Regent Presents Jane Withers At Her Best

Northern Advocate, 28 January 1939, Page 4

Regent Presents Jane Withers At Her Best

Amusements

“At her best” commented a patron. Indeed, the whole Regent audience was enthusiastic about Jane Withers last night, when, she opened her Whangarei season in “Miss Fix-it.’’ She certainly fixed-it for her uncle, Henry Wilcoxin, a Hollywood producer, who lost his grip and took to drink. She “fixed it” for Gloria Stuart, his ex-private secretary, and, in quite another way, “fixed” Robert Allen, an unwanted fiance. Never has a picture been more appropriately titled. But it is not the title alone that makes “Miss Fix-it.” It is Jane herself.

With 'scenes from Shakespeare, comic child imitations and impersonations —not the least of whom were Bobby Breen and Deanna Durbin —she demonstrates a score of times her remai'kable gifts. She can act; she can sing; she can dance. Her enthusiasm is infectious, she makes the most of a film with a plot, and has the advantage i of a supporting cast such as is seldom gathered for one production. There are many characters in “Miss Fix-it” —but not one misfit. It is a picture with laughs and tears. Above all, it is good entertainment. Jack Oakie and Lucille Ball are featured in another star attraction, “The Affairs of Annabel,” and the programme is rounded off with a firstrate selection of shorts. These include news reels of the Victorian bush fires, the Boy Scouts’ Jamboree, and the arrival in Australia of Lord Stabolgi—subjects that have scarcely ceased to be “news” in the daily press. The March of Time series, with doctors as its subject, deserves a review of its own. There is space only sufficient to say that it covers the training of medical men in the United States, gives intimate glimpses of hospital routine, and traces an appendicitis case from its diagnosis to the conclusion of a successful operation.

University National Bursaries, Only two students from Whangarei were successful in qualifying for the University National ordinary bursaries. They were Harold Beale, who came 31st on the list in order of merit, obtaining 1224 marks, and George Allcock, 71st, with 1093 marks.