ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 183, 4 July 1936, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

REGENT THEATRE.

‘THE STORY OF LOUIS' PASTEUR.”

Brilliant biographical drama, rich in human interest, intelligently ami realistically based on the career of Louis Pasteur, France’s famous chemist and bacteriologist, are the elements of the longheralded film “The Story of Louis Pasteur,” opening to-night at the Regent Theatre. Spectacular emotional highlights are cleverly worked into the theme, thereby reducing scientific technicalities to a comprehensive perspective, while there is a tender conventional love interest further to engender appeal. The star, like the character lie is called . upon to portray, has been Long in finding the recognition genius deserves, but such is the high quality of the entertainment wrapped up in this picture that there is now no doubt that his artistry will receive full acknowledgment. If a finer and more significant picture than “The Story of Louis Pasteur” has been made, it is difficult to recall. Much could he written about the dramatic power, absorbing situations and masterly direction and magnificcnt acting of this film, hut the impression it makes on those who have seen it tells a much more vivid story. The picture has received the kind of tributc-*-applause from deeply-affected audiences — that would surely gladden the hearts of its producers even it’ it had not been the great success that it is proving at the box office. Paul Muni’s picture of Pasteur should win for him a special and exclusive award for cinematographic art. liis eyes and his lips; his lingers and liis dragging foot.; the suffering in his face and lies reluctance to accept the laurels when at last, they rest upon .him, stamp him as one of. the master actors of ins age. Forget ins “Chain Gang”; forget his other line portrayals; it is his future triumphs that audiences will he looking for. Humanity can never pay the debt it owes to Pasteur, for on his shoulders rests the responsibility of having saved millions born after lie himself was dead. Pasteur's life and work, his triumphs in the face of petty jealousy, prejudice, and, above all, ignorance, possess drama the most inspired of scenarists generally concoct from the imagination, it gave Pierre Gollings and Sheridan Gibliey die thing for which all scenarists search —natural drama based on facis. This story of the life and work of a tine man can bring a tear to a man’s eyes, and he is unashamed. Yet no dramatic story for years lias been less sordid or harrowing. Josephine Hutchinson is tender and understanding as his .loyal wife; Anita Louise and Donald Woods create conventional love interest unobtrusively as Annette and Jean Martel; and Fritz Lciber is excellent as tiie sceptical, vindictive Cliarbonnct.

STATE THEATRE. “MR DEEDS GOES TO TOWN.” .Once again the matchless genius of Frank Capra has asserted itself and brought to the screen a triumph of the highest calibre. To his last three films — “Lady For a Day,” “It Happened One Night” and “Broadway Bill,” each of them lino enough to warm the heart of ar. ordinary director for the duration of his professional life —is added now “Mr Deeds Goes to Town,” which opens tonight at the State Theatre with Gary Cooper and Joan Arthur in tile important roles It is an enchanting film, merry, human, romantic, inteligent, in the inimitable Capra manner. It brings a new and charming Gary Cooper to his innumerable fans, and it finds in Jean Arthur a star of the first magnitude, lovely, clever and sparkling. “Mr Deeds Goes to Town” tells the fascinating story of a young man in a small town —-Mandrake Falls, if you’re curious—who falls heir to 20,000,000 dollars left by an eccentric uncle. Longfellow Deeds, the hick, docs not give a hoot about the money; he wants to bo left alone in Mandrake Falls, where ho is having a good time playing the tuba in the village band and serving as a volunteer fireman. However, he is brought to New York by his late uncle’s attorney and dropped in the midst of a bunch of grafters—the attorney among thorn—who are due to leave Deeds as little of the fortune as possible. Of course, his advent into tho metropolis is a field day for the newspapers. One clever editor assigns Babe Bennett, a sob sister, tho. task of gotitng the story on Longfellow; she docs, but she also succeeds in tailing in love with him and allowing him to fall for her. Her stories bring Deeds such unhappiness that he decides to give tho 20,000,000 dollars away to needy folk. Immediately tho attorney, who sees visions of the money getting away from him altogether, has Deeds arrested for insanity, and then the fur flies with a vengeance. Assisting Mr Cooper and Miss Arthur in this task that they musf have found so delightful, is a east of such capable character actors as George Bancroft, Lionel Slander, Douglass Dumbrille, Raymond Wilburn, Mine. Margaret Matzenaucr, H. B. Warner, Warren Hymer, Muriel Evans, and Ruth Donnelly.