FILM AND STAGE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 9, 9 December 1936, Page 7

FILM AND STAGE

Big Comic Attraction. Two of tlio best comedians of ilie screen are the stars of “Two’s Company,” which is coming to the State Theatre on Thursday and Friday. They arc Gordon Marker and Ned Sparks (who is appearing in his first British film). This is one of the happiest partnerships seen on the screen for a long time. Both comedians are at the top of their form, and extract every ounce of merriment out of a story adapted specially for them. Gordon Marker has becomo famous as the inimitable Cockney whose sardonic humour and hoarse voice have become almost classic. Ned Sparks needs no introduction to lovers of comedy. In “Two’s Company” he proves the perfect partner for Marker's humour.

Love Story of Barbary Coast. A new and romantic team is brought to the screen in “San Francisco,” commencing to-morrow at the Regent Theatre, in Clark Gable and Jeanette MacDonald. For the first time the rugged, twofisted Gable of old and Miss MacDonald with the voice that thrills, are

Unforgettable Drama. “San Francisco,” which opens tomorrow (Thursday) at the Regent Theatre, promises to become one of the most talked-about pictures in many months. First, it teams three of the most popular screen stars for the first time—Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy. It is a picture brimming with romance, love, comedy, beautiful music and excitement. The

picture takes us into the seething, mad excitement of the Barbary Coast when it was a by-word around the world. It takes us into aristocratic Nob Hill, into the old Tivoli opera house, the historic Palace Hotel and other landmarks of old San Francisco—and it takes us through the disaster that levelled a beautiful city to the ground thirty

brought together, with Spencer Tracy years ago, in a series of the most realsharing stellar honours. “San Fran- istie disaster scenes ever filmed, cisco’’ has drama, love interest, comedy Fine English Comedy. . . and spectacle. Gable has the rough and “In the Soup,’’ starring the ininuttough type of role in which his screen able Ralph Lynn, comes to the State public likes him best. Miss Mac Do- Theatre soon. This fine comedian has aid has the ideal part to give her op- never been seen to better advantage, portunity to sing, and when she sings and some of the situations are the funtherc is a reason for her singing for niest yot produced, particularly a

her songs are a part of the plot. Ihe film is the story of the Barbary Coast of thirty years ago. ‘Exclusive,” the film which Carole Lombard was to have played in with Spencer Tracy, has been dropped. She will appear instead ui “Paris Adventure,” with Charlie Ruggles and Cary Grant.

i court-room sequence with Lynn as a r lawyer defending the wrong case. Judv Gunn is delightful as the wife, and a fine supporting cast includes Morton Selten, Nelson Keys, Bertha Belmore. and others. Billy Burke has been chosen to play I Joan Crawford’s elder sister in “Parnell.”

Crime Solution. Two deaths so cleverly planned that they are investigated without suspicion by police are proven to be murders with thrilling results in “Murder on a Bridlo Path” when Hildegarde Withers forces Inspector Oscar Piper to probe beneath evidence that screams “accident” and expose the almost perfect crime. The popular film and fiction detective team of Piper and Withers is portrayed by James Gleason and Helen Broderick. When the cunning murderer in this new Stuart Palmer mystery strikes first, an artist’s model lies dead in Central Park, New York, apparently thrown from her horse and trampled. When he strikes again, her ex-husband’s father is found dead from what appeal's to be a stroke brought on by excitement. But circumstances spell murder to Hildogartle Withers. And she scorches Piper so thoroughly with her famous wit that the little detective goes into his customary whirlwind action. The film comes to the Kosy Theatre on Saturday. The Satire of Wells.

Another excellent example of the work of that brilliant partnership which scored an outstanding success with the remarkable film “Things to Come” is presented in the production. “The Man Who Could Work Miracles,” which is to commence what promises to l>e a very successful season at the Regent Theatre on December 19. Bnsed on the story by H. G. Wells, the film is a comedy which resembles its impressive predecessor only in the originality of its conception and the amazing effects which have been achieved. As might be expected in a story from the pen of H. G. Wells, the film is quietly philosophical in tone and it contains much sly satire on the leaders of every branch of society through the reactions of the central character—an obscure assistant in a country drapery store who becomes the subject for an experiment by the immortals and is invested with the power to work miracles. Thrilling Mystery. Romance, comedy, mystery and suspense are blended in an absorbing story of murder by telegraph in “Shakedown with Lew Ayres and Joan Perry, which opens on Saturday at the Kosy Theatre. Weaving a delightful love story against a thrilling background of fast action in a great telegraph company’s office, “Shakedown” is an unusual story, with Ayres giving one of his best screen performances and Miss Perry giving further evidence that she is a young lady with considerable talent. A fine cast gives them excellent support, adding to the picture’s merit. On the same programme is featured “Murder on a. Bridle Path.” Revenge and Blackmail. “Forgotten Faces,” a dramatic story of subtle revenge, will be the attraction at the Mayfair Theatre, commencing on December ]6. Herbert Marshall is in the starring role. Marshall plays the role of a husband whose happiness is based on his love for his wife and his baby daughter. When lie finds his wife in the arms of another man, Marshall, in a fit of passion, kills him. Gertrude Michael is the wife whose unrest and discontent start the ball of trouble rolling until it crashes, burying both her and her husband underneath. A Famous Sleuth.

