AMUSEMENTS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 9, 21 December 1933, Page 12

AMUSEMENTS

SATIRE AT ARCADIA “GRAND SLAM” Bridge players of chronic variety as well as noil-bridge players will be folding their tables temporarily and trooping down to the Arcadia Theatre to see themselves as others see them when the First National picture, “Grand >lam,” open to-day. Having held the mirror up to almost every other large phase of American life, the movies are now making the picture complete by building a story on the very prevalent habit, or epidemic, of bridge playing. The all-absorbing seriousness with which the game is taken provides a source of excellent satire which this picture utilises to good, entertaining advantage. In building up this stnry, Warner Bros, has given the picture added bril lianre through casting many important

players jn it. Paul Lukas, as the bridgeplaying waiter, and Loretta Young, as his wife, are reported to give excellent : performances. A goodly amount of fine j comedy is also provided by Frank McI Hugh and Glenda Farrell in prominent : supporting roles. The manner in which the drugsmuggling traffic, is being combatted by the American Government is vividly shown in “Soldiers of the Storm,” a Columbia production, also at the Arcadia. The locale of the story is near the Mexican line, where the Border Patrol is stationed to prevent the illicit shipment of narcotics across the border. As an under-cover member of the Patrol, Regis Toomey is sent to unearth the leader of a gang of smugglers who have been unusually active in that section of the country. DRAMA AT THE COSY 44 MEN MUST FIGHT” j Soti’e’hing ia screen production is offered by Metro-GroMwyn-Jfeys* !s

“Men Must Fight,” starring Diana Wynyard, with Lewis Stone,, Phillips Holmes, May Robson, and Ruth Selwyn, at the Cosy Theatre this change. This studio, which has contributed such big puctures as “Ben Hur,” “The Big Parade” and “Grand. Hotel,” now presents a picture which attempts to depict conditions in this country at the outbreak of a new war, presumably in 1940. Contrasting the war of the past with the war of the future, the story mainly concerns the efforts of a woman who has lost her lover through one war, to prevent her son from being forced into sen-ice through false patriotism. By picturing the warfare of the future, it becomes a powerful and. stirring dramatic argument against war. The picture is based on the play which caused widespread comment when produced on Broadway. In deciding to bring the play to the screen, M-G-M’s production minds enlarged upon possibilities which the stage producers, either through choice or the natural limitations of the speaking stage, passed up. The things which,

on the stage, were merely talked about—the outbreak of the war in 1940 with a spectacular air raid—the changes in styles and architecture—these are the things which the film version particularly stresses. COMEDY AT MUNICIPAL “HELLELVJAH I'M A TRAMP” “Hellelujab. I’m a Tramp,” featuring Al Jolson, will be presented at the Municipal Theatre this evening. Inaugurating a radically different method of presenting music upon the screen, United Artists introduce a new technique in this film. “Photographic music,” which runs throughout, the picture and constantly moves with the story, is the term coined by the famous Now York composer-lyrist team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, to describe the new screen form. Although Jolson will introduce several new numbers that fit perfectly into the story as a whole, there will be no songs, as suebr despite the fact that Al is the greatest popular singer America

has ever produced, declared Hart. "Instead, dramatic action, the flow of photography and the humour and pathos of the characters of the story will be inherent in the music. In other words, whole scenes will be played to photographic music and lyrics. This form is not like that of the stage comic-opera or musical comedy, nor is it like the movie stories which are interpreted by popular songs. It is music and lyrics written expressly for the camera.’’