FILM and STAGE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 244, 12 September 1935, Page 10

FILM and STAGE

Highly Successful Farce. Based on the .successful London stage farce, “Oil! Daddy,” tiio Gainsborough picture which is now showing at the State Theatre in a big double feature attraction, is an excellent example of the power of clever direction to develop, from the narrower coniines of a stage presentation. a picturesque, kaleidoscopic confection presenting an infinitely more varied entertainment. An atmosphere of infectious gnietv is quickly created by Leslie Henson (Lord Pye) and Bobertson Hare (Rupert Boddy) who, as a screen team, are an unqualified success. They appear as a couple of “purity _ campaigners” who, missing the train that would have carried them to Birmingham for a convention, become involved with a daring cabaret star (Bonita do Lys), who, unknown to Pye, is his step-daughter. Determined to teach the killjoys a lesson, she invades their country retreat, accompanied by motor coaches packed with chorus girls and free beer for all, with results that can he imagined! Leslie Henson fully justifies his reputation as one of the most popular of English comedians.

Robertson Hare, who can turn a line of ordinary dialogue into a merry i quip, is in excellent form. Frances Day brings a new typo of feminine piquancy to the screen. A Spectacular Film. “Sanders of the Itiver,” which comes to the Regent Theatre on Saturday, September 21, is something quite new in film entertainment. Based on the popular Edgar Wallace stories of the same title, it deals skilfully with British rule in Africa, a subject which hitherto has been conspicuously and surprisingly ignored by British film producers. It represents quite the most difficult film task ever attempted by a producer in this country, and that it succeeds as triumphantly is

yet another tribute to the genius of the Korda brothers. Zoltan, the least known of the trio, makes his debut as a director with “Sanders,” and surely no beginner has ever been handed so difficult an assignment. But after spending four months in the heat of Africa Ire has given us some exquisite patterning; spectacular authentic scenes of native ceremonials, with their delirious and ecstatic dances; unlimited drama in keeping with the author’s reputation; vivid aerial shots of disturbed animal life which are finer than anv yet seen; and negro singing which rolls through the theatre, deep, sonorous and musical. Leslie Banks and Paul Robeson are superb in the principal parts. Others prominent in the well-chosen cast are Nina Mae McKinney, Tony Wane, Eric Maturin. Robert Cochrane, and Martin Walker.

Colin Taplev. a young New_ Zealander, who won his chance in pictures as this country’s representative in the “Search for Beauty” contest, and -woo was seen recently with Gary Cooper in “Lives of a Bengal Lancer.” has the role of William Dobbin in the production “Becky Sharp” (adapted from Thackeray’s “Vanity Pair”). Another New Zealander. May Beatty, appears as Briggs in the same production. Miriam Hopkins has the role of Becky.

A Dickens Triumph. One of the greatest emotional masterpieces of the screen is “David Gopperfield,” which comes to the Regent Theatre on Saturday next. There is a wealth of romance, a wealth of pathos, a wealth of comedy. There are spectacle and thrills and tragedy and beauty. But when the audience leave the theatre “David Copperfield” remains with them. For it “does something” to the heart that baffles description. Of the actors, and there are no fewer than sixty-five stars and featured players, perhaps the most spectacular achievement of “David Copperfield” is the development of the sensational new child star, Freddie Bartholomew.' Playing the juvenile David, he gives a performance never

surpassed on the screen. Another star development is Frank Lawton, playing the adult David. Seen previously iu “Cavalcade,” he is destined to be remembered always as “David Copperfield.” For he is Davicb, come to life. W. C. Fields, as Micawber, gives another unforgettable performance. The others include such favourites as Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O’Sullivan, Madge Evans, Edna May Oliver, Lewis Stone, Elizabeth Allan, Roland Young, Basil Rathbone, Elsa Lanchester, Jean Cadell, Jessie Ralph, Lennox Pawle, Violet Kemble-Cooper, Una O’Connor, John Buckler, Hugh Williams, Ivan Simpson, Herbert Mundin, Florine McKinney, Harry Beresford, Mabel Colcord, the novelist

