Palmerston Picture Programmes

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 189, 12 August 1936, Page 8

Palmerston Picture Programmes

REGENT THEATRE—TO-DAY “TRAIL OF LONESOME PINE’’ SEASON EXTENDED Owing to its great popularity the Regent season lias been extended for “Tho Trail of the Lonesome Pine.” produced by Walter Wanger for Paramount. Based on Jon Fox, junr.'s famous novel of tlio same title, it marks a milestone in the history of tlie movies. It is the first picture in which the colour element is taken as a matter of course, and subordinated to the story-interest. Filmed entirely at Big Bear, California, where the scenery almost duplicates that of the Cumberland Mountain region where Tox s novel is set, "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine” tells how an ancient hill feud involving two families, and resulting in dozens of deaths, is affected by the inroads of civilisation, in. the person of a young engineer who arrives to construct a railroad line through the region. Colour is handled in an entirely new fashion in the film. Henry liathaway, who won fame through direction of “The Lives of a Bengal Lancer,” revolutionised accepted technique in his direction of “The Trail of the Lonesome Pine” by insisting that bright colours bo eliminated because they detract from the story and characters.* He accentuated the realism of the setting by employing only natural shades, with mountaineers’ cabins of weatherbeaten lumber and rough-hewn logs; costumes of dull shades; and make-up of the players reduced to a minimum. The battle between the hill folk, the ] three-cornered romance involving Siyvia; Sidney, Fred Mac Murray and Henry Fonda, are stressed above tricky coiour effects, it is claimed. The picture was made by tho new technicolour process. KOSY THEATRE “THIS DAY AND AGE” I’aramounL’s “This Day and Age,” the first great spectacle of modem times by tho master of spectacle, Cecil B. de Mille, is now at the Kosy Theatre. In tho large cast are Charles Bickford, Richard Cromwell, Eddie Nugent, Ben Alexander, Harry Green, Fuzzy Knight, Bradley Page and Georgo Barbier. Miss Judith Allen is a now discovery by do Mille. De Mille has also brought to the films in “This pay and Age” the sons of screen stars of to-day and yesterday, including Wallace Reid, junr., Erich .von Stroheim, junr., Bryant Washburn, junr., Neil Hart, junr., Frank Tinney, junr., and Fred Kohler, junr. The story concerns the battle of the youth of an average community against a city’s subversive influences after all eflorLs of the adult community have failed. When Boys' Week of tho city comes along, students of the high schools are appointed to the town's executive, administrative and judicial positions. One of the boys, appointed to the position of District Attorney, has seen the murder of a merchant by one of the town's criminal identities. Zealously, he comes to tho witness stand at tho trial only to have the defence attorney take advantage of legal technicalities and win an acquittal for his client. Undaunted, tho boys go after moro evidence and in securing that evidence, one of flic number is killed by the criminal, and the murder is planted on one of the boys. Tho story reaches its height when a mob of 5000 indignant youngsters kidnap the criminal, drag him off to an old abandoned quarry, where they hold a tribunal and use their own expert methods of forcing a confession from him. “Smart Girl.” The problem of the eternal triangle and how it affected the lives of two sisters is presented in a new light in Walter W anger’s Paramount picture, "Smart Girl,’’ now at the Kosy Theatre. Featuring Ida Lupino, Kent Taylor and Ga‘l Patrick in the leading roles, “Smart Girl” tells the story of two girls both of whom fall in love with the same man at the same time. Miss Lupino and Misa Patrick play the parts of the sisters, both beautiful, smart and rich. Mr. Taylor appears on the scene, in the guise of a budding lawyer the day they lose their money and their father commits suicide. A romantic tangle develops when Taylor marries Miss Patrick. Smart girl and good sport that she is, Miss Lupino enters the business world, makes good as a hat designer, and secretly remains in love with her brother-in-law. When her sister’s expensive tastes for a luxurious life involve her husband in a stock swindle game, Miss Lu«

pino comes to the rescue without revealing either her heart or her hand in the proceedings. In a high-powered halfhumorous, half-dramatic sequence. Pinkie Tomlin, son of Miss Lupino’s boss, Joseph Cawthorn, exposes Sidney Blackmer’s crooked stock dealings to clear Taylor who was an innocent victim. All ends happily, leaving the field clear for Miss Lupino and Taylor when her sister gpes off with JBlackmer,