful than those of former years. Special decorations will be a feature of this year’s show.