AMUSEMENTS

Grey River Argus, 28 August 1939, Page 12

AMUSEMENTS

Opera House 1 j ’ I Now Showing: GEORGE FORMBY’S LATEST. __: • “TROUBLE BREWING.” George Formby, the screen’s most i popular comedian, and his twinkling banjo, again bounds into new popularity in his latest and funniest film, j “Trouble Brewing,” which is showing i for an extended season 'at the j Opera House. As an eccentric wit, i good natured to the point of amiable ' imbecility, George has a penchant of j bursting into song at any old time. This time he is cast as a compositor j in a great London’ newspaper office, I whose burning ambition is to become ! a crime investigator. Aided by Googie (Withers and Gus McNaughton, I Formby runs to earth a gang of | counterfeiters. Before George I achieves his- triumph, however, he | and bis amateur criminologists go [through funny misadventures. Me- ■ Naughton and George back a horse; I hoping to win enough for their needs, i They win. but the money paid is , counterfeit. The swindler brands himself by Formby’s indelible ink ini vention for detecting crime, so that all they have to do is to arrest the i villain. This takes them to an allJ in-wrestling match, where George i proves the victor against a bearded champion. Then there, is the party 1 given by a famous opera singer, | 1 George is called upon to rescue an incriminating paper and finally they| find themselves in . a brewery, the headquarters of a gang of forgers, in which a never-to-be-forgotten battle ensues. George manages to trap the counterfeiters in a huge vat. full of beer, the men becoming gloriously drunk, before they are carried off by the police. George finds time to sing three catchy songs, “Hitting the High Spots,” “I can tell it by my Horoscope,” and “Fanlight Fanny.” In addition to George Formby, Googie Withers and Gus McNaughton, the cast also includes Garry Marsh, Ronald Shiner, and J. Denier Warren.

COUNTRY CIRCUIT “Three Smart Girls Grow Up” will be screened at Kumara to-night, Ikamatua on Friday and Moana on Sunday (September 3). This is Deanna Durbin’s latest picture and is her finest effort to date. REGENT NOW SHOWING: “BLOCKADE” AND “HIS EXCITING NIGHT." Perhaps the timeliest of the season’s motion pictures, and certainly the one presenting the most tensely dramatic action, is “"Blockade" which the film critic of Reynolds

News, London, reports as “worthy of 1 ranking among the . greatest dramas that the screen has produced.” This j Walter Wanger production stars j Madeleine Carroll and Henry Fonda; I The background of this stirring i photoplay is the Spanish Civil War. I though the central theme of the story is the romance of Miss Carroll and Fonda both caught in the seething maelstrom of the conflict. The events of the story lose none of their exciting quality through the fact that the production preserves a stridtly neutral attitude and. does not identify any character as a member of one faction or tlKLOther. , , , The story of “Blockade” opens with 1 Norma (Madeleine Carroll) arriving in Spain to discover her father and an associate have been active in helping to foment, a civil war. War breaks out and Marco (Henry Fonda), a farmer whom the girl has met and fallen in love with, becomes a soldier, kills Norma’s father as a spy and is , obliged to arrest her as a suspect. Released through a traitorous, alliance between her father’s former associate and a Spanish general, she is forced to become their aide in espionage work and is sent to Castelmare as the bearer of a message to spies intent upon the destruction of a ship laden ■ with food for the relief of the. blockaded city. The trusted men are engaged in secretly selling their services to the other side. The plot is discovered by Marco as Norma, with a .sudden revulsion of feeling over the plight of the starving townspeople, attempts to rectify the wrong she- has done. ' After a series of dangerous adventures, the pair confess their love when they find themselves facing death at the hands of enraged soldiers. An unexpected happening in the high command brings the story to a thrilling climax.

“Blockade” was directed by William Dieterle, who gained fame when the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences acclaimed his most recen? picture, “The Life of Emile Zola” as the greatest production of 1937. The exceptional cast supporting Miss Carroll and Fonda is headed by Leo Carrillo and also includes John Halliday, Reginald Denny, Vladimir Sokoloff, Robert Warwick and Katherine De Mille. ; The associate feature “His Exciting Night,” features Charlie Ruggles and a cast of expert comedy players. “His Exciting Night” presents Ruggles as a bridegroom, snatched from the church and placed in an embarrassing predicament with a gorgeous blonde. His attempts to explain to his wife and her family, and the complication which arise, furnish a fast and laugh-filled plot. With Ruggles are seen “Slapsie” Maxie Rosenbloom, Marion Martin, Ona Munson, Stepin Fetchitt, Benny Baker, Georgie Caine, Frances Robinson, Raymond Parker, Regis Toonley and Stanley Hughes. Patrons are advised to make early booking- for this excellent programme.