FILM and STAGE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 93, 19 March 1936, Page 5

FILM and STAGE

Flawless Entertainment. “In Person,” which opens at the State Theatre on Saturday with Ginger Rogers in solo stardom, is ample proof that the actress merits her place in the top screen rank and ushers her to her new position with a story that is highly entertaining throughout. A. comedy-drama packed with fascinating situations, “In Person” focuses on an arrogant, pampered screen celebrity. She is temporarily transformed into a meek, nerve-wracked lass when she is mobbed by admirers. She hides her loveliness behind a disguise, and seeks seclusion in a sympathetic stranger’s log cabin. Eventually she falls in love with him, but lie is so annoyed by her egotism that not even the revelation of her identity can make him warm to her. The story finds much humour in Miss Rogers’s frantic attempts to lure her host into a proposal, with her campaign of charm and strategem climaxing in a novel shotgun wedding. Miss Rogers acts a flawless performance, skilfully balancing romance and comedy. George Brent, always smooth in light comedy, gives an excellent ac-

count of himself as the male romantic! lead. Alan Mowbray, as an actor-suitor of Miss Rogers, creates some of ' the; biggest laughts in the picture. Grant j Mitchell, Samuel Hinds, Louis Mason | and Spencer Charters handle contri-! butory roles with skill. A Drama of Life. A complete span of life, from childhood to old age, is covered in the screen version of George Du Maurier’s well known novel, “Peter Ibbetson,” staring Gary Cooper and Ann Hard- ; ing, coming on Wednesday next to the ! Regent Theatre. When the picture opens, Cooper and Miss Harding are ■ seen in the persons of Dickie Moore and Virginia Weidler, aged eight and < six respectively. The next time they c meet they are grown-up, each approxi- 1 mately twenty years older. As the r

story progresses, the years pass by until at the finale Cooper appears as an aged man, at least 80 years old. The make-up of both stars correspondingly changes as they make the transition from youth to middle and old ages. “Peter Ibbetson,” an immortal love classic that has been read as a book, seen as a play and an opera, now reaches the screen, deviating but slightly from the original work. It concerns the great love between a man and a woman, a love that nothing could break, a love that grew greater in a dream fantasy when circumstances ruled that these two be separated. . A powerful, soul-stirring romance, the film is an accurate picturisation of the novel whose popularity lias strengthened rather than dimmed with passing generations.

The AVanganui Repertory Theatre will stage Clemence Dane’s play, “A Bill of Divorcement,” shortly. “Bar 20 Rides Again,” the latest “Hop-a Long Cassidy” picture- featuring William Boyu, is the third cowboy drama taken from the works of Clarence E. Mulford to be brought to the screen this year.

Merry Complications. “If You Could Only Cook,” the new romantic comedy, which is scheduled to open on Friday at the Regent Theatre, brings to the screen a new team, Herbert Marshall and Jean Arthur. And it also marks Miss Arthur’s initial appearance as a full-fledged star. 11l “If You Could Only Cook,” Marshall is seen as a disgusted millionaire. Not disgusted because he doesn’t know what to do with his money, but because lie is about to marry a girl he doesn’t love and who doesn’t love him. And further, because his board of directors has been annoying him. Instead of getting drunk, he goes and sits in the park. Here he meets Miss Arthur, who is scanning the want advertisements for a job. She mistakes him for

| another unemployed member of society and invites him to go with her to an- | swer an advertisement for a married i couple, a butler and a maid. Marshall, [ on the spur of the moment, accepts, ! and off go the • millionaire ana the young lady and get the job. From this point on tlie tale is filled with complications/that promise much in the way of merriment. In the supporting cast are Leo Carillo, Lionel Slander, brassyvoiced poet of “The Scoundrel,” Alan Edwards, Frieda Inescourt, Gene Morgan, Ralf Harolde, Matt McHugh and Richard Powell. An Operatic Treat. Grand opera is brought to the screen exactly as it is presented on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera House and the Paris Opera House in “I Dream Too Much,” debut picture of Lily Pons,

