ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 163, 12 June 1939, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

STATE THEATRE. “THE MIKADO.” For 60 years the hitting wit and bon mots of ex-civil servant and dramatic critic Sir William Gilbert and the lilting music of .Sir Arthur h>ul!i\ait have limited the world. Somewhere one of the much lined operas of tlu-sc two tamous gentleman i«s always being enacted. Thu ixupert D’Oyiy Carlo Opoia (ouipuiiy endli.cj.My tours ring.and and make.-, pcricoical vii-iis to the Dominion-. Ihe Just of tlie Gilljcrl and Sullivan opcias to appear on the screen is “i tie Mikado.” tlcolfrey •Love, responsible lor liie adaption and production of the ti J m version. decided tlicit lie could look no flirt lu.r lor his ca>i than members of the D’Oyiy (arte Opera ( So, with tlie exception of Jean Colin, musical comedy and radio «*iar who has made one or two lilm appearances “The Mikados’’ eai-t comprises a numlicr of people who have nevir before been inside a motion picture studio. I hit what they don't know about Gilbert and Sullivan isn't worth mentioning. Kenny Dakar, the .American screen actor and tadio star, of course, piay.s Nanki-Roo, and Jean Colin will he tlie screen’s Yum* Yum. The role of ‘‘The Mikado’’ will he enacted by John Darelay, familiar concert and musical comedy figure in England and blightlv known in America. Constance Willis, who plays Kali-ha. is a noted concert and opera singer with numerous appearances at Coxent Garden and Sadler’s Wells to her credit. Elizabeth !R ay liter ( i’iiti-Sing) lias played with the D’Oyiy Carte Opera Co. for five and a-lialf years and is well-known in English radio circles. AJartyn Green (Ko-Kol also has considerable Gilbert and Sulivan experi- i cnee. Doth Gregory Stroud {Rish-Tush) and Sydney Granville ( Rood-Rah) have toured Australia with the D’Oyiy Carte companies and are veiy well-known in England. Parts of the Gilbert dialogue | and Sullivan music have been transferred from the opera to the prologue, but, there is no word sung or spoken in the film ,that Gilbert did not wrife; no neb? of I music is played or omitted that Sullivan did not compose. REGENT THEATRE. “MEN WITH WINGS.” Hollywood's first epic ever to be filmed: in techuiculcur is Rui amount's “Men with j Wing.-,” Ered MacAlunay. Itay .Milland ' and 1.0ui.-e Campbell head the cast of the thrilling romance of three young pioneers of the air who lived during tlie surging • years from the flight of the Wrigiu j Druthers at Kitty Hawk in 1903 to lit..*! lightning round-the-world hops of the pro- | sent day. Opening when the three leading I character.- are ten years old, just alter tne j triumph of the Wright-, ‘‘Men With j Wings” carries them forward in the I sweeping torrent of man'- progress in the [ air. the success of the aeroplane opens up j a glorioic* new world to them, and they piling.* into aviation with the almost re- ! ligious enthusiasm which has characterised j every group of pioneers in history. Even their love for each other ranks second to j their love of Hying. Miss ( ampbcll. in love j with both men. must choose between tin* j romantic daredevil swash buckler of the 1 air. MacAlurray, and the courageous, j pioneering builder of 'planer. Mil.and. In) her decision is bound up the future of j aviation's progress for many years. I