ENTERTAINMENTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 July 1944, Page 7

ENTERTAINMENTS

OPERA HOUSE—To-night: “Orchestra Wives” and “The Omaha Trail.”

There is something new in the way of cinema musicals and on the screen of the Opera House to-night a delightful entertainment dish that has the nation’s number one orchestra and a superior cast, a sparkling story and tunes that set your toes a-danc-ing. . “Orchestra Wives” is the new arrival and it is particularly welcome because of the joyous presence of Glenn Miller and his celebrated orchestra, George Montgomery, Ann Rutherford and a galaxy of gay featured players. The story is as enjoyable as its tunes and, yes, different, too. Musical comedies had become a sort of Mr. Anthony, dealing almost exclusively with the tribulations of struggling ingenues and backstage heart-break. But “Orchestra Wives” is way off this beaten path. Indeed, it beats a new path for itself. It gives an intimate wife’s eye-view of the boys who play the nation’s love songs —to everyone but their wives.

Blending action, romance and comedy. “The Omaha Trail” showing at the Opera House to-night presents James Craig and Dean .Tagger in starring roles. Craig portrays a vagabond Irish wagon boss who is attempting to transport a locomotive by ox train from Habersford to Omaha. Thinking the railroad will end his freighting business, Pipestone Ross (Dean Jagger) spares no effort to wreck the caravan. Craig and Jagger are perfectly cast as bitter enemies whose fued culminates in a gun battle in the fog filled streets of Omaha.

REGENT THEATRE—To-night: “Five Graves to Cairo.”

“Five Graves to Cairo” showing at the Regent Theatre is the finest espionage drama to come out of the war. Franchot Tone as a British spy and Anne Baxter who plays the only feminine role are co-starred. Erich von Stroheim plays the part of Field Marshal Rommel. Akim Tamiroff as a patriotic Egyptian is said to give his best performance. “Five Graves to Cairo” commences in June, 1942, just after the British army has been driven out of Tobruk and back into Ekypt by Rommel’s swift-advancing Africa Korps. Tone, the sole survivor of a British tank crew finds his way into a village recently evacuated by the retreating British. At a hotel he meets a French chambermaid, Mouche (Anne Baxter) who gives him the waiter’s uniform of Paul Davos, a famous German spy, who was killed in the previous night’s bombing. Posing as ‘Davos he is able with the help of Mouche to gather information which is used to thwart Rommel in his plans for possession of the Libyan Desert and solve the mystery of the five graves that nearly won the victory of the African campaign for the German Marshal. “BRING AND BUY” Women of the Cobden Presbyterian Church held a “bring and buy” afternoon in the Cobden gymnasium yesterday. Items were given by Mesdames White and Kerr (piano duet), Mrs. Boag (elocution) and Miss Janet McLean (vocal). The receipts, in aid 'of the new church fund, were £35 ilO/-..