TALKIE ATTRACTIONS

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 29 May 1933, Page 2

TALKIE ATTRACTIONS

OPERA HOUSE ROMANTIC COMEDY

EDDIE CANTOR’S “KID FROM SPAIN.” A delightful romantic comedy, abounding in sparkling dialogue, tuneful songs and spectacular-dances, and with the star at his best with his whimsical drollery and sly humour, Eddie Comtor’s- neewst production, “The Kid from Spain,” made its initial screening before a record audience at the Hawera Opera House on Saturday evening. The picture has much to commend it and those who see it will judge it something unusual in the way of entertainmen . A more than worthy successor to “Whoopee” and “Palmy Days, this lavishly-staged comic extravaganza is Cantor’s greatest offering yet to the cause of amusement. The story concerns itself with the escapades of Eddie and his room-mate at college, Ricardo, who are expelled from their alma mater after a practical joke has placed them in rather an awkward predicament in a girls’ dormitory. Eddie unwittingly becomes involved in a bank robbery and escapes to Mexico disguised as a_worldfamous bull-fighter, Don Sebastian 11. of Spain. In order to _ deceive _ a übiquitous detective who is following him, Eddie has to keep up the masquerade accepting 'the acclaim due to the man he is impersonating, until finally he is forced into a real bull-fight. Then follow adventures in rapid, succession, involving "tangled love affairs anff flirtations, an 'embroilment with bandits, encounters with the Mexican police, until the crucial day of the bull-fight. Secretly Eddie and Ricardo have rehearsed a tame bull for the foray and the former steps into the arena with a fine show of bravery, only to realise, however, that he is facing a real animal, a killer sent in by his enemres. In swift-moving and screamingly funny scenes Eddie manages to avoid the furious onslaughts of the beast and eventually chloroforms the bull by accident. The crowd acclaims him the greatest of heroes and the story reaches a happy, if laughable, conclusion. The scenes in the arena combine real thrills with laughable and preposterous deeds, and the audience, at ouo moment te-use ■with, excitement, was the next instant bursting into uproarious and uncontrollable laughter. It contains not only a- thousand laughs, but the largest collection of really lovely chorus girls ever seen on one piece of celluloid. The Goldwyn girls are really beautiful creatures, slick of movement, graceful, physically superlative and exquisite dancers, and as a setting to Eddie Cantor’s fooling reconciles' the audience to all the slap-stick and irresponsible clownery of the chief comedian. Two of the most brilliant dance ensembles ever seen on stage or screen, and filmed in technicolour, form one of the outstanding features of the production, and three new lyrics sung in Cantor’s own inimitable fashion add considerably to the film’s appeal. A splendid supporting programme includes “Babes in the Wood,”. a Walt Disney coloured cartoon. "With action and music cunningly blended, a familiar theme, and the addition of colour achieved with really appealing artistry, the cartoon is the best of its type yet screened in Hawera. The programme will be continued to-night, Tuesday and W ednesday.