ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 240, 9 September 1937, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

REGENT THEATRE. “THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER.” According to a recent issuo of the American news magazine “Time,” the Mauch twins, Billy and Bobby, are so much alike that, during the making of “The Prince and the Pauper” for Warner Bros., they quite often fooled the director by switching roles. On tho face of it that seomed to be just another ingenious piece of publicity, but now after seeing theso amazing twins in the picture, which screens at the Regent Theatre tonight, I am inclined to believe it. The picture opens with an announcement to the effect that this famous Mark Twain story “may really have liappenod, or may not have happened, but it could have happened,” and despite tho evidence of history books to tho contrary, one feels that almost anything would have boon possible if the brothers Mauch (pronounced “Mock”) had been running round London in the middle of the 16th century, looking so extraordinaryily alike that one of them (heir to tho throne of England) was able to change places with the other (a beggar boy) with consequent dynastic complications and much sinister plotting by ambitious nobles. Apart from the twins—one of whom was seen as young “Anthony Adverse,” but don’t ask me which I—“ The Prince and tho Pauper” is in several ways a remarkable picture. Although produced on as grand a scale as any of Hollywood’s historical spectacles, it is strictly a romantic comedy with a tinge of the irony inseparable from the work of Mark Twain when writing about the British monarchy and aristocracy. Yet in the film this ironv is entirely good-natured and salutary. With the topicality that is so strongly marked in Warner productions, the screen-play includes an impressive and almost authentic reproduction of a coronation ceremony in Westminster Abbey. I say “almost” because there are a few Americanisms that may jar a little. In fact, there may be some super-loyal Britishers who will regard as almost sacriligeous that scene where the solemn Abboy ceremony is rudely interrupted by the arrival of the real king, just as the crown is being placed on Ins double’s unwilling head, and the confusion ends with the noble concourse (not excepting the Archbishop of Canterbury) in roars of laughter. STATE THEATRE. “TAKE MY TIP.” Production costs of “Take My Tip,’’brilliant comedy that brings Cicely Courtneidge and Jack Hulbcrt back to tho screen as a team, screening to-day at the State Theatre, wero heightened considerably by the item entered as “antiques for breaking.” This entry looked ridiculous — after all, who would deliberately break an antiquo?—so officials inquired into the matter and discovered that one of the scenes in tho comedy shows Hulbcrt dancing in the hall of a London mansion, flinging vases to a green-aproned removal man. Unfortunately, the man detailed to catch the precious vases had not been a good cricketer in his day, and the consequence was a studio floor littered with china. Briefly, the story runs as follows: George (Jack Ilulbert) and Hattie (Cicely Courtneidge), Lord and Lady Pilkington, are very fond of each other, but their individual extravagances lead to frequent quarrels. Then George, whilst taking a Turkish bath, is persuaded by a shady financier named Buchan to purchase a nonexistent oil well, for £15,000, which we discover is the entire fortune of the Pilkingtons. Buchan, of course, disappears, and tho couple are left to face a somewhat dismal future. However, a former butler in their household named Paradine turns up. proves to be the owner of a palatial hotel in Dalmatia, and offers them both positions there. They are obliged to accept, and Hattie —who. was fofmerly a musical comedy actress —indulges in her former talents and becomes a wealthy coffee heiress, hostess at the hotel, and George performs the job of an ingratiating head waiter. While they . are here in this guise, Buchan turns up and tries to put over his oil-well story on the “Countess” in a Very amusing scene wherein George, quite the jealous husband, pops in and out of the room with disconcerting results. At this point Hattie and George decide to get their own back from this adventurer, and the rest of the film depicts the adventures they have in playing a trick, similar to his own, upon him and recovering their fortune. Jack Hulbcrt is his charming, inimitable self and introduces a number of really clever dances; in one of these he is partnered by Cicely with screamingly disastrous results. Never has the versatility of Cicely Courtneidge been so wittily demonstrated, ' appearing as she does in numerous disguises whilst at the hotel. And as herself in the beginning, she has never looked so attractive before any camera. The songs are all good and Phil.'» Buchl partners Jack Hulbcrt in one of his dances with liotiooablo success. Prank Cellier is excellently cast as the ex-butler, Paradine, and I-larold Ilutli is just right as the sinister Buchan. Most decidedly this is a film you should see.