Palmerston Picture Programmes

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 67, 20 March 1936, Page 12

Palmerston Picture Programmes

REGENT THEATRE TO-DAY “IP YOU COULD ONLY COOK” The world would be a pretty drab place If it were not for jovial, fun-tilled personalities like Herbert .Marshall, Jean Arthur, Leo Carrillo and Lionel Stander, stars and principals of Columbia’s new romantic comedy, “If You Could Only Cook.” Together, with the very helpful direction of William A. Seiter, who knows a comedy situation when he sees one, and some exceptionally amusing dialogue front the joint pens of Howard J. Green and Gertrude Purcell, they make the film a. soarkling and happy thing. Marshall has always been adept at comedy. Ho is an artful actor, with a voice that falls easily on the ears and a manner that generally gives him command of whatever scene he happens to be playing. But in this picture he gets a run for his money, in the shape of the gleeful Miss Arthur, who makes her bow as a fully-fledged star. This is a young lady who can deliver a line with the best of them. She and Marshall put on a charming duel that will have you grinning from start to finish. In a nutshell, the story concerns a disgruntled millionaire, who is about to marry a girl he does not love, and an out-of-work young lady who meets him on a park bench. Thinking him a fellowmember of the army of unemployed, the girl invites him to go with her and answer an advertisement for a married couple to serve as butler and maid. On the spur of the moment ho accepts; and, pretending to be married, they get the job. Of course, a millionaire betrothed to a society girl can’t go off and be a butler without things happening, especially if the millionaire falls in love with another girl with blue eyes who knows how to cook. Leo Carrilo, as the bigshot racketeer and epicure in whose home the unmarried “married couple’’ is employed, does some of his best work to date. His appellation as the best-loved bad man of the screen holds true. Lionel Stander, the buzz-saw-voiced poet of “The Scoundrel,” is outstandingly funny as Carrillo’s henchman. And Frieda Inescourt does very well in a small role, as the girl Marshall is engaged to marry. KOSY THEATRE TO-MORROW “NIGHT AT THE RITZ” “'A Night at the Ritz,” a Warner Bros, comedy which is scheduled as the feature attraction at the Kosy Theatre to-morrow is said to bo filled with riotous laughs, fast action and delightful romance. The story, by Albert J. Cohen and Robert T. Shannon, concerns a high powered publicity man, his loves and his efforts to put across a chef who can’t cook. William Cargan has the role of the press agent for an hotel who is fired because ono of his girl friends (Dorothy Tree) runs up bills on him and otherwise interferes with his work. Gargan, who has. fallen in love with a girl who runs a music shop, visited her home and at viands such as he had never dreamed of before. He is led to believe that the girl’s brother, grandson of a great continental chef, had cooked the meal. By clever manoeuvring he gets a contract for the man at the most fashionable hotel in the city, the Ritz. Then he discovers that ho can’t even boii water without burning it. A bankers’ convention is scheduled at the hotel for that night and the chef is making concoctions that would poison anyone. Patricia Ellis has the role of the music store girl who finally gets tho wild publicity inan out of his jam and sobers him; down a bit, Allen Jenkins will be seen! in a rough and tumble comedy role as a! chauffeur and the devoted slave of Gargan. Dorothy Tree, as a flirtatious gold digger, gets everyone with whom she comes into contact in trouble. Others in the cast include Eric Rhodes as the chef who can’t cook, his mother, Bodil Rosing, Gordon Westcott as a disreputable columnist. Famous Stars in "Java Head." One of the greatest casts ever assembled in a British picturo is that in the A.T.P. production "Java Head,” which comes to the Kosy Theatre to-morrow. The principal players are John Lodor, Elizabeth Allan, Edmund Gwenn and Anna May Wong. John Eoder js fast

establishing himself as one of the foremost and most popular of tho screen’s leading men, and his excellent performance in “Java Head” has done much in this direction. Critics the world over have hailed Loder’s portrayal in “Gerrit Ammindon” as worthy of the greatest merit. Elizabeth Allan’s appearance in “Java Head” was only made possible by courtesy of,tho Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, to whom she is under Contract. Miss Allan was holidaying in England when Basil Dean, A.T.P. producer, was seeking an artiste for the much coveted role of Nettie" Vollar. Negotiations were made with both the charming star and M.G.M. and—well, she did tho part. Edmun’d Gwenn, lovable old actor, can always be relied on for a good performance; with the result that he is one of the most popular artists on the screen to-day. All picturegoers will remember his delightful characterisations in "Good Companions,” “I Was a Spy” and “Tell Me To-night,” and wo make no greater testimony to his role in “Java Head” than the fact that it is worthy to rank with these great performances. Anna May Wong, the last of the famous quartette of stars in “Java Head,” is no stranger to picturegoers either, she having taken prominent parts in screen productions from studios on either side of the Atlantic, but it is by her life-like portrayal of Taou Yuen, Gerrit Ammidon’s alien wife in “Java Plead," that Miss Wong's screen value will in future be assessed, as the lovely Chinese wife in a strange land with strange customs, fighting for her husband’s happiness, she is delightful, unforgettable.