ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 95, 22 March 1939, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

STATE THEATRE. “ALEXANDER’S RAGTIME BAND.” 1 Periodically Hollywood produces a picj lure lliat glands out as a beacon along ; the highroad of motion picture progress — * and such a picture is Darryl E. Zanuck’s ; production of Irving Berlin’s great tsagu ; of three decades in the march of America. * Add story to cast and direction and the 5 20th Century-Fox film, which opens at the j State Theatre to-morrow, amounts to a : picture that for years to come will be re* » memebered as a turning point—a new > trend —the utilisation of memorable molo- : diets in a dramatic story of the screen’s t mightiest moment. The Berlin wore i-S > of couree, without previous or subsequent : paraded. It took the Shakespeare of syn- * copation 27 years to write it. and every > one of the 28 songs, used wholly or partially in the picture, topped the hit parade *of its ora. They are milcpc*ts along rhythm’s conquest of mankind from the 5 Barbary’s Coast to Carnegie Hall. In the ' bewildering brilliance of “Alexander” one * remembers that Tyrone Power starts with a small hand in a honky-tonk. Alice Faye 5 sings. Love smoulem, flare?, coon, ‘ blows up and is rekindled over the years ' for Tyrone and Alice. History moves bc--1 foro the eyes with the reminiscent melodies of Berlin as a. gentle guide through the plot. Such a story framework —the career of a young musician and the girl ' who rang the nation’s love song —two hotl heads quarrelling and parting, forgiving l and finding love again through the munic r that was in their life —is novel and sein- > filiating. Darryl F. Zanuck sent in with ■ his stars a brilliant east —Ethel Merman. * Jack Haley. Jean Hersholt. Helen Westr ley, John Carradinc, Paul Hurst, Wally i Vernon, Ruth Terry and a dozen others 1 of like calibre. Add to this story, ecoro ■ and cast Director Henry King, fresh from » his triumph in “In Old Chicago.” King’s direction has that touch of perfection that gives every scene, particularly the romantic phases, the finish of a masterpiece.

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, w'hich is almost entirely in technicolour, includes such brilliant entertainment as “Carnival Days, a musical comedy featuring Henry Armolta. and Felix Knight; a new cartoon entitled “Speaking of the Weather,” which burlesques most of the favourite film stars; an exclusive Paramount overseas news, a technicolour traveltalk 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 with 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 in 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” m the Orient. Miss Loy starts on a mercy flight. 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.