ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 7, 7 December 1936, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

REGENT THEATRE. “SUZY.” Jean Harlow, at one time in her career, expressed the fear that she had been typed. She was the “platinum blonde,” and it was her conviction that when her hair was snow white with the years she would still be remembered as the platinum blonde. Miss Harlow appears now in “Suzy,’’ which screens at the Regent Theatre to-day and her fears are dispelled. Her hair is the spun-honey tone lliat is her own, and the role she plays is nothing like any that has gone before. With Franehot Tone and Gary Grunt us wartime aviators, both of whom, incidently, she marries. Miss Harlow plays the part of an American chorus girl who is stranded in London just before the war breaks out. Thu two marriages present a problem which frequently affords conjecture among women. The girl marries the first mail and in the intrigue of pre-war days he is mysteriously shot under circumstances which indicate her guilt. Believing him to be dead, the terrified girl runs away to Paris, and there, alter a respectable lapse of time, remarries. Her second husband, also a combat pilot, is unfaithful, and she is correspondingly unhappy. Then the first man reappears. The girl learns from him that spies shot him and that her present husband is involved with them, together, the pair go to. warn him, but they are too late. The spies have already killed him, fearing that he will (oil what he knows. The matter is adjusted eventually, in a feat of spectacular heroism that not only buries the unfaithful husband with honours, but brings the original lovers together in lasting peace. STATE THEATRE. “SWING TIME.” D ith New York as its principal setting and a distinctive douhlc-triangic type of theme, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers introduce a wealth of novelty in then newest RKO Radio vehicle, “Swing Time,' screening to-day at the State Theatre. Unlike their former offerings, the new picture has an intricately romantic story, with both stars pursuing the course of true love through the obstacles offered by a pair of rivals. Astaire is a cheerful gambler, seeking his fortune in Manhattan so lio can go back to his home town and marry his childhood sweetheart. Miss Rogers is a dancing academy instructress who takes Astaire as a pupil, despite the glowering of an orchestra leader who intends to marry the luscious lady. Complications conic thick and fast, especially when Astaire’s fiancee shows up to find out what lie’s doing, and the band leader makes frantic efforts to break up the growing romance between Astaire and Miss Rogers. All this is interwoven with some of the catchiest song numbers and dances the famous pair have yet presented, and the hilarious counterplay of a new screen comedy team in the persons of Victor Moore and Helen Broderick, a combination that gives “Swing ’J ime” top honours in originality and entertainment value. Jerome Kern and Dorothy. Fields wrote the music and lyrics of the “Swing Time” numbers, respectively. Six songs are included in what, is easily the greatest of the Astairc-Rogcrs pictures.