AMUSEMENTS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 192, 29 July 1932, Page 4

AMUSEMENTS

ARCADIA TALKIES, HASTINGS “THE SECBET WITNESS” A policeman listening in on a busy wire at the ground floor switchboard of an apartment house, rushes up to the penthouse, from the terrace of which a girl has just leaped to her death, ana finds dying the man he just heard laughing over the phone I He has been shot and there is no one to be found m the apartment except the victim’s pet ape. This is the thrilling start of “The Secret Witness,” the Columbia picture based on Samuel Spewack’s novel, "Murder in the Gilded Cage,” which closes to-night at the Arcadia. Una Merkel, William Collier, Jr., and Zasu i’itts head the cast, which includes i'urnel Pratt, Paul Hurst, June Clyde, Clyde Cook, Rita La Roy, Ralf Harolde and others.

The murdered man Herbert Folsom, it develops at the investigation which is conducted immediately, had mauy enemies who had reasons for wishing him dead There was his wile, f or instance, who wanted her freedom so she should marry another He found separation without divorce highly convenient to a man of his philandering habits, and refused. There was the brother of the girl who killed herself because Folsom could not marry her if he would. There was the thug he hired as a bodyguard and valet and framed theft And there was

Una Merkel plays the role of a girl in a neighbouring apartment who becomes part of the plot when William Collier, Jr , breaks into her apartment in trying to get away from the scene of the murder Collier is arrested on circumstantial evidence, but the girl believes, him innocent, and it is her intuition that guides her in finally solving the mystery Zasu Pitts has one of her usual comedy roles as the switchboard operator who couldn’t keep a date with her boy friend because the excitement kept her on duty at the board. “The Secret Witness” promises to be one of the season’s best thrillers. For reserves ring ’phone 4336, “PRESTIGE” TO-MORROW. Striking a new note in the spirit of film entertainment is “Prestige” the R.K.O. Pathe picture which opens tomorrow- at the Arcadia. Melodrama, spirited, fast and gripping, is the keynote of the picture which has a maximum of action and only the amount of dialogue necessary to its development. With Indo-Chino as its locale, “Prestige” boasts some of the most beautiful jungle photography ever recorded on ths screen. Ann Harding has the starring role with Adolph Menjou and Melvyn Douglas sharing leading honours opposite her. Others in the well assembled cast are Guy Bates Post, lan McLaren, Clarence Muse, Carmelita Geraghty and Creighton Hale. A special treat is in store for the children as a brand new and thrilling Western starring Tom Keene has been booked for the Saturday matinee.

COSY TALKIES, HASTINGS. “GOLD DUST GERTIE.” The difficulty of timing for laughs in the making of a modern screen comedy is complicated by the cleverness of the comedians in the cast. As a consequence “Gold Dust Gertie,” Warner Brothers latest feature picture starring Winnie Lightner and featuring Olsen and Johnson, which screens at the Cosy Talkies to-day, offered the sound recording departments altogether new problems because practically every member of the large east is rated as a first-class screen comic and is certain to share in the laightsr which the picture provoxes. High-speed action and fast lines were necessary to keeo the tempo of the hilarious farce at full speed ahead. There is little time for waits to let the audience catch up its laughing, yet it is so timed that no lines are lost and no situation left vague because of the noise of appreciation that always greets the antics of Winnie Lightner, Olsen, and Johnson or any of the supporting players. Claude Gillingwater, Dorothy Christy, Vivian Oakland, Virginia Sale, Arthur Hoyt, Charley Grapewin, George Byron, and Charles Judels are in the cast of “Gold Dust Gertie” and share in its tumultous fun. Lloyd Bacon directed.

FERNHILL TALKIES. MARY PICKFORD IN “KIEL” A suppressed, a new, a roguish Mary Pickford comes to life in the title role of “Kiki” which screens at the Fernhill Talkies on Saturday. Kiki is the type of part Mary Pickford has always longed to play. Few people knew it. Only her most intimate friends were aware of the mischievous bent that urged the star to play the inlidcap, the harum-scarum rascal personified by Kiki. “Kiki” is a combination of the new Mary Pickford and the one of the silent days. She is an adorable little spitfire, a creature of moods, caprices, emotions. There still remains the childhood dependence and trust, the elfin joy that characterises the tiniest pleasure.