ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 88, 11 March 1930, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

ROSY THEATRE. “BATTLE OF THE SEXES.” The setting for tho New York night club sequence ill D. W. Griffith’s “The Battle of the Sexes,” showing at the ICoay Thcatro, was one of the largest ever constructed on the United Artists’ lot. The locale was patterned after a New York night club, even to the extent of a large stage, two bands, separate dance floors and tables and chairs to accommodate two hundred persons. This sequence is one of of tho most important in tho picture and one of the most difficult he has ever handled, Mr Griffith says, because of the diversity of elements he had to control. Tho scene called for strong drama in a setting of gaiety. Jean Hcrsholt, Phyllis Haver, Belle .P 011110 !*- Don Alvarado and Sally O’Neil arc co-featurcd in “Tho Battle of the Sexes.” One of tho most artistic dramatic silent pictures of the year is “The Wonderful Lie.” The story is intensely huma.ii and holding, while direction and acting are brilliant. Erich Pommer has produced another picture which marks tho screen's progress and adds, to his reputation. In the “Wonderful Lie”. Brigitto Helm co-stars with Warwick Ward and Franz Lcderer. PALACE TALKIES. DELIGHTFUL MUSIC IN “BROADWAY MELODY.” "The Broadway Melody,” Metro-Gold-wny-Mayer’ii spectacular all-talking, allsinging, all-dancing motion picture at the Palace Theatre, stands out as the first motion picture presenting as an integral part of the story a series of new dance songs. The music f.or “The Broadway Melody” was composed with the principals and the story well in mind all the time. In essence tho now talking film becomes a combination of musical comedy spectacle and rhythm with a “straight” dramatic story of New York backstage life. The production may thus be termed the first original musical comedy composed for the screen, while at the same time it promises to create an entirely new vogue in film fare. It is obvious that there is a world of difference between songs and a musical theme which are an essential part of a screen story and a group of song numbers which are interpolated after the picture has been completed. The song numbers of the new picture were released simultaneously with its Broadway premiere and sec«m likely to be near the top of the musical best sellers in the early future. DE LUXE “TALKIES.” “SKINNER STEPS OUT.” Glenn Tryon and Mcrna Kennedy are tho principals in “Skinner Steps Out,” the all-talking comedy-drama concluding at the Theatre de Luxe to-night. It tells how William Henry Skinner's charming wife believes the sun rises and sets in her husband and is ambitious for his success. Skinner plays up to his wife’s idea of him, and tells her what an important man he is at tho office, where in reality he is an unimportant employee. His wife, distressed at his shabby appearance, makes him buy a dress suit. At a charity bazaar she forces him to the front, with the result that Skinner dominates the affair. Skinner blocks a combination of two firms—a consolidation which should, and later does, go through. However, his spirit and enthusiasm so impress his [ superiors that he is mado sales manager of the consolidated firm. An all-dialogue comedy entitled “Sunday Morning”; a specialty turn by the Capitolians Orches- ' tra, and the most recent sound nows coin- * plcte a thoroughly entertaining pro--1 gramme. GEORGE O’BRIEN’S FIRST ALL-TALK-ING PICTURE. Two of Annapolis’s most famous songs, “Anchors Aweigh” and “The Navy Blue and Gold,” which are used by tho United States Naval Academy students, are heard in “Salute,”- tho West Point-Annapolis film classic, which cornea to the Theatre de Luxe to-morrow, night* These numbers aro incorporated into the thrilling alltalking Fox Movietone picture in several places. The Annapolis seventy-piece band plays then and a thousand midshipmen sing them. West Point’s athletic battle hymns also are heard. An Army-Navy football game at tho Polo Grounds, New York, provides tho climax of the story which features George O’Brien, Helen Chandler, William Janney, Stepin Fetchit, Frank Albertson, Joyce Compton and others.