ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 143, 19 May 1941, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

State Theatre. —Bristling -with spicy situations and smart dialogue, and cleverly blending emotional drama with sophisticated. comedy, “Play Girl” stars Kay Francis in a role tailor-made to her versatile talents. In sharp contrast to her characterisations in “Kittle Men’’ and Deanna Durbin’s "It’s a Date,” Kay Francis”s role in “Play Girl” presents her as a glamorous fortune hunter who has lived by her wits. Thanks to her cleverly planned breach of promise suits she had done right well for herself until, on her last two campaigns, site draws blanks. Although she does not look a day older than 30 (she is really 40), she feels she is getting passe. Struck with the brilliant idea cf carrying on her man-baiting campaign by proxy, she takes a beautiful but penniless young girl of 19, teaches her all the tricks she knows for fleecing wealthy play boys, and together they form a unique partnership, cashing in on the girl’s youth arid beauty and her own experience. From New York to Chicago they cut a mighty swathe through the bankrolls of unsuspecting but susceptible males, while the young girl carries a secret love in her heart for a happy-go-lucky cowboy who changed a tyre for them on a highway months previously.

Mayfair Theatre. —Followers of the popular “flopalong” Cassidy series of action pictures will be glad to know that their hem. William Boyd, who sustained a fractured leg while making one of the previous pictures, is back. lie returns to the screen in “Doomed Caravan,” a rale of wagon freighting days on the plains, which shows to-day at the Mayfair ’Theatre, and, according to Hollywood advice, he is as tit as ever and ready to give out with the vim and . vigour which has characterised his former appearances. Boyd was hurt when his famous horse, “’I opper,” shied at a rattier on location in Kernville. California, and pinned him against; a tree. Dealing- with the diflicult period when youth merges into manhood. Columbia’s •'Military Academy.” the associate feature at the Mayfair Theatre, presents a most amazing story that will appeal to parents and youngsters alike. The. film tells a dramatic tale of the ambitions, dreams and conflicts of lads on the threshold of life.