A huge gambling' syndicate that stops at nothing, a phantom killer who strikes with an unseen hand, menace Charlie Chan as the famous sleuth faces the greatest odds of bis career in “Charlie Chan at the Race Track,” which opens with a special session at the State Theatre on Friday at 10.30 p.m. Warner Oland again plays Karl Diggers’s wily detective, with Keye Luke, Helen Wood, Thomas Beck, Alan Dineheart and Gavin Muir also featured in the cast. The film opens at the Melbourne race track where Avalanche, the odds-on favourite, loses the sweepstakes through the operations of a huge gambling syndicate. Chan is called in to investigate the case by the horse’s owner. When the boat docks at Honolulu, Chan goes on board to find the turfman dead—kicked to death by Avalanche. Chan uncovers evidence tiiat establishes the fact that it is not an accidental death but murder.

Charles Winninger, the “Cap’ll Andy” of “Showboat,” is to play in “Top of the Town.” Fritz Lang has begun work on “You Only Live Once.” Sylvia Sidney and Henry Fonda are co-star-ring. “King of the Khvber Rifles” is to be remade. It has already lieen made once as a talkie, with Victor McLaglen starring. Michael Whalen has been given a new contract. His first picture under the new deal will be “Career Woman.” Zasu Pitts is to he a woman detective in her next film. “The Riddle of the Dangling Pearl.” James Gleason will be her male accomplice. Ginger Rogers has had another “straight” story bought for her. This time it is “Vivacious Lady,” a novel by T. A. It. Wylie. Al Jolson is busy helping with the script of' his next picture, “From Bowery to Broadway.” Gladys George, the Broadway actress who has recently been playing in “Valiant is the Word for Carrie,”, is to co-star with Edward Arnold in “A Man and a Woman.” Randolph Scott has been given a two years’ contract. He goes on holiday as soon as he finishes his current picture with Mae West and then returns to play opposite Irene Dunne in “High, Wide and Handsome.” Some indication of the elaborate nature of “Wild Violets,the forthcoming Christmas production at His Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, is contained in the fact that the two acts comprise no fewer than 14 scenes, several of which arc unusually spectacular. One of these, a big skating seene, took London by storm when the play was produced at Drury Lane Theatre. The big revolving stage, which was a feature of “White Horse Tnn” at His Majesty’s Theatre, will again be brought into operation in “Wild Violets” for the rapid change of the many varied scenes.

Light-Footed Romance. Francis Lederer has never been given a better screen role than bis current one in the film romance, “My American Wife,” which opens on Saturday at the Mayfair Theatre. Nor lias the star of “One Rainy Afternoon” ever been provided with a better screen mate than his co-star in the present picture, Ann Sothern. “My American Wife” is light-footed romance, brought to the screen with a flair which only Lederer and a star of Miss Sothern’s type could provide. The story itself, from a Saturday Evening Post feature by Elmer Davis, is refreshingly unique, and the cast behind the principals is unusually capable. Heading the list is Fred Stone, veteran player who appears as an old Arizona pioneer with a Western contempt for the spangles and airs of foreign nobility. Billie Burke, Ernest

Cossart and Grant Mitchell are outstanding among those that follow. Air Service Picture. Fast action dominates the story of “Border Flight,” an adventure film of a government figlit against smugglers, now showing at the Ivosy Theatre. The story is built around the battle, of the West Coast unit of the United States Coast Guard air corps to put down tho activities of fur smugglers. Two ace fliers of the small corps find themselves

rivals for the attentions of the same girl. Frances Farmer, who made her first appearance in “Too Many Parents,” is the only feminine member of the cast. Other players in addition to Withers are John Howard, lloscoe Knrns. Robert Cummings. and Samuel S. Hinds. “Palm Springs,” with Frances Langford and Sir Guy Standing is featured on the same bill. J. C. Williamson. Ltd., are now presenting theatrical attractions in three

