Entertainments

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 64, 17 March 1938, Page 9

Entertainments

?tate theatre—to-morrow “ CHARLIE CHAN ON BROADWAY ” It’s “candid-camera night” in Manhattan's gayest cabaret, when Death writes the last entry in a night-club singer's diary and Charlie Chan finds his grimmest mystery stalking the killer through the brightest spots of the Cheat White Way in 1 1 is latest Twentieth Century-Fox film adventure, “Charlie Chan on Broadway,” commencing to-morrow at the State Theatre with Warner Oland again playing the keen Oriental sleuth. America's greatest; hobby since the advent of radio is a prominent factor in the solution of this most baffling of crimes ever to confront (lie New York police, when chance snapshots of a hundred miniature-camera 1 fiends at the scene of the crime provide Chan with the opening clues in his jigsawpuzzle reconstruction of the double murder. More hinder than help to the Chinese detective is is attempt to track down the killer is his self-appointed assistant, Keye Luke, in the role of Chan’s •number one son.” Lee Chan’s efforts to imitate his famous father and do a little independent sleuthing offer several amusing interludes in a mystery which begins aboard the transatlantic liner on which the pair are returning to New York after Chan’s previous cases abroad. Louise Henry, beautiful Broadway choius girl, secrets a mysterious packet in Chan’s luggage which she tries to regain from their hotel room in New York. She is interrupted by Lee Chan, makes an excuse for her presence, and hurries off to the Hottentot Club, where “candid-camera night” is in progress and wnere she is murdered. The murder of a second person is discovered in Chan’s own room when he returns to his hotel. Harold Huber, in the role of police inspector, rounds up J. Edward Bromberg, Joan Marsh, Joan Woodbury, Donald Woods, and Douglas Fowley, all of whom are under suspicion. A swift succession of events gives the all-perceiv-ing Chan a complete clue-picture of the entire affair, and in a surprise climax he unmasks the murderer. Adapted by Charles Belden and Jerry Cady from the original story by Art Arthur. Robert Ellis and Helen Logan, based on the character created by Earl Biggers, the film was directed by Eugene Forde, with John stone as associate producer. MAYFAIR THEATRE TO-DAY “THE GREAT ZIEGFELD.” Heralded as the “Greatest Show on Earth,” with-a cast of 205 speaking roles, 200 glorified American beauties, and 5,000 extras, topped by the stellar triumvirate of William Powell, Myrna Loy and Luise Rainer, “Tho Great Ziegfeld,” Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's giant caravan of entertainment screens its long-awaited return engagement at the Mayfair Theatre to-day. Iri preparing this sensational production whose cast Is studded with such luminaries of the stage and film world as Frank Morgan, Fannie Brice, Virginia Bruce, Reginald Owen, Ray Bolger, Nat Pendleton and Harriet Hoctor, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer duplicated the proliigacy of Ziegfeld himself, using sixteen reels and 15,300 feet of film. Although •’The Great Ziegfeld” is not merely another motion picture revue, it has many and elaborate musical incidents which form the background for the story, give authenticity to the plot and re-create the atmosphere of the show world. The story was suggested by Zlegfeld’s career, his rivalries, successes and failures. Special emphasis is placed on the fact also that the character of Ziegfeld is not intended as an accurate historical study. It has been made partly fictional, consistent with the man himself, but consistent also with the spacious and glamorous legend that surrounds him. As a natural part of the plot the picture introduces spectacular musical interludes of the type which Ziegfeld made famous on Broadway. me singing and dancing present the last word in entertainment, every role being filled by the artist top in his particular field. Box Plans for “The Great Ziegfeld aie now open at Collinson and Cunninghames, ’phone 7178.

