ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 165, 13 June 1936, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

MAYFAIR THEATRE,

“TALE OF TWO CITIES.”

With the amazing total of 112 speaking parts in the screen play, “A Tale of Two Cities,” starring Ronald Column, sets an all-time record for size of a motion picture cast. It comes to the Mayfair Theatre, starting to-night, as one of the year’s greatest achievements. The scenario, according to David O. Selznick, who produced it for Mctro-Goldwyn-Mavcr, not only retains every major character in Dickons’ original novel—the most spectacular story of his distinguished career —but has amplified some of the incidental characters to major importance. The astonishing total of speaking parts in the story created a easting problem such as Hollywood never before had encountered. It far surpassed the problem of selecting actors for “David Copperfield,” which bad the most prepossessing cast of any picture .up to that time. Ronald Column, one of filmdom's most distinguished stars, creates the immortal role of Sydney Carton, the wastrel who rises to heights of dramatic sacrifice. Elizabeth Allan, who /cored decisively as the young mother in “David Copperfield,” has tho role of Lucie Manctte, the tragic heroine. Besides these two, 110 roles are played by' world-famous figures on the stage and screen, among them Edna May Oliver, playing Miss Pross, lean, angular, excitable, faithful companion and protector of Lucie tvlanotte. Reginald Owen, playing Mr Stryvcr, stout and pompous English barrister, who climbs to success with tlio brains of Sydney Carton. Basil Rathbonc. as the Marquis St. Evremondc, cruel and unscruplous nobleman whose rutlile-sness -serves as a spark to ignite the French Revolution. Tho subsidiary cast includes Blanche Yurka, as Madame de Fargo, hard as nails, cold as an iceberg. but smouldering with the fire of vengeance which breaks when she leads the storming of the Bastille; Henry B. Walthall, playing Dr Manctte, victim of imprisonment in the notorious Bastille, and a moving figure in the ' story’s development; Donald Woods, playing Charles Darnav scion of French nobilitv, who is enmeshed in the deadly intrigues of the Revolution and is saved from death by Carton’s sacrifice. “A Tale of Two Cities” is one of the most lavish productions of recent years. Months were required for filming." Six thousand extra players were used in mob scenes depicting the French Revolution, the storming and fall of the Bastille. That notorious edifice was reconstructed inside the studio walls, only to be torn down, stone for stone, in one of the picture’s dramatic sequences. Every feature of Dickens’ original novel lias been retained in the screen play. A few sequences were rearranged, hut Ihe film story follows the hook with exactness. KOSY THEATRE. “WOMAN TRAP.” . Gertudo Michael claims that, <1 “Woman Trap,” she achieved enough hair-raising thrill-pnckod adventures to fill an action magazine from cover to cover. Among the stunts required of her in this Paramount drama, which opens tonight at the Kcsy Theatre, were: 1 ranging on to the half-submerged pontoon of a seaplane as it rides a choppy sea; balancing licrsalf precariously on the slippery deck of a speeding motor boat; letting herself bo thrown from a plungng horse; walking over rock-strewn desert trails; being manhandled by a gang of murderous band ts. After these events, Gertrude decided she was ready for a rest cure. “I owed it to myself,” the film actress said. “All my hones ached. My muscles were stiff. Every fibre *i my being craved for a chance to loat and loaf for the rest of nty lile. It was great fun.” Miss Michael portrays a headstrong beauty attracted to a star crime reporter on the trail of the story of a diamond robbery and kill tig ot I a double-crossing gangster. She rushes headlong” i to the crooks’ hideaway. They hold her for ransom, and decide to remove ail clues by killing the reporter. A sleek confederate of the gang turns the tobies in a surprising clamix. The cast ol players of "Woman Trap.” besides Mss Michael, is composed of Goorge_Murphy, Roscoe Karos,li Akim Tamiroff, Samuel S. Hinds, Sidney Blackmer ff'd Jagger. Tlio direction of this thrilling film was entrusted to Harold Young. “HER MASTER’S VOICE.”

Edward Everett Horton, is starting a new Crusade; to promote old-time bai-ber-shop ballads. In Its new Paramount picture, “Her Master's Voice,” which also comes to-night to the Kosy Theatre, ind which teatures Peggy Conklin and Laura Hope Crews, Horton plays tie part of “The Fireside Troubadour,” radio crooner who specialises in the mournful harmony numbers so dear to the hearts of every generation His chief number is that perennial favourite. “Down by the Old Mill Stream,” which has be<n warbled with, equal gusto by grey-haired grandfathers and modern high school quartettes. “There was someth rig honest about these old tear-jerkers,’ said Horton. “Even though they may not'have been high-tvpo' classical music, they conveyed the fueling of an era in which simplicity and the plainer virtues were paramount. I think they’re swell, and I d feel verv sorry to see numbers like Down uy the'Old Mill Stream,’ ‘Sweet Adeline and ‘Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage die and bo forgotten.”