Hugh Walpole, the children, Fay Chaldecott and Marlyn Knowlden, and many more. Hilarity, Melody and Thrills. “The Nitwits” v. the masked terror, the Black Widow, is the main event at the State 'Theatre commencing on Saturday. Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey are the contenders for the sleuthing title in this comedy bout in seven reels, said to end in a knockout laugh. Scoring with a neat killing, the Black Widow hammers out a decisive lead in the early reels. With a slashing lie-detecting mechanism as a counter offensive, “The Nitwits” even the score in the late cantos, but subsequently are on the verge of being knocked out for a long count, running into three figures. Melody and thrills serve as seconds to the comedy and mystery contenders in “The Nitwits.” Betty Grable and Wheeler .sing and dance to “Music in My Heart.” Joey Ray and Joan Sanderson, musical comedy favourites, vocalise “You Opened My Eyes.” Woolsey offers one of bis inimitable comedy numbers in “The Black Widow Will Get Aon if You Don’t AVatch Out.” George Stevens directed this R.1v.0.-Radio Picture with Fred Keating, Erik Rhodes and Evelyn Brent in the cast.

Engrossing Mystery. Because of their unusual success in “Mystery Woman,” Mona Barrie' and Gilbert Boland are again together in a Fox Film picture. ’they are co-featured in “Ladies Lovo Danger,” the mystery comedy dealing with multiple murders, in a back-stage and pent-house background, which is now running at the State Theatre in the double feature attraction. Miss Barrie, London born actress who obtained her stage training in Australia, has been under contract to Fox for a little more than a year. She recently changed her personality from brunette to blond, a change so interesting that she will retain flaxen tresses henceforth. In “Ladies Love Danger,” she portrays a beauty who mistakenly enters a rich bachelor’s smart apartment, and is instantly suspected by him of a murder just committed in the idjoining apartment. Prisoner for a night, she slips out at dawn, her escape coinciding with three ensuing murders under mysterious circumstances. Not until the last foot of the last reel is the mystery cleared, and the unconventional beauty is seen to be the victim of circumstances that pointed to her as the guilty one. Supporting this brilliant team, who have so many successes to their credit, is a c;: able cast composed of Donald Cook, Adrienne Amos, Hardie Albright, Herbert Mundin, Nick Foran, Marion Clayton, Ray Walker, Rita Rozelle, and Snowflake. A Musical Spectacle.

Dick Powell sings five songs in “Flirtation Walk,” the First National picture now showing at the Regent. Three of them were written especially for the popular young star. They include “Mister and Missus is the Name,” “No Horse, No Wife, No Moustache” and the title song “Flirtation Walk,” all'of them written bv the famous team of Allie Wrubel and Mort Dixon. “Flirtation Walk” is the latest of First National’s mammoth musical spectacles. It is a tale of glorious youth, of enchanting romance and of the glamorous life in the United States Army at Hawaii and at West Point. Dick Powell, Itnbv Keller and Pat O’Brien head the galaxy of players which includes Ross Alexander, John Eldredge, Henry O’Neill, Glen Boles, John Arledge and Guinn Williams. The picture is a Frank Borzage production, based on the story by Deimer Daves and Lou Edelman and dramatised by Daves. Special music and lyrics were written by Allie Wrubel and Mort Dixon with specialty dance numbers directed by Bobby Connolly, famous dance director.-

Lively Comedy Romance. James Cagney and Bette Davis head an exceptionally talented cast in “Jimmy, the Gent,” which comes to the Kosv Theatre on Saturday in abig double feature programme. This is the first time in which the fiery, red-headed Cagney and the tall, willowy and blonde Miss Davis have played opposite each other as screen lovers. Alice White, who appeared

with Cagney i-n “Picture Snatcher,” in which she is the recipient of a knock-out punch, is another member of the cast of “Jimmy the Gent,” but this time she escapes any mauling. Others in important roles include such well-known players as Arthur Hold, Alan Dinehart, Phillip Reed, Hobart Cavanaugh, Mayo Methot. Ralfe TI arolde, Philip Faversham and Nora Lane. The picture is a lively comedy romance based on the story by Laird Doyle and Ray Nazarro. Leo Cherniavskv, the violinist, formerly of the well-known Cherniavskv trio, has returned to Australia, and is giving concerts in Sydney. AVallace Beery is interested in a story written round the ( life of John L. Sullivan. famous prize-fighter of the ’nineties, and may play the part. The story is entitled “The Greatest Roman of Them All.”

