ENTERTAINMENTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 December 1940, Page 10

ENTERTAINMENTS

OPERA HOUSE—Now Showing: “STRANGE CARGO,” starring Clark Gable and Joan Crawford.

One of the most exciting adventure dramas of this decade and which may Avell be described as something different off the beaten track, is “Strange Cargo,” now showing at the Opera House, and which costars Clark Gable as Big Verne (man of . force and action, survival of the fittest is all he asks): and Joan Crawford as Julie (girl with nothing to lose, who casts her lot with nine derelicts); and featuring lan Hunter as Cambreau (man of mystery, who stands before them as a Guilty Conscience); Paul Lucas, as Hessler (wife poisoner, lone wolf in a pack, he would gladly destroy); Peter Lorre, as Monsieur Pig (man of desire, informer, whose touch is more feared than a branding iron); Albert Dekker as Moll (man ,of strength’ whose creed is “might is right”); J. Edward Bromberg as Flauberg (man of terror, persecuted by his own delusions); and Eduardo Cianelli as Telez (man of cunning, to whom all men are enemies). The picture tells an extraordinary story of the regeneration of a girl and nine convicts in the process of escaping from a tropical penal colony. : Opening in the penal colony and centring on a completely hardboiled and defiantly incorrigible thief and a cafe girl on the island, the story takes them and the others through the terrors and privations of escaping by jungle and sea; with them goes Cambreau, quiet and reassuring. When they finally land only four are left, but each of the dead has found peace at the end. Of those left is Gable, who is last to yield to the persuasions of a bitter inner self. Savage with _ biting drama, luminous with the spiritual beauty of .another “Miracle Man,”- comes this red blooded action packed story of a human cargo, who found regeneration in the strangest adventure thrilling entertainment the screen has ever known.

REGENT: Finally to-night: Robert Taylor and Greer Garson in “Remember.” Commencing Tuesday: Rudyard Kipling’s famous story: “THE LIGHT THAT FAILED.”

Ida Lupino’s first real screen chance for several years is . given to her in “The Light That Failed,” in which she shares honours with Ronald Colman, in Rudyard Kipling’s wellknown story, “The Light That Failed ” It is during one of the battles in the Sudan in the 1890’s that Dick Heldar meets Torpenhow, arid the friendship which makes of this novel one of the strongest ever written in the English tongue begins. Heldar is played by Colman, and Torpenhow by Walter Huston. Others in the big cast include Ida Lupino, Muriel Angelus, who makes her American film debut in this picture, Dudley Digges and many others. / The battles are re-enactments of the battles between the British and the Fuzzy-Wuzzies ’of the Sudan. During this campaign Kipling, as a young man, watched the. Fuzzy-Wuz-zy. This caused him- to. write his great tribute to them as fighting, men in his- 1 immortal poem, “FuzzyWuzzy.” He also included some of these-battles in his novel, “The Light That Failed.”

, Patrons are urged to book their seats early, as bookings are expected, to.be jieavy ovei’ the holidays.

SPECTACULAR SKATING.

THRILLING ACT FOR GREY.

They leap into the air, performing pirouettes and achieving the most difficult poses as easily as though they were dancing and not skating. Everybody who has ever put on a pair of roller skates or ice blades realises how the little wheels or blades are apt to run away with one, but Edmund Corthesy, Vera Paravinci, ably assisted by the brilliant Swiss skaterinas, Elsa and Fluerette, have so mastered all the secrets of these intricate little instruments that they can stop the blades or wheels at will and, in fact, have complete control over them. If they had not, one could imagine that a very unpleasant accident would result, for their skating stunts are the most thrilling ever seen. Little Vera Paravinci looks like a young Pan that has come out of the woods when she appears in her diminutive skating garment, topped by her head of round, pan-like curls, and certainly no woodland creature ever ran more swiftly through the undergrowth than she careers about the stage on her tiny skates, circling, making figures of eight, performing pirouettes and leaping into her partner’s arms with, the air and grace of a ballet dancer. « As for Edmund Corthesy himself, a Royal-Command performer, his name has become a byward among those who are interested in skating and its subtle intricacies. Born in Switzerland, he began to skate at a very early age, not merely on rollers, but on ice skates as well, and shortly became so proficient that he was employed as a teacher of skating in his own country. Teaching, however, did not satisfy him, for he longed to try out his skating stunts within the small circle of the stage. “It is easy enough to achieve difficult skating feats when you have a wide and spacious rink,” said Professor Corthesy. “The fun begins when you have to . confine your movements so that they will fit into the small circle of a theatre stage, and I have worked on ‘each stunt so that the smallest stage Could accommodate it.” Greymouth is to partake of the thrills of this flue skating act after its successful season at the Centennial Exhibition, where they were engaged in the spectacular production, “St. Moritz Ice Show,” which took place on a specially-constructed real-ice rink, under the personal direction of international showman, Frank De Lyall, who announces for the convenience of patrons that -performances will be given on the hour and half-hour, commencing at 7.30 till 10.30 o’clock each night, at the big i Carnival now in operation in Schaef’s j old Garage, Mackay Street, opening at 7.30, New Year’s Eve.