AMUSEMENTS

Northern Advocate, 3 February 1936, Page 9

AMUSEMENTS

“THANKS A MILLION.” GREAT FARE AT REGENT,

With Dick Powell and Ann Dvorak ' I ranging and romancing. Fred Allen j and Patsy Kelly indulging in a hilari- j cus feud, and Paul Whiteman and his | band. Rubinoff. and the Yacht Club j Boys assisting in the general hilarity j and tunefulness, “Thanks a Million,’’ | the new 20th Century production brings the season’s top mirth and j melody production to the Regent j Theatre tonight. The picture, replete | with catchy new tunes by Gus Kahn I and Arthur Johnston, follows the cock- j eyed adventures of a tank town show j troupe headed by Fred Allen. His j company loves him sc they think he’s j responsible when it rains. Powell is j the handsome young warbler of the j troupe, who positively refuses to j croon. It’s his romance with Ann Dvorak, and the complications that ensue when Margaret Irving enters the scene, that furnish the major story. That is backgrounded by hilarious business between Fred Allen and Patsy Kelly. In the climax, after they become entangled with politic- j ians in a fantastic adventure, Powell realises his heart-felt ambition as a xadio singer, and the object of his affections in Miss Dvorak. “Thanks a Million,” the theme song, heads the tunes Powell sings. Other catchy hits include “I’m Sittin’ High on a -Hill Top” and “Sugar Plum.” The Yacht Club Boys do a number of their original selections, and to top the musical offering, Ramona sings with the Whiteman aggregation. Prominent in the supporting cast are Raymond Walburn, Alan Dinehart and Benny Baker. An excellent supporting programme precedes the big picture.

“THE MELODY LINGERS ON.”

LATEST AT PLAZA. Josephine Hutchinson, last seen in “Oil for the Lamps of China,” and George Houston, handsome new opera star screen “find,” have the leading roles in “The Melody Lingers On,” Edward Small’s stirring romantic drama with music for Reliance Pictures, which commenced a season at the Plaza Theatre on Saturday night. Based on the novel by Lowell Brentano, “The Melody Lingers On” mirrors the heart of a woman who discovered that the world's applause could not compensate for the loss of the man she loved and the love of the son she could never claim. Miss Hutchinson is seen as Ann Prescott, a carefree, young Amferican girl studying music abroad during the World War, and Houston plays Salvini, famous opera singer on leave from the front with whom she has a romance. Faced .with the prospect of placing her baby in an alien cantonment, she leaves him in a convent.

Singer Meets Death

The war over, she teams that Salvini has been killed in action and enters the convent in the hope of seeing her sen. Unknown to her, he is adopted by a wealthy family. The years bring honour and fame to Ann, but nothing can fulfil her yearning for the man she loves and the child she cannot claim. But life repays her for all her suffering on the day when she thrills to her son’s sensational operatic debut at the La Scala, singing the song his father sang on the same stage the day she fell in love with him.

Ralph Block and Philip Dunne wrote the screen play and dialogue. The imposing supporting cast of “The Melody Lingers On,” is headed by John Halliday, Mona Barrie, Helen Westley, Laura Hope Crews, William Harrigan, David Scott, Walter Kingsford and Ferdinand Gottschalk.

Houston is heard singing the Toreador song from “Carmen” and “Ritono di Sorriento,” famous Italian folk song, in this Harry M. Goetz presentation which David Burton directed for release through United Artists.