ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 74, 24 February 1938, Page 6

ENTERTAINMENTS

MAYFAIR THEATRE, “THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE.” The first all-colour picture of the outdoors, “The Trail of the * Lonesome Pino,” screens at' the Mayfair Theatre tonight. Sylvia Sidney, Fred Mac Murray and Henry Fonda are starred, and Floury Hathway, who directed “The Lives of a Bengal Lancer,” megaphoned the tcchnieolour production. Natural colour and natural backgrounds arc used exclusively in this pi ct i iri sat ion of the John Fox, junr., novel. It is a story of “feuding” in the Cumberland mountains, where family battles family for 'reasons long since forgotten. Mac Murray is a young engineer who is assigned to build a lailway through tho •hills. Miss Sidney and Fonda are members of the smile clan, and Fonda is in love with tho girl. She is fascinated by a stranger from tho outside world, and Fonda’s- jealousy is aroused. He sets out to “get”' Mac Murra y—but simultaneously the rival clan sets out to “get” him. A battle royal ensues when they all get together, bringing tho film to a stirring climax. Walter Wanger produced tho film for Paramount.

KOSY THEATRE. “EVERY NIGHT AT EIGHT.” The brightest, spot of light entertainment in town can be found now showing finally at the Kosy Theatre, when “Every Night At Eight” is holding- merry, musical sway. Highly hilarious, with tuneiul toe-lapping and an orignality of story that is refreshing as an air-cooled theatre on a sweltering summer day. “Every Night At Eight” proves to be as blues chasing, heart-warming a piece of funny business as has come along in a month of musicals. The picture opens on u gay note with Frances Langford, Alice Faye and Patsy Kelly us three factory workers who lose their jobs through practising harmony singing in the boss's office, Penniless, they try tlioir luck as a singing trio on an amateur radio hour. At the radio station they lost the prize to George Raft who appears this time in a new kind of dramatic role, that of a conceited, band leader. Attracted to tho girls and seeing their possibilities, ho starts them on their career us the Swunce Sisters. lie builds them up to a trio of sweet, unsophisticated Southern girls, makes them dress alike, look alike, and in general manages their lives for them. Under Raft’s severe discipline they rise from their amateur standing to queens of tho air waves. When Miss Landlord believes that Raft docs not return lier love, she rebels with the other two girls, deserts the nightly broadcast and goes otl on a yachting party, A climax, packed with thrills, romance and action, brings the trio to their senses. “THE SKY PARADE.” Thrilling you with his daring exploits —Jimmy Allen, hero of millions of radio fans and air adventures, makes his initial screen appearance at the Kosy Theatre in a picture packed with daring sky exploits to thrill you. RcGENT THEATRE. “MAYTIME.” Splendid in every sense of the word is Mctro-Goldwyn,Mayer’s first lavish musical offering of 1938; “Mavtimo,” with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in tile starring iclcs, which screens at the • Regent Theatre to night. A description of the original theme would bo ■superfluous to veterans of the theatre, but it may be written here without fear of contradiction that the studio has gone far and beyond any beauty which lfio stage attained. “Maytune” was a musical piece of gorgeous proportions when Rida Johnson Young's play was on tho boards and it closely approaches the status of a musical masterpiece on the screen. The skilful adaptation was made by Noel Langley. The songs were* written by Sigmund Romberg, com poser of the original Broadway score, and a'so by Herbert Stolhart, who has composed ine first film operetta, “Ozarilza, ' which provides a lovely sequence in tho picture. Jeanette -MacDonald and Nelson Eddy have not been seen together on tho screen for a year. They rose to a unique dual stardom in “Naughty Marietta,” and then in “Rose Marie.” In the supporting cast of “Maytime,” John Barrymoro plays a picturesque role as the temperamental' impresario, his_ first since tho memorable “Romeo and Juliet, which was one of the ' sensational pictures of 1936. There is a newcomer in the cast, Lynne Carver, a delicately beautiful young singer from the Kentucky Blue Grass regions who sings and acts unusually well. She and Torn Brown provide tho juvenile romance in the story. In love with Nelson Eddy, a young singer, Jeanette MacDonald an opera star actuated by a mistaken sense of duty marries John Barrymore the impressario to whom she owes her career. When circumstances bring her and the singer together again they realise that their love is stronger than before. Mad with insane jealousy tho husband kills the singer. The tragedy answers the problem of the younger girl who is drawn between a choice of io\ e and a career.

FAY COMPTON. ENGLAND’S GREATEST ACTRESS. To-morrow morning at nino o’clock the box plans will be opened at Collmson and Cunninghame’s for tho production hero on Monday and Tuesday nights next ot Laurcnco Housman’s great of the love story of Victoria and Prmco Albert, “Victoria Regina,” in which England’s greatest actress, Miss l*ay Compton and her London company will appear under the direction of J. C, Williamson, Ltd. Fay Compton’s outstanding artistry in the role of Victoria created a sensation in Auckland where the season of Victoria Regina” had to he extended, and even then His Majesty’s Theatre was taxed to its utmost capacity at every performance. “Produced by Peter Deanng,” wrote a critic recently, “tho series of ten sketches were magnificently staged and dressed and brilliantly acted. The work of Miss Compton was a sheer delight and she was well supported by Bruno Barnabe as the Princo Consort and the othertmmebers of her London company. Housman portrays Victoria more as a woman than a queen, and the story of her undying love for Albert is truly a royal romunco. The picture is first ot a romantic girl and bride, then a happy wife, subject to tho jealousies that might 'beset any woman. Then comes the broken-hearted widow, and finally the tired old woman, holding her burden of State on the memories of tho past. Prince Albert, even after his death was the ruing influence in Victoria’s life. She chose him —the son of a foreign princess. _ She persuaded tho Cabinet to accept him as a suitable consort, and she would have kept him in the stately background to be forever her husband and her lover if those characteristics in Albert which she most admired had not assorted themselves and changed not only the Qucen’6 life, but, to an extent, the very history of England. So it was that Albert, the horn manager, with a passion for orderly organisation, and tho somewhat stolid humorist, became the King in all but name. Housman te ls us this, not in a drama of State and politics, but by lifting the curtain on the private apartments of Windsor and Buckingham Palace. Gcnily Housman takes forward the story of two interesting lives—the dramatic incident of the shooting on Constitution Hill, the beginning of Albert s illness, the widowhood of the Queen who has still not lost her grip on affairs, and finally the memorable family gathering after tho Diamond Jubilee, when Victoria sighs for her Albert still.” “Fay Comptons Victoria,” wrote the same critic, has not one flaw. Her expressive grace, her economy of gesture are the marks of a groat actross, her regard for tho proportions of her role, tho mark of her outstanding intclligcnce. Her change from the happy voung queen to the very old l&dy that is Victoria in her last years is itself something of a miracle and a hardly believable feat of quick-change.” Miss Compton is supported by a brilliant company of specially selected London artists, who arc all said to bo perfect in their respective parts.