ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 158, 5 June 1937, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

REGENT THEATRE. “ROSE MARIE.” Tn a production sweeping with song and scented with romance, Jeanette AiacDonald and Nelson Eddy, (hose celebrated co-stars of “Naughty Marietta,” come to the screen of the Regent Theatre to-night in their well-known characters of light opera, “Rose Marie.” Under their magic sped tile full beauty of “Tho Indian Love Call,” “Rose Marie, ‘ Love Y'ou,” “Song of the Mountics,” and other classics Ironi tlie Herbert Stothart-Rudolf Frimi score, live again. More charming even than they were in the recordbreaking “Naughty Marietta,” Rose Marie” is a Motro-GoldKyn-Maycr triumph. Filmed almost entirely out-oL doors, ill the mountain-like country of the Siena Nevadas, tho production is a pictorial sensation. Glimmering lakes, towering pcakri. clangorous pauses, all tho beauty of nature serves as background for the romantic saga of tho Great Northwest, It was given full benefit of Director W. S. Van Dyke’s proven talents, and magnificently mounted by Producer Hunt Stromberg, the successful collaborators of “Naughty Marietta.” “Rose Marie” is the story of a Canadian grand opera singer who travels incognito into the* backwoods regions in search .of her brother, a criminal from justice. Also isearching for tho brother is Sergeant Bruce, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They meet and fall in love, until she realises the mission of the other. The crashing climax and poignant ending of the story will bo remembered long after most pictures are forgotten. One of Fie outstanding sequences is the Totem Pole Indian Dance, the grotesque set. mounted on a sandpit extending into a broad lake. Peopled by more than a thousand dancers, lavish in costume, with music Ihritlnigly beautiful, it sets a new high for _ effect photography and spectacular direction. A strong supporting east assists Miss MacDonald and Eddy in “Rose Marie,” among them being James Stewart as the criminal brother, Reginald Owen as the star’s manager, Allan Jones who scored so decisively in “A Night at tho Opera,” Goorgo Regas, Robert Groig, Unn O’Connor and Lucicn Littlefield Also present :s Gilda Gray of “Follies” famo, whoso new version of her celebrated “Shimmy ’ dance is one of the highlights of a striking cafe scene.

STATE THEATRE. “SEA DEVILS.” Riding the swirling waves of adventure and romance, Academy Award winner Victor MeLaglcn as a Chief Bo’sun’s Mate in the Const Guard and Preston Foster as 1 1 its rival score a bull’s-eye in stellar entertainment in RKO Radio’s drama, ‘(Sea Devils,” which screens at the State Theatre to-n’ght. Sharing the spotlight honours with McLaglon and Foster in this thrilling vignette of an unsung but heroic branch of the Government service, is Ida Lupino with Donald Woods heading tho supporting cast. Seaman Foster, an adventurer, no sooner joins the etew of McLaglen’s ship (liar: trouble stalls between lhe two. Boasting of his prowess with the weaker sex, Foster begins courting McLaglcn’s daughter, Ida Lupino. Foster is about ihe last man in the service McLaglon would clioo.se as a son-in-law, but it happens that his daughter has a mind of her own, so McLaglon initiates a bitter feud with the sailor. Terrific combats between this pair of Titans vie with thrilling rescues from storm-battered ships as dramatic highlights of this action-cram-med photoplay. Using the United States Coast Guard cutter Tahoe and its crew, perilous rescue of passengers from a burning vessel is effected, and later other lives arc saved from a hurricane-grounded boat, in which full beach equipment, including surf boats, a Lyle gun, a breeches buoy and other apparatus, is brought into plav in a revealing demonstration of lifesaving technique. An authentic of Coast Guard procedure was assured by the retention of Lieutenant H. C. Moore as technical adviser throughout the production. Both Mcl.aglen and Foster played,together in RKO Radio's prize-winning him ot 1935, “The Informer,” and it was as the result of his performance in that film that McLaglcn won the Academy Award for the outstanding male performance of ihe year. Miss Lupino, attractive English actress, and Donald Woods, popular leading man, add histrionic lustre to the screen drama.