ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 8, 8 December 1936, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

STATE THEATRE. "SWING TIME." With New York as its principal setting and a distinctive double-trianglo type of theme, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers introduce- a wealth of novelty in their newest ItKO Radio vehicle, "Swing Time," screening to-day at the State Theatre. Unlike their former offerings, the new picturo 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 ho can go back to his hometown 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 come thick and fast, especially when Astairo's fiancee shows up to find out what he'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 Mooro and Helen Broderick, a combination that gives "Swing 'lime" 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 aro included in what is easily tho greatest of tho Astaire-Rogers pictures. REGENT THEATRE. ",SUZY." Jean Harlow, at one time in her career, expressed the fear that she had been typed. Sho was the "platinum blonde,' and it was her conviction that when her hair was snow while with tho 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 that is her own, and the role she plays is nothing like any that has gone before. With Franchot Tone and Gary Grant as 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. The two marriages present a problem which frequently affords conjecture among women. The marries tho first man and in the intrigue of pre-war days ho is mysteriously shot under circumstances which indicate her guilt. Believing hiin to be dead, the terrified girl runs away to Paris, and there, after a respectable lapse of time, remarries. Her second husband, also a combat pilot, is unfaithful, and she is correspondingly unhappy. Then tho first man reappears. Tho 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 tell what ho 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.