Palmerston Picture Programmes

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 190, 13 August 1936, Page 12

Palmerston Picture Programmes

REGENT THEATRE—TO-DAY “TRAIL OF LONESOME PINE” SEASON EXTENDED

Owing to its great popularity the Regent season has been extended for “The Trail of the Lonesome Pine,” produced by Walter Wanger for Paramount. Based on Jon Fox, junr.’s famous novel of tho same title, it marks a milestone in the history of the 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, whero tho scenery almost duplicates that of the Cumberland Mountain region where Fox’s novel is set, “The Trail of tho 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 tho 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 Hathaway, 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 be 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. Tho battlo between the hill folk, and the three-cornered romance involving Slyvia Sidney, Fred Mac Murray and Henry Fonda, aro stressed above tricky colour effects, it is claimed. The picturo was made by tho new technicolour process.

KOSY THEATRE 'THIS DAY AND AGE’

Paramount's “This Day and Age,” the first great spectacle of modern tunes by the master of spectacle, Cecil B. do Miile, is now at the Kosy Theatre. In tho large cast are Charles Bickford, Richard Cromwell, Eddie iNugent, Ben Alexander, Harry Green, Fuzzy Knight, Bradley Pago and George Barbier. Miss Judith Alien is a now discovery by de Miile. De Miile has also brought to Lhe lilms in “This Day and Age” the sons of screen stars of to-day and yesterday, including Wallace Reid, junr., Uricli von Stroheim, junr., Bryant Washburn, junr., Neil Hart, junr., Frank Tinney, junr., and Fred Kohler, junr. Tho story concerns the battlo of the youth of an average community against a city's subversive influences alter all efforts of tho adult community have failed. \Vh,en 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 tho town's criminal identities. Zealously, he comes to the witness stand at the trial only to have the defence attorney take advantage of legal technicalities and win an acquittal lor his client. Undaunted, the boys go after more evidence and in securing that evidence, one of, the number is killed by tho 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 tho lives of two sisters is presented in a new light in Walter VV'anger's Paramount picture, “Smart Girl," now at tho Kosy Theatre. Featuring Ida Lupino, Kent Taylor and Gall 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 Miss Patrick play the parts of tho 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 tho rescue without revealing either her heart or her hand in the proceedings. In a high-powered haifhumorous, 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 goes off with, Blackmer,