Entertainments

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 121, 23 May 1941, Page 9

Entertainments

REGENT THEATRE—TO-DAY “MY LOVE CAME BACK’* A running chain of comedy situations make up the fast-paced Warner musical, “My Love Came Bach,” starring Olivia de Havilland and Jeffrey Lynn, which shows at the Regent Theatre to-day. As snappy as a next season’s Hattie Carnegie number, “My Love Came Back” is cast with a list of dependable laugh-jerkers including Eddie Albert, Jane Wyman, Charles Winninger and Spring Byington. Contjnental flavour is added by the touch of Kurt Bernhardt, a recent import, and the Walter Reisch story was adapted for the screen by Ivan Goff, Robert Buckner and Earl Baldwin. The wild chain of events starts with poor, pretty and provocative Amelia Cornell, played by Oliva de Havilland, throwing a book at her violin teacher. It’s all because she isn't allowed to teach students, and she needs the money to support her mother and continue her education. To the rescue comes millionaire Julius Malette, played by Charles Winninger, who arranges for her to have a scholarship, without knowing her sponsor. The two strike a warm friendship and Julius, to have more time to devote to Amelia, turns over his factory to Tony Baldwin, played by Jeffrey Lynn. Two of Amelia’s friends. Joy and Dusty, played by Jane Wyman and Eddie Albert, want to organise a band to swing classical music. They need money. Meanwhile, news of Julius’ sponsorship leaks out and causes a scandal. Amelia thinks she returns the money, but Joy and Dusty forge her name, to use the funds |pr their band. Tony helps Amelia clear herself when the hand is a success and in the money. They fall very much in love and future prospects are cheerful for the two when the film comes to its delightful closing scenes. The lilting classical music of Liszt, Chopin and Mendelssohn was arranged in jitterbug-time by Bay Heindorf and Max Rabinowltsch. MAYFAIR THEATRE—TO-DAY “PASSPORT TO ALCATRAZ” Playing a role with which he is well familiar, Jack Holt, hero of a thousand adventures, plays the gang-breaker in the Mayfair Theatre’s week-end attraction, “Passport to Alcatraz.” Assisted by Noah Beery, Jr., who, wits Cecila Caliejo, a beautiful newcomer to the screen, provides the romantic touch. Holt joins a spy ring in order to discover who is responsible for deeds of sabotage which have recently been perpetrated. When his presence is discovered swift action follows and the film moves rapidly to a smashing climax. Associate Feature. A picture which will appeal to all animal lovers, particularly those fond of horses, is now showing at the Mayfair Theatre. Titled “King of the Sierras,” it depicts the adventures of “Whitey,” a fine si allion, and "El Diablo,” who, though of the same parentage as “Whitey,” is a vicious black beast. Both escape to join a herd of wild mustangs which is ravaging the fertile farm lands of Arizona, and which, by Government decree, must be exterminated. Boothe, a “muslanger,” vows to kill Whitey and his efforts almost succeed when he starts a ring of fires about the herd. However, through the sagacity of Whitey, the wild horses are brought to safety. Features of this entertaining drama are a terrific battle between the two stallions, the chasing of a colt by a pack of wolves, and the great, tire in which the wild herd is almost trapped.

STATE THEATRE—COMMENCING FRIDAY NEXT, MAY 30 PREMIERE OF CHAPLIN FILM Charles Chaplin plays two contrasting roles, those of Adenoid Hynkel (Hitler) and Hynkel’s double a little Jewish barber, in “The Great Dictator” which will have its premiere showing at the State Theatre on Friday next, May 30. Chaplin interprets Hitler as a hysterical egomaniac reaching out for w'orld power, a wretched, nerve-racked butcherer of innocents, a confirmed sadist, and a tragicomic figure poisoning the world. His little barber typifies the common, ordinary man who wants peace and happiness, i In the end the little man triumphs in a | memorable speech which ends Hitlerism. “To Britain,” states a recent publication in mentioning “The Great Dictator,” “this ! film is worth a whole army or a whole fleet. It is idle to call It propaganda. I though many will brand it as such, but it iis undoubtedly the most vivid, pungent 1 presentation of democracy’s case against | Nazism that our generation is likely to see. The most sensational part of the film is the closing sequence, during which .Chaplin, in a four and a-half minutes' I speech, calls upon the world to free men jto fight. ’Let us fight, let us unite in the name of democracy,’ he screams into the microphone over and over again. Editors, critics, columnists and correspondents squirmed in their seats as the little comedian’s words rang through the Theatre. They had not experienced anything like this.” Plans now open for all sessions. METEOR THEATRE—TO-DAY “MIRACLES FOR SALE” Twentieth Century witchcraft forms the bizarre background for the screen's newest detective mystery, “Miracles For Sale,” showing to-day at the Meteor Theatre. With Robert Young, Florence Rice, Frank Craven, Henry Hull and Lee Bowman featured, the spine-chilling new drama deals with the solution of a murder mystery amid a group of professional magicians and clairvoyants. Tod Browning, director of “Dracula” and the never-to-be-forgotten Lon Chaney mysteries, directed. Young, as a professional magician, is called on to help the police solve the murder of a fantastic demonologist, found dead in his locked apartment, and another magician who police surgeon says w’as dead four hours before he was \ seen actually talking to the police. By turning a trick in magic to account he finds the murderer in a surprise dramatic climax. The play was adapted from “Death from a Top Hat,” a mystery bestseller by Clayton Rawson. Associate Feature. Jackie Cooper. Bonita Granville. Gene Reynolds and other clever youngsters mingle hilarious adventure with thrills 1 and tense dramatic moments in “Gallant Sons,” dramatic story of childhood loyalI ties, now showing at the Meteor Theatre. A group of high school students turn amateur detectives to trace ,a murder so that j the father of one of their group may be : cleared of the crime. They unearth a j clue the law overlooked, trail it down, re- ; construct the crime and trick the criminal j to a high school show where he is trapped j into revealing himself by seeing the muri der re enacted. Amid this runs a schoolday romance, there are many hilarious upsets to the plans of the “detectives.” and a. mature romance is presented by Gail Patrick and lan Hunter.