ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 92, 20 March 1939, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

STATE THEATRE. “SUEZ.” Taking the life of Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal, Twentieth Century-Fox lias woven a romantic story about the great doings of the nineteenth century, tilled it with famous characters, and included some of the existing events of the times to make a spectacular him. “Suez,” which screens to-night at the State Theatre, has Tyrone Power, Loretta Young and Annaliella in the leading roles, and it romanticises the digging of the “ditch,” which revolutionised the position of the Near East and gave Europe a quicker route to India. To build the Suez. Canal, it seems, took the ambition of a dreamer, a thoughtless jest overheard by the President of the French Republic, a coup d'etat, a General Election in Britain, a course of boxing and fencing lessons for an Egyptian Prince, and the devotion of the grand daughter of a French sergeant. Which ie to say, big things come from little, and the Suez Canal, no less than other things, was once merely an idea in the mind of a man. The film version of the carrying out of this mighty work is shot with plentiful incident and full of vim. Ferdinand do Lesseps is shipped oil to Egypt because lie is tactless enough to predict that Louis Napoleon will seize the throne of France in the hearing of that gentleman. REGENT THEATRE. “TOO HOT TO HANDLE.” With a cast headed by Myrna Loy and Clark Gable, “Too Hot to Handle” screens at the Regent Theatre to-night. The first portion of the bill, which is almost entirely in teehnicolour, includes such brilliant entertainment as “Carnival Days,” a musical comedy featuring Henry Armotta and Felix Knight: a new earloon entitled “Speaking of the Weather,” which burlesques most of the favourite him stars ; an exclusive Paramount overseas news, a teehnicolour Lraveltalk by James Fitzpatrick, “Sydney —Pride of Australia,” which features a song dedicated to Bondi; and a Pete Smith specialty, “Follow the Arrow.” The principal attraction, “Too Hot to Handle,” will find approval witli all. Clark Gable and Myrna Loy are daredevils under fire, provide thrills, romance and action-packed drama in a story of the daring feats of newsreel cameramen. Action gets off to a flying start ill Shanghai. War, aviation thrills, the quest of a lost aviator amid savage tribes in_ South American wilds, the crack-up of Miss Loy s ’plane, are among the rapid-fire details of the new picture. The story shows Gable and his rivals ferreting out “scoops” in the Orient. Miss Loy starts on a mercy (light. Gable, in quest of a ‘‘scoop,” manages to involve her in a ’plane wreck. There is a hoax accusation and love dawns amid a melee of excitement. Lawrence Stallings, author of “What Price Glory and “The Big Parade. - ’ and John Leo Muhin did a clever job of scripting from the original story by Lon Hammond. Walter Pid geo n plays Bill Donnis, Gables principal rival: Waller Connolly is Gabby McArthur. Gable's boss; T,co Carrillo lias the comedy role of Joselito. Also in the cast are Johnny Hines. Virginia Woirller. Betty Ross Clarke. Henry lvolker, Willie Fung, ’ and Patsy O’Connor.