REGENT THEATRE—TO-DAY “TRUE CONFESSION” Carole Lombard and Fred Mac Murray aro jointy:! by John Barrymore in the costarring leads of Paramount’s comedydrama, “True Confession,” which shows to-day at the Regent Theatre. In the film. Miss Lombard and Mac Murray play the parts of a struggling' young lawyer and his wife, constantly at swords’-ends [because of the conflict between Miss I Lombard's inborn habit of lying and Maci Murray’s love for truth. Implicated by circumstantial evidence, Miss Lombard finds herself accused of a murder, of which she is entirely innocent. Mac Murray does not believe her story, and forces I her to “confess” that she killed in selfdefence. On this plea, he gets Miss Lombard an acquittal. Barrymore steps into the scene, in the role of an eccentric derelict whose brother-in-law actually committed the murder, and who tries to blackmail Miss Lombard by threatening to tell Mac Murray that she Med to him in her “confession,” unless she buys him off. The film winds up with the most hilarious combination of comedy elements to reach the screen in a long, long while, with Miss Lombard finally realising that under no conditions is she ever to lie t 9 her husband again. “True Confession” was directed by Wesley Ruggles. KOSY THEATRE “DRIFT FENCE.” Stirring drama, such as one has come to expect of a Zane Grey story, characterises “Drift Fence,” the new Paramount action picture, now showing at the Kosy Theatre. It unfolds a colourful story of the days when desperadoes ruled the Arizona cattle lands, and refused to let big ranchers confine their herds within fences. No one is more adept than Zane Grey in presenting primitive struggles of the vanished frontier days of Arizona. And “Drift Fence” is one of the most engrossing stories that has come from the pen of this wizard of Western tales. Adventure, romance, and humour are skilfully blended in this danger-bristling melodrama. Leading roles are enacted by Larry “Buster” Crabbe, Katherine De Mille, Tom Keene, Benny Baker, Glenn Erikson, Stanley Andrews, Richard Carle and Effie Ellsler. A “drift fence,” peculiar to the frontier days, was an enclosure used to thwart rustlers, by preventing cattle from passing into the wrong hands. In “Drift Fence,” Tom Keene plays a Texas ranger who takes the place of an Eastern lad come to learn ranching, and starts to build a drift fence, knowing that the cattle rustlers will do all they can to prevent it. Complications get under way when the rustlers persuade a hard-fight-ing small rancher to side with them, since it is to his interests to have his cattle graze at large. Interwoven through the fast fight-it-out action is a romance between the ranger and the sister of the young rancher out to protect his grazing rights. "Border Flight.” The staccato rattle of machine-gun fire, the roar and whine of speeding planes “dog-fighting” high above the Pacific, and thrilling hand-to-hand battling of guardsmen and smugglers run through Paramount’s “Border Flight,” now showing at the Kosy Theatre. The film tells a dramatic tale of high adventure and dangerous missions of the United States Coast Guard air corps. Officers of the air corps aided in the filming. The crackup of two planes and the pancake landing of a third which has lost its landing gear add to the thrills of tho story. Two members of the corps, John Howard and Grant Withers, become rivals for the attentions of the same girl, Francis Farmer. In the courso of the story, one is disenarged from the service and joins a band of fur smugglers with which it has been lighting. The dramatic finish conies in a pitched battle of the forces of the Coast Guard and the smugglers, closing in a hand-to-hand fight. Last breath-taking shot is of a power dive of a plane directly into the smugglers’ ship, bringing the wreckage of both in an explosion. “Border Flight” sustains its pace as a top flight thriller and gives an insight into a little-known branch of Government service as well. METEOR THEATRE—TO-DAY “I LIVE FOR LOVE” “I Live for Love,” Warner Bros.’ gay comedy romance with Dolores Del Rio and Everett Marshall, the greatest operatic star in the stellar roies. The plot is said to carry a most unusual comedy twist, set against the background of a radio broadeating station. There are live, catchy original songs sung by Marshall, famous on the radio, in musical comedy and formerly a member of the Metropolitan Grand Opera Company. A grand pageant with beautiful girls has been staged as only Bushy Berkeley, famed for his specialty numbers, can do it. While beautiful £ and impressive events, the players dress's ing in the costumes of the famous characters of history, taking them off in a I vein of hilarity. Miss Del Rio plays the fpart of a South American prima donna, S tempestuous and temperamental, who 8 loves and hates with the passion of the i| fiery Latin. She thinks she is in love | with an actor from her own country, a !i part played by Don Alvarado, who drives This producer frantic. Marshall, a secret I singer who eventually becomes the toast |of the country on the radio, is the rival [lover, whom the prima donna thinks she J hater. After a series of terrific battles between the two, he finally sweeps her off her feet and literally leaves the fiery Latin suitor waiting at the church. Guy Kibbee plays the part of radio sponsor and Berton Churchill that of a stage producer. Both are driven frantic by the two temperamental South American stars, and the devil-may-care street singer in marvellously gay scenes. Allen JenkinS and Hobart Cavanaugh add to the fun, the former as a tough, hard-boiled press agent; the latter as a highbrow, and a “bit-too-sweet,” director of public relations.