ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 245, 13 September 1935, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

KOSY THEATRE. “HAVANA WIDOWS.” “Havana Widows” with Joan Blondoll and Glenda Farrell will have its final screening to-night at the Kosy Theatre. “WHOM THE GODS DESTROY.” “Whom the Gods Destroy,” Columbia’s powerful drama of a man’s great love for his son, featuring Walter Connolly, Robert Young and Doris Kenyon will also be finally screened, at the Kosy Theatre tonight. “JIMMY THE GENT.” Jumos Cagney and Betto Davis head an exceptionally talented cast in the Warner Bros.’ picture, “Jimmy the Gent,” which comes to the Kosy Theatre to-morrow. This is the first time in which the fiery, red-headed Jimmy and the tall, willowy and blonde Bette have played opposite each other as screen lovers. It is notable that Jimmy, while he is pretty rough with other members of the cast, never onco lays his hands on Bette. It is she who does the socldng in the picture, Jimmy being on the receiving end of two smart blows to the jaw, planted just as hard as Bette’s tiny fist can plant them. Cagney’s more recent pictures include “Lady Killer,” “Footlight Parade” and “The Mayor of Hell.” Bette at the same timp (i ' vas appearing in “Fashions of 1934” and “ExLady.” Alice White, who appeared with Cagney in “Picture Snatcher,” in which she is the recipient of a knock-out punch, is another membor of the cast of “Jimmy the Gent,” but this time sho escapes any mauling. Together with Allen Jenkins, her sweetheart, she supplies no end of “mushy” comedy. “EASY TO LOVE.”

"Easy to Love” tne Warner Bros, picture which also opens at the Kosy Theatre 10-morrow is a revelation in marital rmxups with an hilarious vein. There is a quadrangular love tangle in which a husband and wife whom their daughter and her sweetheart believe to be an idealistically happy married couple, are mixed up with affinities in the persons ot each other’s best friend. The strange and complicated situations that arise when the wifo learns that her husband is maintaining a love nest and he suspects her of having an affair lead to some of the most laughable scenes imaginable. The picture is portrayed by an exceptionally strong all-star cast headed by Genevieve Tobin in the role of the neglected wife with Adolphe Menjou playing opposite her as the philandering husband. Mary. Astor und Edward Everett Horton have the icles of the other woman and the other man, and Patricia Ellis and Paul Kaye are the younger players. Others in the cast include Guy Kibbeo, Hugh Herbert, Hobart Cavanaugh, Robert Greig and Harold Waldridge. The picture is based on the uproariously funny stage play by Thompson Buchanan which was adaptod by David Boehm. Sparkling dialogue and clover situations with unique twists have been given to the piece by Carl Erickson and Manuel Scff, authors of the screen play. William Keighley directed.

STATE THEATRE. “OH! DADDY.” Based on the successful London stage farce, “Oh! Daddy,” the Gainsborough picture released by Gaumont-British and starring Leslie Henson, Robertson Hare and Francis Day, will bo finally screened today at the State Theatre. On the same programme is “Ladies Love Danger,” a thrilling murder mystery. “THE NITWITS.” A title like “The Nitwits” can only suggest the screen’s nitwitticst stars —Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey. For them, “The Nitwits” is an innovation. They have abundant opportunity to exercise their inimitable comic talents while they solve a balfling murder mystery and extortion plot in their latest and greatest comedy hit which commences to-morrow at the Stale Theatre. The locale is Tin Pan Alley, New York’s own song-writing “.Latin quarter,” which gives a reasonable excuse lor three melodics whose' current popularity on tho ballroom lioor and over the air waves is no surprise. The murder plot, which could logically stand alone as a separate production, concerns a terrorist campaign by tho sinister Black Widow. When Wheeler.’s fiancee is accused, the police finding in her possession tlie weapon which murdered her boss, the boys take a band privately in their hilarious manner. The result is a howling success, u credit to any Philo Vance, and they certainly make mystery a laughing matter. Nonsense runs amok in “Tho Nitwits,” but tho results are highly entertaining. Woolsey’s rendition of “'due Black Widow” provides a laugh that lasts. The ridiculousness of their sleuthing is best exemplified with a truth-detecting machine calculated to shock the truth out of tho best Munchausen —and it gets results. It boasts a cast which docs honour to the roles. Fred Keating, as a suave priiato detective, makes iiis activities as mysterious as his profession. Betty Grable, lull of vivacity and allure, as Wheeler’s girl friend, sings und dances and pranks with the best of them. Evelyn Brent returns to the screen alter a long absence, and Erik Rhodes, tho professional co-respondent of “The Gay Bivorcee,” handles a dramatic part. Comedy and mystery are furthered by the splendid performances of Wiilie Best, Arthur Aylesworth, Dorothy Granger, Hale Hamilton, and Lew Koliy. The him owes its story and comedy treatment to fcjtuart Palmer, Fred Guiol and Al Boasberg.

