ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 229, 26 August 1938, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

METEOR THEATRE. “LANCER SPY.” “I find it so pleasant to be unpleasant,” George Sanders declared with a chuckle. “I am somewhat selfish in wanting to remain a villain. I think that such roles require ability, moro finesse, and truer to life in their characterisations than are tho romantic hero' narts that Hollywood hands out. But if I’m to he a romantic chap, I’m going to he . a swashbuckling one with some virility and depth of crtiotion to my portrayals. I’ll not he juci another handsome face on the screen. Darryl F. Zanuck knew Sanders’ idea when he called him in to give him the title role, in “Lancor Spy,”- . now showing at the Meteor Theatre, in which ho is co-featured with Dolores Del Rio and Peter Lorre. In fact, it wasn’t one role at all, hut four distinctly separate roles. Sanders starts the film ns a British naval lieutenant, becomes an imperious German high army officer, then a Prussian general sixty years old, and finally a middleaged Swiss railroad porter. “1 have to create four entirely different characters,” Sanders points out. “I have to talk with a British accent, which comes naturally enough since 1 am English, and then with a German accent. Of course, I am supposed to look and act differently for each of the four parts.” The assignment was tho most difficult that any producer has handed an aspiring actor in many months. A supporting cast of stellar names appears in “Lancer Spy,” including Virginia Field, Sig Ruma.ni!, Joseph Schildkraut, Maurice Moscovich, Lionel Atwill and Luther Adler. The story of “Lancer Spy,” adapted by Philip Dunne from a novel by-Marthe McKenna, places Sanders in the extraordinary position of a British agent, sitting with the German high command in the uniform of a Prussian lancer, who, if ho lives, can strike a deadlier blow than a million marching men.

STATE THEATRE. “BRINGING UP BABY.” A new challenge lo the amusementseeking public’s risibilities is now on the motion picture screen in “Bringing Up Baby,” a fast-paced modern comedy romance now screening at the State Theatre with Katharine Hepburn, no less, playing mad pranks as an heiress animated with mischief, and Cary Grant in an equally bizarre but contrasting role as the victim of her torments. Miss Hepburn portrays an impetuous society girl who always gets what she wants, and wanting Cary Grant, a staid and dignified professor of zoology, she goes after him and docs her best to break up his impending marriage to his (secretary. Grant, however, has only one interest, in life — the completion of the skeleton of a gignt dinosaur at his museum. Miss Hepburn, with the aid of a tame leopard, entices him from his work, and involves him in a flood of complications in which their exploits, the leopard’s escape and pursuit over the Connecticut countryside, a mil-lion-dollar bequest, a big game hunter, Miss Hepburn’s domineering aunt, .-a boastful Irishman and a suspicious psychiatrist are all tangled together in one riotous piece of screen fare. Grant’s matrimonial plans and his peace of mind are lost in the shuffle, while Miss Hepburn, with the best of’ intentions, manages to get into trouhlo .with her dynamic prosecution of her romantic campaign. The results are as disastrous as they are entertaining. Miss Hepburn, who heretofore has scored chiefly in strong dramatic roles, as in the recent “Stage Door.” is said to be sensational as a madcap comedienne in the new offering. She is ably assisted by Grant, whose work in “Topper” and “The Awfpl Truth” sent him soaring to the top rank among screen funsters. “DONALD’S NEPHEWS.” The public have three new heroes. They lire Huey, Dewey and Louie, the three bad little- ducklings who comq to visit their Uncle Donald in Walt Disney’s “Donald’s Nephews,” RKO Radio release in technicolour. Although lie attempts to handle them with advice from a book on child training, the “hoys” are too quick for Uncle Donald as they practically tear the roof off his house and leave him gasping for air. REGENT THEATRE. “TEST PILOT.”

“Test Pilot,” the most authentic aviation picture yet produced, with four stars in Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy and Lionel Barrymore, concludes a most successful week at the Regent Theatre tonight at 3 o’clock. It includes some of the most spectacular and daring flying scenes ever seen in an aviation picture and is an entertainment no one can afford to miss. Plans are on view at Collinson and Ounninghamo’s, ’phone 7178. “LET GEORGE DO .IT.”

His name is Scottish, his parents are Irish, and he was born in Aberdeen, New South Wales. What is he? No! It’s not a conundrum —just an effort to solve the nationality of George Wallace, star of Cinesound’s comedy, “Let George Do It,” screening to-night at 10.30 o’clock. George left Aberdeen at an early age to embark on a theatrical career with his parents. Casting was in progress for a pantomime, “Robinson Crusoe.” A pirate was needed. Papa Wallace had an inspiration. “Let George Do It,” he suggested. So chunky little George, aged five, started on his career. In the wings each night Papa Wallace stood, and pity help little George if his performance was not up to the family standard. After many years of vaudeville work, the now famous George Wallace was introduced to film work by tho late F. W. Thring. Several “shorts” and feature productions, including “His Royal Highness” and “A Ticket in Tatts,” revealed his amazing screen personality. When Cinesound Productions decided to make a comedy, Producer-Director Ken G. Hall remembered George Wallace’s Chaplin-like gift of mimicing, and his ability to combine pathos and laughter. “Let George Do It,” he suggested. _So George Wallace created “Joe Blake," a subtle, yet uproariously funny characterisation, in the new Cinesound production. When Wallace was required to accidentally pull a string letting rabbits, ducks and fowls escape from a conjuror’s box, he added several extra rehearsals to the scene to watch the perspiring property men and electrians chasing the animals and birds all over the sound stage.