Cosy Theatre, Woodville

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 237, 7 October 1938, Page 2

Cosy Theatre, Woodville

IN OLD CHICAGO” SCREENING FRIDAY AND SATURDAY

“In Old Chicago,” which screens tomorrow at the Cosy Theatre, Woodville, to-night and tomorrow is a superb screen spectacle, with all the elements that go into the making of great entertainment. The strong cast includes Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Alice Brady, Andy Devine and Brian Donlevy. Opening with the O’Leary’s in a covered wagon, bound for Chicago, Pa O ’Leary typifies the grim brevity of existence in those days when he tried to outrace a new-fangled (Currier and Ives) locomotive. Molly O’Leary buries her husband in tho prairies, only a few hours from the city he longed to sec. Then the next morning Ma O’Leary brings her three sons into this brawling bawdy city of 1854 —and by dint of a fancy lady’s mud-spattered gown, launches herself upon a career as a laundress. The boys grow up and by 1870 Bob O’Leary (Tom Brown) is married to a German immigrant girl (Juno Storey). Jack O’Leary is a struggling attorney, and Dion is making his first inroads into politics. Dion first swings into his stride when he woos Felle Fawcett (Miss Faye) so that he can control the choice site for a saloon which will drive his political boss (Brian Dorilevy) out of business. The violent love scenes end with a slightly subdued Belle Fawcett becoming Dion’s aide in a series of machinations which are culminated by a political plot electing Brother Jack O’Leary as reform Mayor of Chicago. The strange O’Leary tribe fights tooth and nail at times, and the climax comes when Dion has his brother perform tho marriage ceremony which makes Belle Fawcett the bride of Dion O’Leary. Alayor Jack O ’Leary learns that the marriage was engineered by Dion so that Belle could not testify to Dion’s political chicanery. A fight begins here, and far away in The Patch tho cow kicks over tho lantern in the barn. Then the screen flowers forth in the most terrifying beauty, Chicago is wiped out before the eyes .... to

the accompaniment of the most furious sounds and scenes ever captured on celluloid. The final moment which shows the indomitable O ’Learys re-united in the spirit of a regenerated Chicago to come, is a scene that beggars laudatory description.