ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 70, 20 February 1939, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

STATE THEATRE. “THE COWBOY AND TIIE LADY.” The first of the new season's pictures from United Artists is “J he (,'owboy and the Daily,” now showing at the State Theatre to-night, which wan produced by Samuel Ooldwyn, who lias in the pas't provided many of the screen’s finest achievements. It is a romantic love story richly endowed by the presence of two iirst class cinema stars, Cary Cooper and Merle Oberon. Against a lavish setting of Washington drawingrooms and Florida mansions, contracted with the pictorial beauty of the western plains, “The Cowboy and the Lady” unfolds a heartily-told story of the debutante daughter of a Senator, played by Merle Oberon, who is whisked sumarily away to bask on the Florida sands while a night chib scandal is brewing in which she is involved Becoming bored with the conventions and restrictions of a. socialite's existence, she goes out on a “TiTind date” with her maid and cook. The feminine trio land at a rodeo show, and there Merle is paired with bronzed and robust Gary Cooper appearing as a cowboy hero of the golden west. The romance between the two is spiced with comedy and farce and gallops on to an unexpected climax. Cooper, as the strong silent type of hero who drily sees through the sham and glitter of so-called cafe society, returns to the kind of role which first made him famous. REGENT THEATRE. “CRIME SCHOOL.” Sometimes amusing, sometimes tragic, and always exciting, “'Crime School,” now screening at the Regent Theatre, contains a powerful indictment of unthinking, brutal methods of dealing vvjth ju\o- - crime. Effectively utilising the talents of six New York boys who became famous in both stage and screen versions of “Dead End.” as well as such adult players a-s Humphrey Bogart arid Gale Page, the latter a beautiful newcomer to the screen from radio, the new Warner picture makes a strong caso ior ias basic theme—that the old type _of boys’ reformatory is m fact a Crime. School.” The newer methods of dealing with juvenile offenders —designed to prevent their developing into adult criminals —are effectively contrasted with the old by basing the story on the deter mined fight made by an idealistic young official lo introduce his ideas into a reformatory of the old type. Hie story makes the six “Dead End ’ hoys the storm centre around which the light rages. Bogart, for the first time in his screen career playing a hero, is the idealistic commissioner, and he plays his role not only with sympathetic understanding but also with tiio vigour and aggressiveness demanded of a character who successfully battles not only stupidity and prejudice but also political hypocrisy and crookedness.