ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 246, 15 September 1936, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

KOSY THEATRE. “STARS OVER BROADWAY.” Screening - to-day finally at the Kosy is “Stars Over Broadway,” Warner Bros.’ new musical comedy drama, which takes the audience behind the scenes of broadcasting stations and night clubs. Tbe glamorous romances of radio stars, their rise to success and their downfall, is presented for the first time in a most colourful picture filled with thrilling action, hilarious comedy, catchy songs and gigantic spectacles. There is a talented cast which includes Pat O’Brien, James Front an, Jean Muir, Frank McHugh, Marie Wilson, Frank Fay and others. Never has the famous team of composers, Harry Warren and A 1 Dubin written more catchy airs than those heard in this production. One of the songs, “At Your Service, Madame,” is made the theme for a spectacular number set in the background of a penthouse and an employment agency. Popular hits are interspersed with classical music in this novel film, for there will be heard arias from Verdi. “SPEED WINGS.” Film fans who delight in aviation pictures containing spectacular flying stunts as well as the average run of audiences who like fast moving, exciting productions, will enjoy “Speed Wings,” the Colonel Tim McCoy starring vehicle, which will altso screen finally to-day at the Kosy. Commencing to-morrow two brilliant attractions arc scheduled for the Kosy, “Desert Gold” from Zanc Grey’s novel of that name and a human drama “Too Many Parents.” MAYFAIR THEATRE. “KLONDIKE ANNIE.” The glamorous ’nineties is the time in which “Klondike Annie,” screening finally to-day at the Mayfair, is set. “THE LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER.” A picture which combines magnificence, sheer spectacle, and breath-taking action with the poignancc of human drama, Paramount’s “The Lives of a Bengal Lancer” returns to the Mayfair Theatre to-inor-row. There have been any number of screen spectacles based on tho lives and adventure of fighting men, but never one of the calibre of “The Lives of a Bengal Lancer.” Over four years in the making, it employed more than four thousand actors in scenes' shot in the mountain fastnesses of India and in five separate locations in California. Gary Cooper, Franchot Tone, Richard Cromwell, and Sir Guy Standing head the east of the picture as officers of this colourful regiment. The drama arises from the conflict between Sir Guy Standing, who plays a crusty, hardshoiled colonel, and his subordinate officers. Cooper and Tone adopt Cromwell, the colonel's impulsive son, as their special charge. When he becomes involved with a Russian girl and is carried off by a neigh bouring chieftain, Cooper and Tone follow, although the colonel refuses to go to his son’s rescue. They, too, are captured, and tho chieftain employs torture to .wring the secret of an enormous ammunition convoy from Cromwell. The chieftain captures the ammunition and tho Lancers, although they face certain destruction, prepare to attack in order to check the revolt whicli will follow. At this crucial moment Cooper hits upon a plan, and, first swearing the boy to secrecy on his own shameful betrayal, goes out to blow the fort to smithereens and save the Lancers. That, in its essence, is the story. But it gives you no idea of tho wild, pounding charges, the stirring horsemanship, the suspense and the fascination of the glimpses of a strange and unexplored East that make “The Lives of a Bengal Lancer” one of the grandest spectacles ever to bo filmed. The cast features only one girl, Kathleen Burke.