Opera House

Grey River Argus, 6 December 1938, Page 12

Opera House

“RED RIVER VALLEY.” Gene Autrey (singing cowboy sensation), plays the leading role in “Red River Valley,” to be finally screened to-day and to-night at the Opera House. The story deals with the long fight of the Arizona and California ranchers to harness the Colorado River by the Boulder Dam project, and of the treachery of strong financial interests in endeavouring to make the dam a failure. Gene sings three songs, “Red River Valley,” “Hand Me Down My Forty-Five” and “Wh'ere the Waterwheel Keeps Turning On.” Others in the cast include Frances Grant and Smiley Burnette. “PLEASE TEACHER.” One of the funniest musical films that ever tested your laughter powers, “Please Teacher,” with Bobby Howes and Vera Pearce in leading roles, will be finally screened at the Opera House to-day and to-night. The picture deals with Bobby entering a girls’ school in search of a missing legacy, and his staying to give the prizes away.—But it is what happens in between that brings the greatest laughter-laden situations' you’ve ever seen. Really, “Please Teacher” is a guaranteed scream.

“THE RAT." An underworld character who robs women of their jewels and so fascinates them with his manner and strange code of honour that they refuse to assist the Paris police in his prosecution comes to the screen -in “The Rat” to-morrow and Thursday at the Opera House. “The Rat” has a headlining team of Ruth Chatterton and Anton Walbrook, and is taken from the popular stage play by Ivor Novello and Constance Collier. A prowler of the night who climbs the sides of tall apartments, a man of physical power in his dealings with his underworld confederates, a match for the police who forever shadow him, the Rat is notorious throughout Paris. When a woman of wealth and culture becomes fascinated with this lawless creature, she attempts tb reform him, but the Rat has ideas, too, as to a woman’s code of honour, and he starts to investigate her past. With the action taking place in two widely varied strata of society, it reaches-.its climax in a court room scene in which both the Rat and the waif he has cared for are suspected of the murder of the wealthy woman’s companion. Jack Raymond directed the cast, which includes Rene Ray, Mary'Clare, Beatrix Lehmann and Felix Aylmer in - featured parts. r .