ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 260, 1 October 1936, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

STATE THEATRE. “POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL.” Surrounded by a cast of Hollywood favourites and introducing five new hit songs, Shirley Temple is setting a new high standard in entertainment in “The Poor Little Rich Girl,” now playing an extended season at tho State Theatre. Alice Faye, Gloria Stuart, Jack Haley and Michael ’Whalen all have featured parts in tho film and Mack Gordon and Harry Revel, Hollywood’s most famous song-writers, have authored a quintet of new numbers especially for the dimpled little star including “When I’m With You,” “But Definitely,” “You’ve Gotta Eat Your Spinach,” “Oh, My Goodness” and “Military Man.” “UNDER TWO FLAGS.” Motion picturo fans who breathlessly followed Ronald Column in “Bcau Gcele” and who adored Claudette Colbert in “It Happened One Night,” have a great new treat in 6tore lor them in “Under Two Flags.” It is the picturo which brings these two titans of tho screens together in roles that surpass even the most magnificent of thoir past triumphs. Produced under tho direct supervision of Darryl F. Zanuck, this drama of surging power, tumultuous lovo and searing conflict set in the Sahara, conics on Saturday to tho State Theatre. Miss Colbert plays the rolo of “Cigarette” in this adaption of Ouida’s immortal story of the French Foreign Legion. A lovely flirt, site toys with the affections of. Victor McLaglcn, Legionnaire major, until she meets Cojman, a member of tho ranks. Theipsho impulsively loses her heart to him. The drama gains in power and intensity with the appearance of Rosalind ltusscll, fragile English beauty. Before he is sent out to tho desert to help stem an Arab revolt, Column has declared his love for her. Hemmed in by hostile forces, McLaglcn v<mgcliilly attempts lo destroy Column, whom ho believes stands between himself and Miss Colbert. But Column saves his force by a daring ruse, and a magnificent charge of the Legion, led by Mies Colbert, results in tho defeat of tho Arab forces. The magnificent supporting cast of forty character stars includes ouch prominent players as Gregory llatoff, Nigel Bruce, C. Henry Gordon and J. Edward Bromberg. Box plans for the season now open at Rosco and theatre. REGENT THEATRE. “RIFFRAFF.” Jean Harlow has never displayed her versatility as an actress to better advantage than in “Riffraff,” which screens today at the Regent Theatre. She follows her smashing hit in “China Seas’ with another sparkling role, against a background of the sea, but in a vital, romantic story, which gives her the finest opportunity of her career. Teamed with her for the first time is one of Hollywood's finest actors, Spencer Tracy, and the two miss no opening to get tho most out of the powerful and sweeping story which mixes tho most hilarious comedy with the most touching pathos. Convinced that the trend of public preference is for red-blooded stories with virile power and sweep, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has scored in starring its two strongest personalities. The story of “Riffraff” invades a brand new locale, the commercial fishing (loot that plies the waters of tho Pacific off Southern California. Much of tho story takes place in tho fishing village adjacent to tho great California metropolis—a community affiliated with tho city, yet entirely feparatod as though in a different world. There the fishermen and their families live their lives, and work out their destinies without contact with outside influences. “Riffraff” 1 tells of the lovo of Miss Harlow and Tracy, a love that transcends man made laws, yet is

masked in a veil of rough badinage that | cannot entirely conceal its depth and sin- | cerity. It presents Miss Harlow in one | of her most unusual roles, an agel of the waterfront who marries a braggart and a j bully and spends the rest of her life try- 1 ing to reform him. Tracy is shown as a ; swaggering skipper of a tuna clipper, a ] two-fisted strong man who rules the fleet with an iron hand. Into the story are' woven economic problems as vital as to- ! morrow, and thrills such as the screen lias : seldom seen. >