ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 232, 31 August 1937, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

MAYFAIR THEATRE. “CHINA SEA&” The greatest star combination in the history of show business —Clarke Gable, the late Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery—in a red-blooded drama of fierce loves, bitter hates, deadly intrigues. Played on the plunging deck cf a wheezy old liner bo>?et by screaming l tylioons and blood-thirsty Malay pirates otf the wild south-east coast of Asia. And with the three stars supported by a east that includes no less than a dozen big names! That is a vignette cf “China Seas,” new Irving G. Thnlbqrg production for Mctro-Goldwyn-.Maycr, which 'lay Garnett directed and which opens tomorrow at the Mayfair Theatre. It presents the three 6tars in roles of the types which made them famous—Gable as a hardbitten young skipper of a passenger steamer on tiic most, dangerous run in the world; Miss Harlow as a wisecracking, tender hearted lady of the ports of the Orient, deeply in love with Gable and not .afraid to show it; Beery as a genial Irish trader, who*o gruff affability masks his operations as the sinsister “brains” of half-wild phatu bands. The exceptional supporting cost includes Lewis Stone, Rosalind Russel, Dudley Digges C. Aubrey Smith, Robert Bench*ley. William Henry, Live Dcniaigrct. Lillian Bond, Edward Brophy, Soo Yong, Carol Aim Beery, Akim Tamiroff and Ivan Labedeff. Filming cf “China Seas” on a pretentious scale two years of the most elaborate preparation. Originally a novel by Crosbic Carsiin, the screen play received the attention of Jules Furthman, •lames K. MeGuimicss, and other writers. It comes to the screen ns one of M-G-M’s outstanding productions cf ilic new season. The locale is the last frontier of the oceans, the only place on earth where pirates still rove the seas. The story recalls recent newspaper headlines telling of pirate raids on modern pleasure vessels, for a pirate raid and a typhoon arc among the thrills. KOSY THEATRE. “HILLS OF OLD WYOMING.” The song “In the Hills of Old Wyoming,” written for Paramount by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger, has provided the title for Paramount’s “Hills of Old Wyoming,” the latest “IJopalong Cassidy” picture now showing finally at the ICosy. Tho song has been adopted as one of the college tunes by the student body of the University of Wyoming. r J he picture represents vividly against the background of this beautiful Western country a war between cattle rustlers and honest ranchers, in which the Indian wards on a Wyoming reservation are # used b.v a crooked Government agent to shield his steer thieving. William Boyd as “Ilopalong Cassidy” defies death at. the hands of both the Indians and the rustlers as leader of the ranchers. Ho confronts the Indians in their war dance ceremonial preparatory to attacking the settlers, and with courage and eloquence makes them his followers instead . of enemies. lie. then leads a combined Indian-rancher attack on the rustlers’ stronghold which brings the film to a thrilling * bullet-spitting, gun-smoking climax. “TIIK CRIME NOBODY SAW.”

I Lew Ayres, Benny Baker and Eugene Pallette turn detective in Paramount’s “The Crime Nobody Saw,” a thrilling mystery story well spiced with comedy, now sho.ving finally at the Kosy. The three are playwrights who are up against a stone wall for a plot. A play must be delivered the very next day. or there is a singularly ominous “or else” from a producer who had given them a liberal advance. Fate comes to their rescue by staging a murder right in their living room. Their next door neighbour is slain and it becomes necessary for them to solve it before the police learn about the crime. All kinds of complications and setbacks arise but when it is all over the police have tlleir man, the three have a plot for a mystery story and Ayres has a new girl friend, Jovely Ruth Coleman. “The Crime Nobody Saw” moves at a rapid pace. An unusual twist in the murder is calculated to defy solution from the most adept solvers ot film mysteries. For this special credit is due to Charles Barton, who directed.