ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 55, 2 February 1934, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

STATE THEATRE.’* DOUBLE-FEATURE BILL. To-night will seo tho final screening of the double feature programme which has proved ' particularly popular with patrons of the State Theatre. “Early to Bed’’ is a refreshingly naive comedy and the petite Heather Angel, Edmond Gwenn and Sonnie Halo put the audience in an excellent humour for the full enjoyment of “Olsen’s Big Moment.” El Brendel as Olson is really funnier in this than in any previous film, even including the fantastic “Just Imagine.” “AFTER TO-NIGHT.” A beautiful spy in whose charms and intelligence are vested the power of an army corps is the role enacted by Constance Bennett in her latest release from RKO-Radio, “Aftor To-night,” commencing at the State Theatro to-morrow. Miss Bennett is said to win new honours in one of the most difficult rolos of her career., Wringing . secrets from the enemy, sh;e must appear in various kinds of raiment and in various occupations, ranging from that of a seamstress to a cafe singer, and then a nurse at an Austrian base hospital. Forever in the shadows of a firing squad, Miss Bennett must retain her poise as bombs and dropped behind the lines from 'planes and, finally captured, look into the eyes of the enemy captain she loves and await the sentence that all .spies fear. Troop movements and even the very fato of her country hang in the balance as the fragile and alluring spy carries out the most dangerous of all war-time assignments. The dramatic trend of the _ story comes when disguised as a peasant girl she falls in love with a countor-espijonage officer who little dreams of her real identity. Later he is assigned to capture her. Succeeding, he knows he must sentence her to death or himself become a traitor to his country. George Archainbaud directed “After To-night.” Gilbert Roland has tho malo lead opposite tho blonde RKO-Radio star, with the supporting cast including Edward Ellia, Sam (1 odfroy, Lucien P.rival, Mischal Auer, Ben Hendricks, -junr., Leonid Snegotf, Evelyn Carter Carrington and John Wray.

REGENT THEATRE. “DINNER AT EIGHT.” “Dinner at Eight,” Metro-Goklwyn-Mayer’s filmisation of the Broadway hit, was shown for the first time this afternoon at the Regent Theatre. It is almost unbelievable that .Metro-Goldwyn-Maver was able to gather together for this one picture such outstanding film names as Marie Dressier, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, Lee Tracy, Edmund Lowe, Billy Burke, Madge Evans, Jean Hereholt, Karen Morley, Louis© Glosser Hale, Phillips Holmes and May Robson, together with a supporting cast of 11 players. The remarkable part of the ipeture is that its episodic narrative offers each of the celebrities in the cast a meaty role. Just as there are enough stars in. “Dinner at Eight” to equip more than a dozen film s-ehicles, ■ so its story has enough plots and sub-plots to furnish any number of separate cinema narratives, but the picture is so cleverly contrived that it interweaves the various tales into one magnificent climax in which the majority of characters are brought together. One phase of the picture deals with Lionel Barrymore, who is worried over the collapse of his shipbuilding concern and while his wife, Billie Burke, blithely arranges a dinner for a pair of visiting British aristocrats. It is into this aspect of the story that Marie Dressier is introduced as a retired trouper of the “gay nineties” and an old flame of Lionel, Also concerned is Lionel’s daughter, Madge Evans, who is in love with John Barrymore, a “has .been” movie star. The tragedy of the 'movie star who tries desperately to make a “come back” presents a. new angle. His intrigues with his agent, Lee ’I racy, to appear affluent before Jean Hersholt, a theatrical producer, and the tragedy which results when he fails to get a coveted part in a Broadway show,' also involves Miss Dressier and Miss - Evans. Then is presented the 1 domestic picture- of Wallace Beery, the hard-boiled business - racketeer who is responsible for the upheaval in Lionel Barrymore’s shipbuilding interests. Beery is married to the flashy Jean Harlow, who carries on an affair with Edmund Lowe behind her husband’s back and whose social ambitions bring her VJ • contact' with the other principals at this all star dinner. . The principal supporting featurettos are a beautiful and humorous colourtone novolt.y entitled “Menu, with a racy description by Pete Smith, and a fascinating Fitzpatrick travelogue, "Rio the Magnificent.”

KOSY THEATRE. . “CABIN IN THE COTTON.” Richard Barthelmess’s picture, “The Cabin in the Cotton,” screens finally tonight at the Kosy ’lficatrc. “THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK.” Fredrie Alarch and Cary Grant play r the two leading roles in Paramount’s “I he Eagle and The Hawk,” the story of two war-time fliers whose hatred for each other made them both heroes, which comes to the Kosy Theatre to-morrow. Jack Uakie and Carole Lombard head the supporting cast. March and Grant are cast as a pilot and’ observer in the British air corps —March a skilled, reckless flier; Grant a ruthless killer. Together in the air they are an unbeatable team, and one enemy ’plane after the other is outmanoeuvred by Alarch’s beautiful handling of his ’plane; brought down by Grant’s deadly handling of his guns. But on the ground, Alarch and. Grant are the deadliest , of enemies. Alarch is disgusted by Grant’s cold delight in killing; Grant ie scornful of March's scruples. The spectacle #>f death after death begins working on Alarch s imagination; gradually he begins to breakdown. And Grant, the first to suspect the fact, begins to feel sympathy for his pilot. It is through Grant that March is sent home on a month’-s furlough. He returns to the front freshened. But the events that follow immediately upon his return have a strange effect upon him as the picture reaches its climax. A Tom Alix W estein special “Flaming Guns” is an added feature in the programme. Tom’s new horse Tony iunr., is introduced for tho first time ’.in this film, the old Tony haying been pensioned off after ail injury received during the making of “Hidden Gold, the last Alix picture at the Kosy Theatre, The tenth chapter of the serial “Phantom of the Air” will be screened at all sessions.