ENTERTAINMENTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 February 1942, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

OPERA HOUSE —Now Showing: “TEAR GAS SQUAD” and “I'M NOBODY’S SWEETHEART NOW.” An exciting melodrama of the New York police force, packed with thrills, action, and dramatic tension, “Tear Gas Squad” is now showing at the Opera House with Dennis Morgan, James Payne and Gloria Dickson in leading roles. Morgan is introduced as a night club singer, where he makes a hit singing a song about the police, and it is here that a meeting with Gloria Dickson changes both the course of his life and his attitude in general. Inviting him to her home one night, where half the force are assembled, she hopes by asking him to sing that his inflated ego will be outraged, but the tables are turned somewhat when he sings an Irish song to charm the entire gathering. He then joins the police force fox’ a laugh, only to find that Payne, an ardent suitor of Miss Dickson, is assigned as his instructor. Rivals for Miss Dickson’s favour, their opinion of one .anotherdoes not get any better until Morgan punches Payne on the jaw and is suspended. The climax of the picture is a real thriller. It takes place in a deserted warehouse on the waterfront, a hide-out for a gang of gunmen. They trap Payne and threaten to take his life if the squad of police surrounding the building do not “call off their dogs” until they can make a getaway. It is at this point that Morgan proves he can be just as much the hero as the singer. “I’M NOBODY’S SWEETHEART NOW.” Titled after the recently, revived song favourite, “I’m Nobody’s Sweetheart Now,” the gay comedy romance with music is also showing at the Opera House. The' story concerns the romantic problems of two pairs of young lovers whose marriage plans are obstructed by politics and parental objections. Cupid becomes a bit confused and emerges victorious only after shuffling his line-up.

REGENT THEATRE—Now Showing: “CITIZEN KANE.” It is not unreasonable to expect a film written, produced and directed by Orson Welles, and starring himself, to be completely unorthodox and wholly extraordinary. For there is that quality in the work of genius that makes it always appear to be unusual and revolutionary. Such an expectancy is not misplaced, for “Citizen Kane” but proves the measure of the genius of Orson Welles. There is something gripping, and . fascinating and vital in this film, which has never before been caught on the screen. It holds the mind and imagination.. It is a startling experience in realism and the unusual. The finished film, shown at a Hollywood preview, was judged by Louella Parsons to be a caricature of publisher William Randolph Hearst—who flung his newspapers and radio properties into a months’-long battle to get the film suppressed. “Citizen Kane” now at the Regent Theatre, is about an Americal multi-millionaire newspaper publisher, colourful, notorious, public figure. Incidentally. “Citizen Kane” was voted the best film of 1941 by the leading New York critics representing 18 Metropolitan newspapers. Also Smith’s Weekly awarded it their highest award, AAA, Gold Cup Highest Award.