world’s greatest coloratura soprano, which commences at the .State Theatre on Saturday, March 28. Miss Pons, who has starred in the same opera on both the Metropolitan and Paris stages, sings the “Bell Song” aria from “Bakin c” in colourful scenes of the picture. The tiny diva also sings another famout operatic aria, “Caro Nome,” from Verdi’s “Rigoletto.” Popular music is even more abundantly represented in her first screen repertoire, as she sings four original numbers written especially for the picture by Jerome Kern with lyrics by Dorothy Fields. Supporting the star in the human interest drama of a girl’s struggle to escape fame and win happiness are Henry Fonda, in the male lead, Osgood Perkins and Eric Blore in principal roles. Based on an original story hy Elsie Finn and David ' G. AVittels, “I Dream Too Much” was produced by Pandro S. Berman and directed by John Cromwell.

On the basis of a two-minute screen test, Robert Kent was given a longterm contract and immediately assigned the male lead with Rochelle Hudson in James Oliver Curwood’s “The Country Beyond,” which goes into production shortly.

Two Big Attractions. At present showing at the State Theatre are two big attractions, “AVhispering Smith Speaks” and “Navy Wife.” As the danger-defying young railroad worker who whispered by preference, but who could shout when he wanted to, George O’Brien returns to the screen in an action-filled story, “AVhispering Smith Speaks.” The plot revolves about the love that arises between Geoi'ge O’Brien, working as a railroad man, and Irene AVare, who manages a dilapidated old railway. Kenneth Thomson, Vic Potel and Spencer Charters fill the most important featured roles. Jane Darwell, best remembered for her role as the head nurse in “The AVhi.te Parade,” has an im-

portant role in “Navy AVife.” Claire Trevor and Ralph Bellamy are featured in this screen version of Kathleen Norris’s novel, “Beauty’s Daughter.” A Riot of Comedy. “A Night at the Ritz” opens at the Kosy Theatre on Saturday in a big i double-feature programme. The story j is a riotous comedy with fast action and scintillating dialogue. The plot is unique and carries a delightful uuder-

lying romance. The picture concerns the high pressure of a publicity promoter who palms off a chef on a fashionable hotel. -There is an all-star cast of talented players which includes AVilliam Gargan, Patricia Ellis, Allen Jenkins, Dorothy Tree, Erie Rhodes, Berton Churchill, Gordon AVestcott, Bodil Rosing, Arthur Hoyt, Paul Poraesi, AVilliam Davidson, Mary Treen and Mary Russell.

The Auckland Little Theatre Society will begin the so»ison with the production of C. L. Anthony’s “Touch AVood” from April 1 to 6. Charles Bickford has been cast for a hard-boiled sergeant role, on Flagg and Quirt lines, in “U. S. Smith,” After that he hopes to try his hand at directing. ‘

A Novel Story. Joan Crawford brings a new kind of picture as well as a new leading man to the Regent Theatre, commencing on Saturday, March 28, with her new production, “I Live My Life.” The story is novel, dramatic and at times uproariously funny. The leading man is Brian Aherne, the distinguished English actor,' who with this picture comes into his own as a leading man to bo reckoned with. Aherne is an; archaeologist. When first lie sees the beautiful girl from the yacht in the | quiet bay of the Greek island where! he has been digging, he is uninterested. She is obviously rich, and rich girls, to him, are parasites. When she tells him, however, that she is the owner’s secretary, love comes in a rush. Thus begins a romance that rises to all-absorbing proportions. AVlien, however, the archaeologist follows the girl to New York, discovers that she is in reality the rich man’s spoiled daughter, trouble—and laughter—begin. Miss Crawford has never been more glamorous than in this sprightly,

magnificently mounted production. Supporting the leading players is a superb cast. Frank Morgan is at his fumbling, mumbling best as the wellmeaning father. Aline MacMahon gives a sterling performance as the woman archaeologist. Gilbert and Sullivan Operas. “The Gondoliers,” “The Mikado,” and “The Yeoman of the Guard” are the operas selected by J. C. 'William-

