ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 70, 22 February 1932, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

AT THE REGENT. “STRICTLY DISHONOURABLE,” THE CURRENT SCREENING. Every year there are one or two pictures, sometimes three or four, that everybody talks about and- everybody goes to see. “Strictly Dishonourablo” is one of thoso pictures. People' have been talking about it over since Universal bought it two years ago, and now they have a chance to see it. It is at the Regent Theatre now; patrons are advised to attend early to avoid the rush. "Strictly Dishonourablo” as a play “hold them out” in Now York at the Avon Theatre for oyer two years. It received tho Mcgruo Prize. It set a vogue for deliciously sophisticated comedydrama and it established attendance records. As a picture it was given ono of tho industry’s most capable casts. Universal borrowod Paul Lukas for tho opora. singer role and put its most highly prize ingenue, Sidney Fox, into tho rolo of tho southern girl. Lewis Stone plays tho iudgo. William Ricciardi and George Meeker, from tho play cast, and Sidney Toler, Joe Torillo, Carlo Schipa and Samuel Boncllo complete a remarkable cast. John Stahl directed. “Strictly Dishonourablo” is tho top note <yf motion picturo interest this year. It tells tho story of a swift love affair which begins in a New York oarbarot and finds its completion in a bachelor apartment on the floor above. Imagine Sidney Fox, tho diminutive screen beauty, as a lawyer! Yet ono certainly cannot after having seen her as Isabcllo in “Strictly Dishonourablo.” Hero sho is a pleader only for love. That almost happened a very few years ago. In her early ’teens, looking out upon tho business world, she decided to become a lawyer and entered Columbia Univorsity, in New York, to take a law course. Sho even obtained a position in a lawyer’s office so that she might supplement her studies with actual experience along legal lines. And then, at the end of her first term, Sidney had another idea. She would write, sho decided—and sho did, creating an “advice to tho love-lorn” column for a syndicate known as Associated Newspapers. Eventually sho went on tho stage, and soon afterwards becamo a featured player in motion pictures. RUTH CHATTERTON AT PALMERSTON NORTH AGAIN. “Unfaithful,” an absorbing drama of the disillusioned wife of a public hero, is Ruth Chatterton’s latest Paramount dramatic sensation, and the Regent Theatre will feature this attraction on Wednesday. Paul Lukas, seen with Miss Chattcrton in recent pictures, has the chief supporting role, with Paul Cavanagh and Juliette Compton, both well-known stage favourites, heading the cast. Miss Chatterton’s great talent is given unrestricted play in “Unfaithful.” John van Drutcn, the playwright who won prizo honours with his stage play, “Young Woodley,” fashioned this inspiring story especially for her. As a girl married to a popular hero whom she loves madly, as a disillusioned wife who finds her husband’s virtues are merely a mask for his secret philanderings, ns a reckless thrill-seeker, trying desperately to drown her pride in one wild escapade after another, this brilliant actress plays a series of characterisations in which her emotional expression finds its best portrayal. Again, as in “Tho Better Wife” and “Tho Right to Love,” Paul Lukas enters to save tho woman from herself. The suave Lukas has exercised his rare fascination in scores of minor parts. It. remained for “Unfaithful” to bring him the opportunity to cxerciso his talent to the full. Cavanagh, as the hero-husband, plays an exacting role with great skill and polish. Miss Compton, seen in “Morocco” and “Tho Better Wife,” is here the beautiful object of Cavanagh’s attentions. Also screening, “Silly Scandals,” “The Real Estators,” “Thou Shalt Not” and a Paramount pictorial. PALACE THEATRE. WILL ROGERS IN “YOUNG AS YOU FEEL.” Maybe an old dog cannot bo taught now tricks, but thcaf is no law that prevents him from adopting them. This was convincingly demonsrtated by Will Rogers during the filming of “Young As You Feel,” his latest starring picture for Fox Films, at tho Palace Theatre, and in which tho popular comedian portrays a modern, welldressed man. For the first time in his long stage or screen career, ■, Rogers was called upon to wear his hair nicely combed. After tho first sequence' of tho film Were made, with Rogers in tho role of. an old-fashioned, crochcty, set-in-his ways , widower, ' Frank Borzage, tho director, notified