REGENT THEATRE. “FLIRTATION WALK.” A thrilling revelation in musical spectacle is “Flirtation Walk,” to be finally screened at the Rogent Theatre to-night. There is an all-star cast beaded by the inimitable songster, Dick Powell. “DAVID COPPERFIELD.” It has remained for that swift and supple medium, the sound screen, to bring back the full glories of Cliarlcs Dickens. From time to time courageous theatrical managements have attempted to adapt his stories to the legitimate stage, but- if one expects “The Cricket on the Hearth,” “Jo” (taken from “Bleak House”) and “The Only Way” (“A Tale of Two Cities”), the result lias not boon notably great. Dickens used a big canvas, and the stage was too circumscribed a medium to do him justice, but now that the sound has come to the screen, the possibilities are practically limitless. So we have had during the past few months screen versions of “Our Mutual Friend,” “Great Expectations,” and “The Old Curiosity Shop”; but none of these in point of artistry, in the fidelity of the acting, and the settings, have approached the Mctro-Goldwyn-Mayer production of “David Copperfield” which conics to the Regent Theatre to-morrow. The cast is a notable one, and with the continuity supervised by Mr Hugh Walpole, the most ardent Dickensian will find it difficult to pick holes in the picture, other than lapses necessitated by condensation (as in the case of Micawber’s- summary of the financial difference between happiness and misery). The story commences with the birth of David, and the later infatuation of his mother for the fiendish Murdstono, and her death. There with distressing detail is shown the travail of little David, his weary tramp from London to Dover, and ids succouring at the hands of the temperamental Trotwood and Mr Dick. Then follow in perfect sequence the happy days at Mr Wickfiold’s and Beggotty’s, and hard upon the latter comes the perfidy of Steer forth, and the villainy of Uriah Heep; David’s marriage to Dora, her death, and, following on the exposure of Hoop’s treachery, his marriage to Agnes Wickfield. One cannot pass lightly over David’s encounters with penurious Micawbers;. his affectionate contacts with Peggottv, old Dan’l, and Ham Peggotty at Yarmouth, and the whimsical scenes with Betsy and Mr Dick, without a word for the faithfulness and “heart” with which they are played. A very beautiful and touching performance is that of Freddie Bartholomew as young David, while Frank Lawton is ingratiating as the adult David. Betsy is inimitably played by Edna May Oliver, and W. C. Fields makes an amusing, if not altogether convincing, Wilkins Micawber. Lionel Barrymore is very sound as

Dan’l Pcggotly, and “little Em’l.v” is played with a wealth of feeling by an actress the programme omits to mention. Other capital performances avo the Murd-. stone of Basil Rathbone, tho Agnes of Madge Evans, the Dora of Maureen O’Sullivan, the Wickfield of Lewis Stone, and the Uriah lleep of Roland Young. Such realism as is depicted in tho storm scene, in which Stcnrforth and Ham arc drowned. has seldom been seen upon the screen before.