ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 210, 3 August 1940, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

KOSY THEATRE. “THE LADY VANISHES.” Alichael Redgrave is a new discovery in films, and a grand discovery, too. Tho name might not be much to filmgoers now, but in a very short while it is predicted he will achieve the heights of popularity attained by Robert Taylor. Ho has all tho manly charm of thirty years, is handsome with a weight and virility too often lacking in male stars, a deep cultured resonant voice, versatile, and a capable actor, and his chances of screen success seem more than usually promising. Anyhow, Alichael should be expected to sweep the entertainment world off its foot, for in his case acting is an imbued quality. Australians of a few generations ago will remember his father, Roy Redgrave, playing the part of Captain Starlight in- “(Robbery Under Arms” and such back-of-beyond dramas. So is it any wonder that Alichael can act. Anyhow, we are leaving the judgment to you. See “The Lady A T anishes”. at tho Kosy Theatre to-day. If you keep a diary make a note of it — otherwise tie a knot in your hanky—but whatever happens—don’t miss' “Variety Hour,” the associate feature. It is a FoxBritish picture made at the AVemblcy Studios, and a picture of which AAhmiblcj' can be jastly proud. It presents a ho't of variety’s best performers against their proper background—the stage. It is a real variety show —music. dancing, comedy; thrills —wound around a story concerning Claphani and Dwyer’s endeavour to make good on the radio.

METEOR THEATRE. “ZANZIBAR.” ' Graphic adventures of a white huntress in conflict with jungle beasts and African savages in the shadow of a flaming volcano arc presented in Universal’s exciting film “Zanzibar,” now showing at the Meteor Theatre. Lola Lane portrays a daring girl explorer in the picture. James Craig, handsome screen newcomer, has tho role of a • danger-seeking young American. The story is bared upon a fantastic but little known provision of the Versailles Treaty which commanded that 1 lio sacred skull of its African Sultan ho returned lo its rightful tribe to restore peace among the natives. Blending • historieal fact with fiction, tho story turns the spotlight upon one of the most wierd themes ever brought to the screen. Highlights of the picture show, a ship wrecked in a storm on tho African. coast, the trek of ihe white survivors through danger-infested jungles, battles with wild beasts and angry natives, a wild game hunt, and the escape of the whites as an aefive volcano destroys an entire countryside in the thrilling climax

MAYFAIR THEATRE. “THE LIGHT OF AYESTERN STARS.” Brimming with colourful characterisations, with action of the six-gun variety, and with romance under the arched blue vault of western skies, “The Light of Western Stars,” latest of the great Zanc Grey’s stories, is now showing at ihe Mayfair Theatre. Produced for Paramount under tho guidance of Harry Sherman, directed lay Lesley Sclandcr, makers of many a Zano Grey film, the piciurc shows the mark of this pair of experts. Under their hands, A'ictor Jorv becomes an honest-to-goodness bad man with redeeming qualitics beneath a'hard exterior, Jo Ann Sayers made a lovely heroine, an aristocratic Eastern girl who sets out to reform Jorv after being forced to marry him at the point of a gun, and Russell “Lucky” Hayden was just as good as he over has been in tho “Cassidy” series. Others, including 'Mom's Ankrutn. Noah Boerv, junr.. J. Farrell MacDonald and Ruth Regers, show why they have become favourites of Western fans. These fine performances are grafted upon a story which starls with the marriage already mentioned, and goes into high gear as tho heroine attempts to reform the hero, who becomes embroiled in gun battles and chases galore. On the score of Action and romance, this one will please lovers of outdoor films. *

Also screening on the same programme: Judith Barrett in Paramount’s “AYomcn AA’ithout Names,” the sensation-packed drama of the Joyce King gangland’s greatest menace; and then-another action packed drama of “Tho Green Hornet.”