States: Tn Melbourne, Colonel W. tie ■ Basil’s Monte Carlo Russian Ballet is i playing to capacity audiences at His Majesty’s Theatre. In Sydney, the; Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company , is repeating the success it achieved on [ its previous season in that city. In | Adelaide, the Gladys Moncrieff Com- i pany is appearing to crowded audi- j enees in “The Merry Widow,” which ] will be followed in due course by “The I Maid of the Mountains.” After Mel- j bourne, the Russian Ballet will go to 1 Sydney, where it will be the Christmas ‘ attraction, and Brisbane will follow. There will also be a tour of New Zealand. •

A Remarkable Programme. A remarkably comprehensive pro- j gramme of film entertainment is assur- 1 ed to the chain of houses operated by i Amalgamated Theatres, Ltd., during 1937, with the announcement that the j company will distribute throughout New J Zealand the entire output of the 20th j Century-Fox and RKO-I?adio studios, half the Paramount output, and 32 especially selected films from Gaumont- ; British Dominions Finn Distributors, Limited. Amalgamated Theatres, Ltd., . now control tho largest chain of then- 1 ties in New Zealand, comprising 70 in number and extending from Dargaville in the north to Invercargill in the south. Some of the hig attractions arranged for distribution are:—“Charlie Chan at the Racetrack,” with Warner Oland; “Girls’ Dormitory,” in which the attractive French actress, Simone

Simon, makes her American debut; and “Pepper,” starring Jane Withers. “King of the Royal Mounted,” by Zane Grey, will star Robert Kent; Jed Prouty, Shirley Deane, Dixie Dunbar and Tony Martin will take the lead in a Jones Family production, “Back to Nature”; and the studio will enter the realm of technicolour with “Ramona.” For this last-named outstanding film Loretta Young is in the lead. Later there will be “Ladies in Love”

with a strong cast headed by Janet Gaynor, Constance Bennett, Loretta Young and Simone Simon ; “Pigskin Parade,” with Jack Haley, Patsy Kelly, Arline Judge, Dixie Dunbar and Ross Alexander; Wodeliouse’s “'Thank You. Jeeves.” with Arthur Treacher, Virginia Field. David Niven and the Now Zealander, Colin Tap ley; “15 Maiden Lane,” a fast moving drama with Claire Trevor, Cesar Romero and Alan Dinehart. Another Dionne quintuplets’ picture “Reunion,” with Jean Hersholt again; “Alias Brian Kent,” a Western film, starring Ralph Bellamy and Mae Clarke; “Under Your Spell,” a new Lawrence Tibbett musical; “White Hunter” (tentative title) costarring Warner Baxter and Simone Simon; “Living Dangerously," with Franehot Tone, June Lang,’ and Donald Crisp; “Lloyds of London.” an outstanding drama. with Loretta Young. Freddie Bartholomew, Sir Guy Standing, C. Audbrey Smith, Virginia Field and Montague Love. Two lavish Shirley Temple pictures, “.Dimple's” and “Stowaways” ; “Can This he Dixie,” Jane Withers’s first musical film, with Slim Summerville, Helen Wood and Donald Cook: Irving Berlin’s musical “On the Avenue,” with Dick Powell and Alice Faye; “Seventh Heaven,” “Four Men and a Prayer,” “The Last Slaver” and “King of the Kliyber Rifles.”

From another group there will he “As You Like It,” with Elisabeth Bergtier as Rosalind; “Wings of the Morning,” j the first English production entirely in j tcchnieolouv, starring the Parisienne, i Annabella, and Leslie Banks, Henry j Fonda and the tenor, John McCor--1 mack ; “Two’s Company.” a Sydney Holder comedy with Ned Sparks and j Gordon Harker ; “Everything is Thunder,” a war-time epic, starring Con- ! stance Bennett, Douglass Montgomery, i and Oscar Homolka; “East Meets | West,” an Eastern drama with George | Arliss and Lucy Mannheim; and the I much heralded “The Nelson Touch,” in j which Arliss takes two vastly different I parts; “Head Over Heels,” with Jessie j Matthews, directed by Somiie Hale; j “Soldiers Three,” a Kipling tale, star- ; ing Victor McLaglen, Maureen O’Stil- , livan and O. Aubrey Smith ; “Song of . Freedom.” acclaimed the greatest Paul j Robeson picture yet made. Others in tile list will be published ' later.