ENTERTAINMENTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 26 November 1938, Page 10

ENTERTAINMENTS

CURRENT ATTRACTIONS MAJESTIC, NOW SHOWING: DANIELLE DARRIEUX IN “THE RAGE OF PARIS ” Danielle Darrieux is the kind of star and "The Rage of Paris” is the kind of comedy that are worth waiting a long time for if necessary. But now that the picture is here at the Majestic there is no excuse for waiting. Universal has done something very fine for cinema fans in bringing Mile. Darrieux over from France to make pictures. Ranked i as the rave of the Paris screen and stage in spite of her tender twenty-one , years, she will make a strong bid to attain the same standing for world : honours. The newcomer has looks. She | is certainly among the most beautiful j girls on the screen to-day. She has ; plenty of charm and a most fetching ease and “unsclfconseiousness” on the screen that makes her perfectly adori able in comedy. She isn’t afraid to I rom P- She doesn't mind wrinkling her ' classic nose in amusing grimaces, and i her accent is something that must be j heard to be enjoyed. The story of “The Rage of Paris” finds Danielle in New j York without a penny, a pal or a square I meal. So she takes a job posing for a ; famous artist in the nude. However, in her eagerness for the job, even though she doesn't fancy it, she reaches a wrong address and when Douglas Fairbanks. Jr., a young advertising executive, walks into his office, he finds her disrobing. From then on things get too funny to spoil by telling. Fairbanks is perfect as the advertising tycoon and Louis Hayward does a fine job as his t rival in romance. Mischa Auer and Helen Broderick. those two comedy aces, are more than up to form. Samuel S. Hinds, Nella Walker, Charles Coleman, Harry Davenport and the others are grand in their parts and Henry Koster's direction # is superb. An excellent supporting programme includes news services, “Stranger Than (Fiction,” “Going Places,” “Music and Flowers,” a musical and the latest New Zealand Review, “The Golden Coast” depicting the West Coast of the South Island.

STATE, NOW SHOWING: FRED ASTAIRE IN P. G. WODEHOUSE’S RIOTOUS STORY “A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS.”

Sparkling from start to finish with a merrily romantic story, a group of spectacular dances and captivating Gershwin tunes. Fred Astaire’s and Burns and Allen’s new starring vehicle for RKO Radio. “A Damsel in Disi tress." opens to-morrow at the State Theatre. The story is based on one of P. G. Wodehouse’s best-known humorous tales of English life, with Astaire in the role of an American dancer who seeks to rescue a titled British girl from her impending marriage with a man she detests. It is complicated in uproarious fashion by the activities of a half dozen other principals. Much of the tangle evolves from the conflicting loyalities of the servants, of whom a stately butler and a romantic young page-boy are the most active, while Astaire’s press agents endeavour to free him from the affair and get him off to Paris to fill a dancing engagement. And the result is a continuous panic for the audience. Burns and Allen, as the busy publicists, are at their hilarious best, and Miss Fontaine is both lovely and convincing as the distressed damsel. Montagu Love, Constance Collier, Ray Noble, Reginald Gardiner, Young Harry Watson and Jack Carson help to make the film a brilliant piece of screen fare. The catchy Gershwin songs, Attaire's several spectacular dancing routines. and the picturesque settings, including a huge reproduction of T°i..r castle, are big features of the production. Producer Pandro S. Berman's handling, and the telling direction of George Stevens, contribute to the picture’s excellence. In their deft screen play. Author Wodehouse and Ernest Pagano and S. K. Lauren have added the final touch to make “A Damsel in Distress” a really notable offering.

REGENT: FINAL SCREENING OF “CASSIDY OF BAR 20” AND “TIP"OFF GIRLS.” MONDAY AT 8: “THE JURY’S SECRET” AND “ROMANCE IN PARIS.”

There is an unusual story well presented in “The Jury’s Secret.” This concerns the predicament of an editorial writer who finds himself serving on the jury in a murder trial when he himself should be standing in the dock. Although he saves the accused man he cannot escape his own Nemesis. There are some fine dramatic scenes in the film and a vein of irony runs through the interesting narrative. Kent Taylor is unexpectedly good in the chief role, and Larry Blake is a virile and fearless labour leader who gets caught in the mesh of circumstantial evidence. Fay Wray builds up a sympathetic study as the newspaper reporter who forces her lover to expose his guilt. The associate feature “Romance in Paris,” featuring the famous Continental screen -tar, Fernand Gravet, with Joan Blondell and Edward Everett Horton, is a swift and humorous musical comedy set in gay Paree. The story tells of a young spendthrift who turns to the gaieties of Paris and becomes involved in a trouble strewn and complex romance with an American chorus girl. Plans are now open at R. A. Thomas's, 'phone 596.