Entertainments

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 109, 9 May 1941, Page 9

Entertainments

REGENT THEATRE—TO-DAY “STRIKE UP THE BAND” Mirth and melody reign at the Regent Theatre when Mickey Roonay, Judy Garland and a group of clever youngsters, many of them seen with the youthful stars in “Babes in Arms,” are regaling audiences with harmonies and comicalities. Mickey and Judy organise a high school band in the story and that's when tilings begin to happen. Paul Whiteman has announced a radio contest for high school bands. They set out to raise funds for the trip to Chicago. They stage a travesty of old-time melodrama, with the buzz saw, heroine tied to the railway tracks, and such ancient ditties as “Heaven Will Protect a Working Girl.” When Paul Whiteman appears in their town they borrow his orchestra's instruments during an intermission and give him an audition he never expected. They raise money for the trip, then one of the youngsters becomes ill and must be flown to a great surgeon. They sacrifice the money for the trip to save him but fate in the person of the town millionaire provides the train fare and they win the prize in a grand musical climax embellished by their comical specialties. Mickey masters the drums and is irresistibly funny. He also does some appealing •'straight” drama with Ann Shoemaker, playing his mother. Judy sings the catchy “Our Dove Affairs" and “Nobody,” and burlesques such old-time numbers as “The Curse of an Aching Heart” fetchingly. She rises to comedy heights in the melodrama number. June Preisser, amazing little dancer, also imitates Anna Held singing “I Just Can’t Make My Eyea Behave.” Paul Whiteman not only conducts an orchestra but proves himself a very capable actor in his scenes with the you ngsters.

STATE THEATRE—TO-DAY Gay and refreshing as a spring breeze. Anna Neagls’s new vehicle, “No, No, Nanette,” shows to-day at the State Theatre. The new picture revolves about a girl’s hectic romance with two young men, a romance that results from her efforts to help her millionaire uncle out of some feminine complications, and the result is a swift-paced and timely offering, enlivened with catchy songs and dance routines and plenty of comedy. The trouble is all due to the uncle’s inability to help them with careers, forgetting the fact that he has a masterful wife who is sure to misunderstand the situation. So when the young women arrive one by one to claim the promised assistance, Nanette has fo pitch in and help in a desperate effort to keep auntie from knowing what’s going on. This iR where the romance comes in. Among uncle's acquaintances are a noted young theatrical producer and a famous young painter, and since two of the gold-diggers are stage-struck and art-struck respectively, Nanette wishes them off on to the young men. Result:—the young men become greatly interested in Nanette, soon discover they are rivals, and the race is on, complicated by the insistence of the third golddigger on getting a lot of money quickly. Sparkling in its swift treatment, brilliant dialogue and catchy tunes, along with a charming dream dance number. “No, No, Nanette.” gives the vivacious Miss Neagle her best American picture to date. She gets splendid support from Richard Carlson and Victor Mature as the two rivals and from Roland Young as her 'susceptible uncle, with Helen Broderick. Zasu Pitts, Eve Arden. Tamara, Billy Gilbert and Stuart Robertson all doing finely in support. MAYFAIR THEATRE—TO-DAY DOUBLE-FEATURE PROGRAMME Filled with - Fieldsian whimsicalities, Universal’s “The Bank Dick” is spilling a big bag of tricks at the Mayfair Theatre. For years the star, W. C. Fields, has been acclaimed one of the greatest comedians on the American stage or screen. The honour has never been disputed, but If any proof were needed, it is here in his latest picture. More typically Fields' material than any of the star's I more recent productions, Fields appears as a special guard in a bank, a role he has long wanted to play. Fields is starred solo—which means he has the bulk of the comedy business to carry. The original ! screen play, by Mahatma Kane Jeeves, is I full of opportunities for the comedian to | play his effective spontaneous ad lib type of coftiedy acting, and director Eddie Cline I has wisely allowed Fields to indulge himself and to make the most of the oppor- . tunities offered. Cline is an old-time comedian and comedy director and knows good comedy business when he sees it, 1 whether it is written into his script or Associate Feature. | “Before I Hang,” latest Columbia chiller. now at the Mayfair Theatre, stars Boris Karloff in the most fascinating role ;°f his amazing career. As a brilliant scientist who is attempting to solve the secret of youth and turn time backward, ! Karloff is weirdly transformed into a ruthless fiend by an injection of murderer's blood into his own veins!