AMUSEMENTS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 11, 23 December 1933, Page 3

AMUSEMENTS

TWO PICTURES AT ARCADIA “ONE PRECIOUS YEAR” AND “CORNERED” Two special features are again presented at the Arcadia Theatre this change: “One Precious Year” and “Cornered.” \\ ith only 12 short months to live, according to the medical advice of Harley Street physicians, Anne Grey, as Diedre Carton, achieves outstanding success in “One Precious Year.” As is the case with most British productions, further merit is acquired by the excellence of the supporting cast. In Owen Nares, Basil Rathbone and Flora Robson, are three screen artists who have been proved just as capable of playing in a leading role as in the chief supporting portrayals. Owen Nares takes the part of Stephen Carton, a. Foreign Office official and husband of Diedre. His wife keeps secret from him the verdict of her doctors, in order that his career, just then in the making might not suffer. With only one more precious year to taste the happiness and pleasures of life, Diedre can hardly be blamed for accepting attentions from her husband's friend. Captain Derek Nagel (Basil Rathbone), when Stephen Carton was always too busy, too immersed in hi s career, to devote much of his time to wife or home. The climax is both stirring and dramatic.

Called the “Grand Hotel” among western pictures, Tim McCoy’s latest Columbia film has a supporting cast such as no other “western’’ has ever had, with Shirley Grey a s the heroine, Niles Welch as th e romantic leading man, Noah Beery, Raymond Hatton and Walter Long as the principal heavies, and Claire McDowell, Llo}d Ingraham and John Eberts as the chief character actors, McCoy plays the role of a Wyoming sheriff who suiters disgrace when his prisoner escapes, but redeems himself by proving the man was innocent and bringing tn s real culprit to justice. CENE GERRARD AT MUNICIPAL “LEAVE IT TO ME” It was only to be expected that the collaboration of Gene Gerrard, lan Hay and I'. G. Wodehouse would produce a cinema comedy of rare tlebgu. So it is that “Leave It To Me” which screens at the Municipal Theatre today and luesday, has all the joyous hilarity and inconsequence that has become inseparably associated wnu English film comedy. There are the customary week-end .ho se party, the poetic hostess, the botanical Lord Emsworth, the usual motley of impecunious nephews, helpful conspirators and genuine thieves posing as society folk. But the whole thing has been interpreted with such verve and wit that it all takes on a new charm. Once more Gene Gerrard rompk his way merrily through a film which gives his comic genius full scope. First as Sebastian Help, a particularly resourceful philanthropist, and then a s Siegfried Velour, pseudo-poet, he is the peileec buffoon. His recital, at which he accompanies himself on the harp, j s n brilliant piece of miming. He is ablv supported by George Gee, who i s very amusing as a cheap crook; and c. McNaughton, of “My Wife’s Mothei ' as Lady Emsworth’s inordinately suspicious secretary. Molly Lamont, whq has been the heroine in most of the Gerrard comedies, is again the essence of charm as the leading lady. REVUE AT THE COSY “MOONLIGHT AND PRETZELS.” Picked by a distinguished group of American artists and illustrators as Broadway’s “fifty most perfect show girls,” a chorus seldom equalled for beauty and precision either on stage or screen, appears in “Moonlight and Pretzels,” the Universal screen musical comedy playing at the Cosy Theatre to-day, Tuesday and Wednesday. Tho fifty lucky chorines were selected from the combined ensembles of New York musical comedy triumphs, “Strike Me Pink,” “Take a Chance,” and ‘‘The Gay Divorce,” by a jury of feminine beauty experts composed of James Montgomery Flagg, John La Gatta, Russell Patterson, Jefferson MacHamer, Arthur William Brown, and Hal Phyfe. The girls were trained and put through their paces before the cameras than none other than Bobby Connolly, America’s premier dance director, whose clever and intricate routines have contributed to the success of scores of New York musical comedy revue hits. What is undoubtedly the greatest galaxy of stage, screen and radio stars ever brought together in one show appears in “Moonlight and Pretzels.” Roger Pryor, who triumphed as the columnist in the stage production of “Blessed Event,” Mary Brian, Leo Carrillo, Lilian Miles, Alexander Gray, Bernice Claire, tho Four Eton Boys, and Frank and Milt Britton’s famous comedy band are only a few of the headliners that appear in the picture which Karl Freund and Monte Brice codirdectod.