his star that filming of the dressed-up scones would begin tho next day. The following morning, Rogers appeared on tho set in • a neatly tailored dress suit, with pearl-headed cane, silk hat, and all tho usual accessories. After persuasion he consented to have his hair dressed as dosired by the director. Fifi Dorsay and Will Rogers are again . united in hilarious sequence of events in “Young As You 'Feel” that makes their famous escapades of “They Had dlo See Paris” appear tame. Their so-called wild parties are staged entirely as an object lesson to Will’s sons, and in the end provo to be just the “cure” necessary to make them marry happily and settlo down to business. Prominent in Rogers’s supporting cast is Lucicn Littlefield, eminent character actor, who portrays the role of Rogers’s oldfashioned and crabbed offico manager and who like his employer becomes rojuvenated just previous to tho final fadcout. Tho other players includo Rosalio Roy Lucilo Brown, (J. Henry Gordon, John T. \Murray, Brandon Hurst and Gregory Gaye. “Young As You Feel” is tho screen version of tho well-known stage success of Gcorgo Ado, “Father And The Boys,” as adapted by Edwin Burko. It marks tho fifth appearance of Will .Rogers in talking pictures, and advance rop'orts from critics and fans aliko who havo seen it credit it as being more hilarious than any of the previous Rogers hits. His last Fox picture was “A Connecticut Yankee ” previous to which he was starred in “Lightnin’ ”, “So This Is„ London” and “They Had To See Paris.” KOSY THEATRE. BUCK JONES IN “THE RANGE FEUD.” What one has never looks good until somebody takes it away. This even applies to the. recognition of talont. We have only to look through the screen roster of players to see how many of them were Eu-ropean-discovered and then taken up by America, to convince ourselves of this fact. Susan Fleming, who recently transferred hor allegiance from the stage to the screen, is one of those ex-patriotic Americans who was recalled to her own fold after she had made a hit in a foreign country. TallulahBankhcad and Evelyn Brent arc others. It was while" Susan Fleming was dancing in a Parisian cabaret that she was noticed by the great Florcnz Ziegfeld and persuaded to return to her own country. After being featured in Zicgfeld’s Palm Beach edition of the Follies and several musical comedies, her chance came to enter the movies. Columbia officials saw her and noted screen possibilities. She was signed up on a longterm contract and immediately put under severe training to fit her ; for important roles. First came a 6mall part in an Eddie Buzzcll comedy; then a slightly more important part in “Arizona”; and now, as a reward, the leading feminine character in Buck Jones’s newest western for Columbia, “The Range Feud," showing to-night at the Kosy Theatre. Sho and John Wayne, who scored such a sensational success in “The, Big Trail,” take care of the romantic interest. “THE GONDOLIERS.” GILBERT AND SULLIVAN OPERAS. This morning the box plans opened at the Central Booking Office for the J. CWilliamson, Ltd., Gilbert and' Sullivan comics operas season, which will be inaugurated at the Opera House on Wednesday evening next by a brilliant production of “The Gondoliers” which is undoubtedly one of the best and most popular of the serios. There was a largo demand for seats and a successful season is assured. “The Gondoliers” will be staged for one night, and “The Mikado” will be present-ed-on Thursday night, and on Thursday afternoon “lolanthe” will be produced. It was a most fortunate day for the world of wit and humour when tho English manager, Richard 1/Oyky Carte, trusting to

his intuition, brought about the association of Arthur Sullivan and W. S. Gilbert. Who could have imagined that this pair was destined to re-write the history of English operetta and to set a standard that still remains unsurpassed. It has been acclaimed in Australia and also in Auckland and Wellington that tho J. C. Williamson New Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company comprises the best and strongest aggregation of comic opera artists that has ever appeared in Gilbert and Sullivan operas in Australia and New Zealand, and if this is correct, and the record business which followed the efforts of tho company in Australia, Auckland and Wellington goes to prove it, then playgoers may look forward to a very rich theatrical treat. Country clients are advised that special arrangements havo been made for the reserving of their seats.