Full of Comedy. A sparkling comedy drama of philandering husbands and jealous wives, with plenty of unexpected twists in it is the new production, “Easy to Love,” coining to the Jvosy Theatre on Saturday next in a big double feature programme. With all its comic complications and its startling situations, there’s a wholesome lesson or two in it for the romantically unstable. If tbe difficulties in which John Townsend finds himself as a result of “playing polo” prove everything, they ]>rove that, though the coure of true love never runs smoothly, the course of untrue love is many times thornier. Genevieve Tobin is flawless as Carol, and it ranks as one of her finest characterisations. Adolphe Menjou is an ideal John Townsend, and his playing of scenes with Miss Tobin keep’s the audience ip shrieks of laughter. Miss Astor is charming and subtly irresistible as Charlotte, and Edward Everett Horton is a source of incessant delight.

Drama and Humour. “The Girl from 10th Avenue.” a First National picture with Bette

Davis in the stellar role, conics to the Ivosy Theatre on Wednesday next, September 18. Miss Davis’s part is far more sympathetic than the one she played in “Of Human Bondage,” but it is anything but a sweet role. She portrays a 10th Avenue _ shop-girl who marries a drunken society man following a champagne party. He had gone to the dogs when jilted. Miss Davis makes a man of him and is smart enough to separate him from the woman he formerly loved, and who had married a rich relic for his money, thinking that she could continue to flirt with the man of her choice. The picture is a tense drama with some

rare touches of humour. It has an all star cast to support Miss Davis, including lan Hunter and Colin Clive, long known on both stage and screen. Others in the cast arc Alison Skipworth, John Eldredgc, Phillip Reed, Katherine Alexander, Helen Jerome Eddy, Gordon Elliott, Adrian Rosley, Andre Cheron and Edward Ale Wade. The latest addition to the ranks of screen-opera is Igor Gorin, a Russian baritone. Noel Coward has written a new play for himself and Gertrude Lawrence. It will be produced in Manchester this month., and will then go on tour until it goes to London in January. Mickey Rooney, diminutive 13-year-old comedian, has received a new contract that keeps him on the roster of featured players. The contract is a diploma of appreciation for Mickey’s excellent portrayals in recent pictures.

NOTES AND JOTTINGS. Maurice Chevalier has been signed to play the lead in “The Beloved Vagabond,” based on the novel by W. J. Locke. Marlene Dietrich’s second film after she has finished “The Pearl Necklace” will be “Hotel Imperial,” one of Pola Negri’s triumphs in the “silent” days. Basil Rathbone, who previously divided his time between the London and Broadway stages, has been engaged for a prominent part in “A Feather in Her Hat,” starring Ruth C.hatterton. .

Grace Moore’s second big production. “Love Me Forever,” will have its New Zealand premiere at Christchurch on September 20. There are three leading men in “Love Me Forever”— Leo Carillo, Michael Bartlett (a Metropolitan operatic tenor), who accompanies Miss Moore in a number of singing sequences, and Robert Allen. When Madge Elliott and Cyril Ritchard open their New Zealand tour in Auckland on October 2, they will have the support of a very fine 'cast, including notabilities of many talents.

Ethel Morrison, formerly of Wellington, and later of America, is prominently cast, and other well-known names include Leo Franklyn, Frank Leighton, Elaine Hamill (the Taihape girl who has made good in Australia), Dorothy Dunckley, Marie le Varre, Jerry Connelly and his instrumentalists. Leslie Crane (another New Zealander), Charles Zoli, Mary Rigby, Cecil Kelleway, Mona Potts, Jean Slapoffski, Millie Engler, and full ballet of lovely Australian girls. The repertoire will include “Roberta,” “High Jinks’” and “Our Miss Gibbs,” and Messrs J. C. Williamson intend that the tour will be comprehensive, as it will be the farewell visit of dainty Madge Elliott and her stage and life partner, Cyril Ritchard.