AMUSEMENTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20135, 3 January 1940, Page 5

AMUSEMENTS

MAJESTIC THEATRE LAST DAY: “GOING PLACES” AND “NANCY DREW—REPORTER” Trumpeter Louis Armstrong, his baud, and the popular coloured vocalist, Maxine Sullivan, together in one picture should attract the attention of all swing enthusiasts. “Going Places," which concludes to-night, features all three, together with Dick Powell and Anita Louise, in a mixture of swing and horse racing, Powell playing the role of a non-riding salesman masquerading as a famous horseman. The horse he is forced to ride is a “jitterbug," and an absolute fury unless he has his dose of "Jeepers Creepers,” a iune popular in New Zealand for some time now, although it was written for this picture. The associate feature is a thrilling and amusing mystery story starring Bonita Granville, John Litel, and Frank Thomas. —To-morrow: “One Third of a Nation” and Charles Ruggles in “Night Work”— A roaring attack on American slum conditions, with a girl tenement dweller and a social-minded young millionaire leading the battle against the powerful vested interests, is made in the new Paramount screen drama, “One Third of a Nation,” the lilm version of the play that created a sensation on Broadway and in dozens of America's leading cities a season ago. Against the dramatic background of the worst New York slums, with all their filth, squalor, disease and hopelessness, “One Third of a Nation" which opens at the 'Majestic Theatre, tells an amazing story of what takes place when a courageous girl who hates the slums enlists the aid of the man she loves in building a new life for the nation’s “submerged third.” Sylvia Sidney and Leit Erikson, teamed together for the first time, play the embattled youngsters who fight corruption, convention and vested interests. The further —and funnier — adventures of that merry screen menage, the “Fitches,” are recounted in the new Paramount comedy, “Night Work,” the associate feature. With that grand team, Mary Boland and Charlie Ruggles, cast again as the average man-and-wife, the story tells how they attempt to adopt "Butch,” the boy to whom they gave a homo in "Boy Trouble.” “Butch,” played again by Donald O’Connor, wants to stay with Miss Boland and Ruggles. but a problem arises on the scene in the person of “Butch’s” testy, steeplejack grandfather. He has to be convinced that Ruggles is a fit father—and it takes plenty of convincing, what with Ruggles constantly being put on the spot by the tough staff and the tenants of the apartment house which he is managing. The programme opens with the serial “Oregon Trail." KING’S THEATRE WILL HAY IN “ASK A POLICEMAN” AND ANN SHERIDAN IN “WINTER CARNIVAL” The Well-known British comedian, Will Hay, ably hindered by Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt, has blundered through many public services. In the G.B.D. attraction, “Ask a Policeman,” now. showing at the King’s Theatre, the three do their best to ruin the rural constabulary. As members of the police force in a village that has had no crime for ten years five weeks and four days, they are faced with the necessity to justify their by no means miserable existence, and to do this they endeavour, blissfully unconscious of the fact that the village is a hotbed of smuggling, to create an artificial “crime wave.” They soon find that there is a real one in full swing. An old country rhyme forms the basis of ghostly doings. The associate feature, “Winter Carnival,” features Ann Sheridan and is a sparkling romantic comedy set against the colourful background of the Dartmouth ice-skating carnival. —Gary Cooper In “The Real Glory": Adverithre Drama, Friday— Starring Gary Cooper, and with Andrea Leeds and David Niven heading an unusually important cast. Samuel Goldwyn’s new adventure drama, “The Real Glory,” which will begin at the King's Theatre on Friday, unfolds a thrilling and exciting tale of r .he Philippine Scouts and their heroic bravery at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War. This is claimed to be Gary Cooper’s best picture since “Lives of a Bengal Lancer.” The box plans are now open. REGENT THEATRE DEANNA DURBIN IN “FIRST LOVE” Deanna Durbin sings the most difficult lyric soprano aria she has ever attempted in Universal’s “First Love,” now at the Regent Theatre. The selection is “One Fine Day" from Puccini’s opera, “Madame Butterfly." It will be the first time this difficult number has been attempted from the screen by a youthful singer, and one of the very few times that any professional songstress in her ’teens has performed it. According to Charles Previn, musical director at Universal studios, few singers of Deanna Durbin’s age have ever possessed the vocal equipment or the stamina properly to sing "One Fine Day." “Deanna’s voice is now ‘full grown’,’’ Previn states. “It is capable of any lyric soprano selection ever written. “Miss Durbin’s voice is fuller, richer, more mature. Deanna has been singing professionally for several years, and has had the best of professional voice training. The coming years will only make her voice more flexible.” In addition to “One Fine_ Day."”.j\liss Durbin sings three num-' hers of less difficult nature. One is the favourite. “Home, Sweet Homo,"

by John Howard Payne. The others are “Amapola,” by J. M. Lucalle, and “Spring in My Heart,” a medley ol’ Straus waltzes adapted by 11. J. Salter with lyrics by Ralph Freed. Friday: A Great Film, fcrroi Flynn and Bette Davis in “The Sisters.”

A drama of rare worth, marked by the appearance oi Bette Davis and Errol Flynn in one of the most successful romantic teams Hollywood has ever hit upon, is the screen version of Myron Brinig's novel, The Sisters,” which will toe screened .for the first time in Gisborne at the Regent Theatre on Friday. Miss Davis has a formidable list of successes. Triple winner of the Academy award, she seems likely to get the honour again. She has never made a poor picture, and her performance in “The Sisters” is worth an Academy award of this or any other year. Flynn, too, forsakes the airy, inconsequential roles of recent months and turns to a polished portrayal of the erratic and wandering sports writer. Ihe story opens in the small town of Silver Bow, Montana, the night of Theodore Roosevelt’*' election. The three daughters of Ned Elliott, village storekeeper, go to the election ball, and there Louise, the eldest (Miss Davis) meets the handsome Frank Medlin (Flynn) and after a whirlwind ro* mance of "a week she runs away to San Francisco with him. Back home her second sister, content with Silver Bow for the rest of her life, marries the town banker. The youngest weds a wealthy financier for the opportunities he- can give her. So the film follows tnese three through life, central figure, however. being Louise Medlin. Happiness is hers for a few months. But she had to fight hoi husband's periodical bouts of depression, his drinking and his. resentful attitude to a world that is beating him. Finally he loses his job. He leaves Louise to sail over a now horizon, on a night in 190(>, the night of the San Francisco earthquake. Months pass; Louise waits and Frank wanders, looking for he knows not what. Finally he returns and searches for Louise, That was the year of William TI. Taft’s triumph, and frame met Louise at the election ball. The earthquake and lire scenes must rank among the most awe-inspiring ever 10 come to the screen. The film is also highlighted bv the performances of Anita Louise, lan Hunter, Beulah Bondi, Jane Bryan, Alan Hale, Donald Griso, Dick Foran and Henry Travers. On the rupporting programme will be a musical revue. “A Day in Santa Anita," starring Sybil Jason a cartoon, and latest news-r-els. including visits to the Royal Air Force and British Forces m France.