i son, Ltd., in accordance with the popular choice, for presentation by the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company at the Opera House, Palmerston ; North, on Tuesday and Wednesday, | March 24 and 25. “The Mikado” will j be given at the matinee on the 25th. i The Savoy operas have long been esj tablislied as one of our most cherished ! national institutions. Their populaI rity throughout the English-speaking world is greater to-day than ever before. Gilbert and Sullivan audiences invariably go to the theatre in the quiet assurance that they will have a full night’s genuine entertainment. Many of them doubtless possess a knowledge of the music, the characters and at least some of the dialogue, yet they find that even after many rehearings the atmosphere of freshness, the topicality of the humour, and the essential truth of the characterisation j makes these unique little operas eternally new. J A Powerful Story. •’ One of the most powerfully written | i and stirring novels of our generation jis “Java Head,” by Joseph Hergesi heimer. Now brilliantly translated to I the screen by Associated Talking Pic- ) tures of Ealing, England, “Java Head” | becomes one of the, first screen masterI pieces of 1935. It comes to the Rosy - ; Theatre on Saturday'. Magnificently ’ interpreted by an exceptionally strong east, headed by John Loder, Elizabeth Allan, Edmund Gwenn and Anna May Wong, the characters of this enthralling love story step from the pages of fiction to “live” upon the silver screen. The story centres around “Java Head,” the Bristol home of an okl sea captain, Jeremy Ammidon, so named as this lovable old “sea dog” liimself explains in the film, because “lie always looked upon liis home as a safe and calm retreat from a long and stormy voyage.” Jeremy Ammidon had two) sons, Gerrit and William, but they are of vastly different dispositions, and it is in this difference that much of the power of the story lies.

The official opening of the Canterbury College Drama Society’s season took place recently, when G. B. Shaw’s “Arms and the Man” was presented at the Little Theatre.

Hilarious Comedy. ! If all the gangsters in Chicago were gathered in a great warehouse to listen to a speech by a girl who had recently foiled a bank robbery,, what would happen? What actually dul happen was the funniest thing ever shown on the screen, and patrons can learn all about it by seeing “Site Gets Her ! Man,” the hilarious comedy opening at the Rosy Theatre next Wednesday. The flustered Zasu Pitts is the girl in the case, and also featured in this ; riotously funny picture is Hugh O’ConI nell ; noted stage’comedian. Zasu faints during a small-town bank robbery and falls on a concealed button which liberates hissing jets of tear-gas, and soon learns that she is known in gangland as a fearless “tiger woman.” Sidesplitting situations follow one another in swift succession, and the story ends in a startling climax that is apt to ] have a large. part of the audience 1 rolling in the aisles witli laughter. The cast supporting Miss Pitts and O’Oon- j nell includes Helen Twelvetrees, Lu-1 cion Littlefield, Ed. Brophy, Warren Hymer and many others.

The Dunedin Repertory Society wifl stage J. M. Barrie’s “The Admirable Crichton” for a season of five niglits, shortly A picture shortly to lie released throughout New Zealand is “Koenigsmark,” 'starring Elissa Landi and Pierre Fresnay. This a talking version of the famous silent film of the -same name. The plot concerns the love of two Royal brothers for the same girl, one of whom does not stop at murder to achieve his end. Preparations for a spectacular staging of the .Auckland Amateur Operatic Society’s 1936 production, “Mew Moon” are now well under way. Julie Haydon, who made a comeback in “The .Scoundrel,” but hasbeen busy on Broadway since, is returning to the screen in “Too many Parents.” Grete Natzler will also'have a role in the picture. The child actress, Jane Withers, who has been appearing in “Paddy O’Day,” recently finished playing in “Gentle Julia,” the largest and most pretentious picture yet given her. “Gentle Julia” was produced in 19 days, five days short of a fast scheduled time of 24 days.