FILMS AND STAGE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 238, 5 September 1940, Page 10

FILMS AND STAGE

Beloved Songs. Tlie best-loved songs' of Stephen C. Foster are heard in “Swannee River,” the technicolour production coming tomorrow to the State Theatre, featuring Don Ameche, Andrea Leeds and Ai Jolson. Ameche, who plays the composer, and Jolson, who plays E. P. Christy, minstrel king of that colourful day, sing several of tlie songs, and other melodies are rendered by the famous Hall Johnson Choir. Among t'he numbers sung are “The Old Folks at Homo” (Swannee River), “Old Black Joe,” “My Old Kentucky Home,” “Oh! Susanna!” ; “De Camptown liaces,” “Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair” and “Ring, Ring de Banjo.” Also heard arc Foster’s “Beautiful Dreamer” and “Soiree Polka.” Andrea Leeds plays Jane McDowell, the girl Foster loved and married and the inspiration for “Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair.” Kipling Story. at lias lauon to t'he, lot of the one man in Hollywood wno . can ;do .it to ponray tuo role ot tno lomunuc Eugiistiman of action in one or tno most adventurous or pictures py one or tuq world's greatest writers or the period when Cue British Empire was in its golden age. ltonaid Coinian stars in itudyara tripling s great action romance, “The Eignt Tnaf Failed," which opens to-morrow at the .Regent Theatre, it is not because ho is English lnmself—Hollywood has many English actors —that Dolman is the ideal man to play the role of Dick tieldar, artist and soldier-of-lortune. It is, rather, because he has demonstrated in some of t'ne best pictures of the type that, he is tlie man for it. One' has but to run over the list of Colman successes for conviction. There are “The Dark Angel,” “Beau Geste,” “Clive of India,” “The Prisoner ol Zenda,” “The Masquerader,” and many others in which he was the English man of action, not .forgetting, of course, others in which he was the soldier-of-fortune, suc'h as “Under Two Flags,” “Bulldog Drummond” and “If I Were King.” A Star’s Biography—No. 71. Jean Arthur, who was born in New York City on October 17,. 1008, is facing the most crucial tost in her young years as a motion picture star. As versatile as her roles havo been in the past, t'he has a task ahead of her that will tax her combined talents in earlier portrayals, but she is prepared to risk her future on it. The role is Phoebe Titus in Clarence Buddington Kelland’s best seller historical novel of the South-West, “Arizona.” In preparation for such an unusual character role Miss Arthur has served a long apprenticeship. Formerly a Manhattan model, she entered films in two-reel slapstick comedies and Westerns. From the Westerns s'he went back to the stage for more thorough training in dramatic acting before answering the call back to tlie screen to have the leading feminine roles in “The Plainsman,” “History Is Made at Night,” and “Easy Living.” Her success started when she was cast in “Mr Deeds Goes to Town.” Since then her roles have varied from the part of a stenographer in “You Can’t Take Jt With You” and a worldly-wise cafe entertainer in “Only Angels Have Wings.” to a gay role in “Too Many Husbands” and back as a stenographer in “Mr Smith Goes to Washington.” Now, in “Arizona,” s'he rises to new heights. Phoebe is an exciting personality, proud, ambitious. and aggressive, the type of woman without whom the West would never have been conquered. A "'

Lana Turner will be made a star when she appears in “Tropical Hurricane” with Robert Taylor. The film will be made when she finishes “Ziegfeld Girl” and .Taylor lias made “Flight Command.”

