ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 231, 29 August 1938, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

MAYFAIR THEATRE. “LIVE, LOVE AND LEARN.” Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell in their first screen appearance together since their joint triumph in “Night Must Fall,” are the stars of “Live, Love and Learn,” now showing at the Mayfair Theatre, with Robert Benchley and Helen Vinson topping an outstanding supporting cast. As a penniless young Greenwich Village artist who marries a rich society girl, wins startling success overnight, is lionised by the “400,” and loses his head, his talents—and almost his wife—Montgomery is offered the greatest opportunity of his career to display ail his genius for comedy and melodrama. Miss Russell, as the rich society girl who renounces wealth and position to share the harurn scarum life of a Greenwich Village Bohemian artist and who watches wealth ruin the fine talents of the man she married, has been provided with a vehicle which permits her full scope to show the world why Metro-Goid-wyn-Mayer made her a star. Fidelity of setting called forth all the talents of technical experts. A Greenwich Village studio in New York plays an important part in early sequences of the story. In strong contrast with the shabby garret sequences are the magnificent settings used for the period when Montgomery’s sudden affluence prompts him to live beyond his means. One of the largest supporting casts to feature a Hollywood production in many months is headed by Benchley and Miss Vinson. Benchley, famous for his comedy shorts and humorous writings, plays the vole of “Oscar,” Montgomery’s bibulous boon companion.

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, more finesse, and truer to life in their characterisations than are the romantic hero Darts that Hollywood hands out. But if I’in to be a romantic chap, I’m going to bo a swashbuckling one with some virility and depth of emotion to my portrayals. I’ll not he just another handsome face on the screen.’ Darryl If. Zanuck knew Sanders’ idea when he called him in to give him the title role in “Lancer Spy,” now showing at the Meteor Theatre, in which he is co-featured with Dolores Del Rio and Peter Lorre. In fact, it wasn’t one role at all, but four distinctly separate roles. Sanders starts the film as 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. “I have to create four entirely different characters,” Sanders points out. “I have to talk with a British accent, which comes naturally enough since I 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 the most difficult that any producer has handed an aspiring actor m many months. A supporting cast of stc,lar names appears in “Lancer Spy,” including Virginia Field, Sig Ruinann, Joseph Schildkraut, Maurice Moscovic-h, Lionel Atwill and Luther Adler. Tho 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 he lives, can strike a deadlier blow than a million marching men.