ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 98, 25 March 1939, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

REGENT THEATRE. “HOLIDAY.” With an all-star cast, headed by Cary Grant, Lew Ayres, Edward Everett Horton and Katharine Hepburn,. “Holiday” j shows all the symptoms of being a firstclass show. “Holiday” is the story of modern youth challenging an older generation. Tho boy is perfectly willing to work hard at his career, but only until 6uch time as his career lias reached the stage where he can retire. And if he can’t retire while he’s still young, he’d just as soon not have a career. He wants to know the world. The girl is a daughter of wealth and position. Tired of the sham and prentenee of her life as a debutante, she is frantically searching for something to absorb her. The Philip Barry play was a brilliant success. Donald Ogden Stewart, one of the greatest of humorists, collaborated with Sidney Buchman, who wrote “Theodora Goes Wild,” in adapting the Barry drama to the screen. Miss Hopburn has never brought a finer characterisation to the screen. She has always wanted to play tho role of Linda Seton, ever since her days, not so long ago, as a struggling young actress seeking a foothold in the theatre. At that time, she once .was engaged as an understudy to the star in the stage production of “Holiday.” Miss Hepburn spent an entire season in the wings watching and waiting for a chance to play the role. Cary Grant, co-starrcd in “Holiday,” is the first leading man ever to appear opposite the actress for a second time. This pair recently completed “Bringing Up Baby.” Grant, whose forte is madcap comedy, is one of Hollywood’s favourite stara. Others in the cast of “Holiday” arc Doris Nolan, Jean Dixon, Binnie Barnes, Edward Everett Horton, Lew Ayres and Henry Kolkcr. On the “Holiday” programme arc several interesting shorts including “Golf Magic,” showing some U.S. champions in action, a Community Sing short, and “Snowtime.” a delightful natural colour cartoon. In addition to those there is a Cincsound and a Fox Aussie newsreel. STATE THEATRE. “MOTHER CAREY’S CHICKENS.” Bubbling with the humour and naturalness that made the original Kate Douglas Wiggin story one of the host-sellers of its day, the film version of “Mother Carey’s Chickens” screens to-night at the State Theatre. Cosely following the book, the film deals with the interesting careers of tho Careys. The head of the family, a naval officer, dies during the war with Spain, and his wife and four children, left penniless safe for a scanty pension, try to carry on as their father would have wished. Through the efforts of a young school teacher who is in love with the older daugter, the Careys leave the tenement in which they are living and take over an old tumble-down house in the country. They remodel it as a teachers boarding house, but unforeseen complications arise just as they complete the task. The climax is charged with hilarity as the family adopts a unique method of dispossessing an unpleasant couple who claim their house. Against this background aro played interlocking romances between the two daughters and their respective admirers, all thoroughly steeped in the colourful atmosphere of the late nineties and enriched with Miss Wiggin’s sparkling comedy. Anno Shirley and Ruby Keeler, as tho daughters, arc -cast romantically opposite Frank Albertson and James Ellison, respectively. Fay Baintcr portrays tho highly sympathetic mother and Jackie Moran and Donnie Dunagan the other two “chickens.”