Civil War Adventure., A new angle is- discovered to the Civil War in “The Man From Dakota,” which opens at the Meteor Theatre, without the customary North v. South and failnly-divided-against' itself theme. Instead, the leading characters aro two Yankee prisoners of war who escape from the Confederate prison camp at' Belle Island, and a Russian girl who joins them as a fugitive after she has killed ia Confederate officer who mistreated her. And the result is one of the fastest moving melodramas ever produced. Wallace Beery is the escaped sergeant who wants only to keep his stomach filled and head West; John Howard is his

young and idealistic superior officer bent on regaining the Union lines. Dolores Del Rio makes an impressivereturn to th‘e screen as the Russian girl. Jenny. Good supporting characterisations are given by 6uch familiar figures as Donald Meek, Robert Barrat and Addison Richards. Technicolour Epic. “Jesse James,” the tcdinicolour epic of the most colourful outlaw who ever lived, comes to the Kosy Theatre tomorrow. Romantic Tyrone Power has the title role, sharing stellar, honours with Henry Fonda. Nancy Kelly, and Randolph Scott. The story depicts in thrilling terms the exploits of the man who invented train robberies and bank hold-ups, and did not neglect his

romance with t'he lovely girl who sacrificed a life of comfort to share his wild and reckless life* Gay, sparkling Paris and thrillpacked St. Moritz, capital or Switzerland’s winter sports region, form the background for Claudette Colbert’s. latest, eomedv-romance, “I Met Him} in Paris,” in which the star is teamed with Melvyn Douglas and Robert Young. “I Met Him in Paris,” which opens to-morrow at the Kosy Theatre, is a fast-moving story of the adventures of a vacation-seeking American girl who discovers that she is in love with two handsome, charming men at

the same time, without boiim able to choose between them, until she finally is forced to a showdown. Richard Lyon, son of Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels, made his screen debut in “The Howards of Virginia.” He was sent to Hollywood by his parents upon the outbreak of war in Europe. And so the “Thin Man” goes on — next time it will be “The Shadow of the Thin Man.” with Myrna Loy and William Powell in their original roles. It is proposed to make a two million dollar film glorifying Sergeant Alvin York, American World War hero. James Cagney will probably be the star.

“Blondie” Back Again. An old flame singes Dagwood and Blondie burns. Newest and most hectic of the series, “Blondie on a Budget,” opens.to-morrow at the Mayfair Theatre with Penny Singleton again portraying the beautifnl-but-balmy Blondie, Arthur Lake, again to be seen as the happy-bnt-liarassed Dagwood, and Larry Simms continuing as Baby Dumpling.. Prominent in the cast is lovely Rita Hayworth, seen as a siren who steps out of Dagwood’s past to ruin both his future a.nd his bank account. His ex-girl friend, Dagwood finds her presence on the scene a little too much for him and this time Blondie is definitely no help at all.

Robust Drama. That matchless pi od ucer-director combination of Darryl F. Zanuck and Henry King which gave to the screen such unforgettable productions as “In Old Chicago,” “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “Stanley and Livingstone” and “Jesse James” olfers its most spectacular film to date in “Little Old New York,” which opgns. to-morrow week at the State Theatre with Alice Faye. Fred Mac Murray, Richard Greene and Brenda Joyce sharing top billing. A robust, romantic drama of the good old days, “Little Old New York” tells vividly the story of a fiery belle of the waterfront who fought for the love of handsome Robert Fulton. while the whole boisterous little old town cheer-

ed her on. The splendid associate programme includes one of the latest “March of Time” series. In this issue, the “March of Time” turns its searching camera to the “America’s Youth. 1940,” an important, comprehensive, and entertaining film story of the lives and problems of the 21 million young , men and women growing up in the . United States to-day. There will bo three songs in the i next Marlene Dietrich film, “Seven : Sinners”: “The Man’s in the Navy,” , “I Fall Overboard,” and “I’ve Been

in Love Before.” Francliot Tone is named for the lead opposite Miss Dietrich. Akim Tamirolf, the man of many make ups, plavs a clean-shaven part in “Untamed,” a teclinicolour adventure drama of the north. Not until his final scene does he 'don a freak make-up—then he is shown frozen to death, covered with ice. Eleanor Powell, Hollywood’s apparently confirmed . bachelor girl, announces her engagement to Merrill Pye, her art director. The wedding is planned for early next year. Fay Wray, who has not been getting the breaks lately, is being tested for on© of the important roles in Frank Capra’s . “Life of John Doe.”