Merriest Farce in “ Lightning Strikes Twice”

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 166, 17 July 1935, Page 11

Merriest Farce in “ Lightning Strikes Twice”

THELMA TODD AND BEN LYON HEAD FINE CAST

(State: Screening To-morrow.)

As the fastest, merriest farce tu many a moon, with laughs galore, * * Lightning. Strikes Twice ” proves to be a peak Hollywood comedy of the year. Given stellar treatment by RKO-Radio, this picture met the test by keeping audiences royally entertained from start to finish.

The story is an unusual combination of the comic and melodramatic. It deals with the day’s experiences of a wealthy chap, having one last fling with a pal before his fiancee and his aunt arrivo on the scene, and whose butler has a horror of eats. To this last point is keyed tho laughably oxciting “murder mystery” interwoven with tho main theme.

When the butler, unnerved by the meowing of a cat—black at that!— shoots into tho darkness, things begin to happen. Police arrive, and another bullet accidentally knocks the cap from an officer, who drops through a manhole cover.

Between this episode and its consequences, plus the fact that the butler disappears, giving rise to the Conviction that he, too, has been slain, and the complications when aunt and fiancee arrive—separately— ‘ ‘ Lightning Strikes Twice” develops an exciting twist of plot and sub-plot. A fan dancer and her male accomplice get tangled in the skein of happenings, and are mistaken by the aunt, for the fiancee and her father. As the aunt, Laura Hope Crews, turns in a splendid characterisation. Thelma Todd is fine as the sweetheart, with “Skeets” Gallagher scoring as the hero’s pal, and Ben Lyon shining as the hero himself. Walter Catlett and Pert Keltoh, as the “mistaken identities,” furnish some grand fun. Other good contributions are from Chick Chhndler, as a reporter turned detective; Margaret Armstrong, as the maid, and John Davidson as the butler. Lesser roles in the hands of screen veterans arc neatly played.