ENTERTAINMENTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 25 January 1939, Page 5

ENTERTAINMENTS

CURRENT ATTRACTIONS

STATE: NOW SHOWING WILL HAY IN “OH MR PORTER .” FRIDAY NEXT: SENSATIONAL DRAMA OF WAR-TORN SPAIN, “BLOCKADE” WITH MADELINE CARROLL. “Oh Mr Porter” is the best picture Will Hay has made to date, and he forms an excellent comedy team with Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt. There is a strong family resemblance between the film and “The Ghost Train,” in which Jack Hulbert and Cicely Courtneige made their screen bow. The action takes place at an almost derelict station on the Southern Railway of Northern Ireland, where William Porter, through the influence cf relations, has been made station master. Jere- I miah Harbottle and Albert are his assistants, and he discovers from them that ell his predecessors have mysteri- j ously departed. In fact, the place is haunted by One-eyed Joe. a ghost who, j in the end, turns out to be a very ma- j terial gun-runner, whom Porter has the honour to run to his hide-out on an old j Victorian engine. The highlights ir. the j picture include Porter’s efforts to re- j furbish his derelict station, his encoun- j ters with the villagers whom his as- j sistar.ts had been consistently robbing, ; ■nd his wild and hilarious ride, on the j old engine which is conveying the gun- ! runners to justice. Most ingenious, too, is the sequence where Porter and his assistants, having discovered that the gang’s hide-out is in an old, disused mill, are trapped, and escape by climbing along the sails of the mill. Will Hay is in great form, and Moore Marriott, whose work has not received half the recognition it deserves, comes into his own. Graham Moffatt adds to his reputation as the insolent Albert. The dialogue is amusing and the atmosphere of the near-deserted station is well suggested. The most dramatic situation of the present day—the Spanish civil war—forms the background of the tempestuous love story which is told in “Blockade,” Walter Wanger’s thrilling romantic drama which stars Madeleine Carroll and Henry Fonda. This is the romance of a man and a girl drawn into the conflict almost against their will — lovers who were at the same time bitter enemies. “Blockade,” though it employs the war only as a background and favours neither side in the conflict, furnishes a highly interesting and remarkably accurate picture of Spain’s civil strife. Produced on a lavish scale, its many elaborate settings are outstanding examples of Hollywood’s uncanny skill in achieving realism in locale and atmosphere. This unusual picture was directed by Wililam Dieterle, whose recent “Life of Emile Zola” was adjudged by vote of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences the greatest motion picture of 1937. In | addition to Leo Carrillo, the cast supporting Miss Carroll and Fonda in “Blockade” includes John Halliday, Reginald Denny. Vladimir Sokoloff and Robert Warwick. MAJESTIC: NOW SHOWING, SUPERB CAST IN M.G.M.’S “WOMAN AGAINST WOMAN.” COMING FRIDAY, “THE TEXANS” The age-old triangle of a man and two women still finds novel and up-to-the-minute treatment in “Woman Against Woman,” which is now in season. In this instance the man. Herbert Marshal!, is a husband, and the women, Virginia Bruce and Mary Astor, are his second and first J wives respectively, with the first deter- j mined that his marriage to the second ' shall not be a success. In the hands of this trio the story takes on telling con- • rtion. Miss Bruce is more charming,

l ii, ever and continues the steady dramatic advance she evidenced in “The First Hundred Years.” and Miss Astor gives a skilful interpretation of a most unsympathetic role. A picturisation of Margaret Culkin Banning’s national magazine story, “Enemy Territory,” the film presents a group of equally sparkling featured characterisations, among them Janet Beecher as Marshall’s mother. Marjorie Rambeau as a senator’s wife responsible for Marshall’s first meeting with Miss Bruce, Juanita Quiglek as the child who complicates the problems of the leading trio, and also Zeffie Tilbury, Sarah Padden Betty Ross Clarke, Dorothy Christy, Morgan Wallace and Joseph Creehan. An exceptionally strong supporting programme includes as usual news service, an historical mystery, a Metro miniature musical, another of the “Crime Doesn’t Pay” series and a cartoon. A romance between a fire-eating belle of the Old South and a handsome young soldier forms the plot of Paramount's epic drama of the Reconstruction period, “The Texans,” which will have its first local showing next Friday at the Majestic Theatre. Lovely Joan Bennett will be seen as the belle, who tries to start a one-woman rebellion against Northern rule, while Randolph Scott, plays the impoverished soldier w ho forces her to adopt his more con ciliatory policies toward the Union. Others in the cast are May Robson, “the grand old lady of the screen,” Walter Brennan. Robert Barrat. Robert Cummings and Harvey Stephens. Plans are now open.

REGENT TO-NIGHT: GUEST NIGHT: “THREE KIDS AND A QUEEN”

AND “THE INVISIBLE RAY” “Three Kids and a Queen” has May Robson in the leading role of an excellent comedy-drama. Never before has Miss Robson been seen in a characterisation so appealing and so human as this. As Mary Jane Baxter she is presented as a bitter and imperious old maid, crabbed and vet filled with an acid quality of delightful humour, and even in her most indignant moments one feels that she is slyly poking fun at a world in which she is very much disappointed. But it is a runaway accident which renders her unconscious that opens the way for the happiest period of her life, and she “comes to” in the East Side barber shop of a basement flat Here her great adventure in happiness leads to more exciting adventures in which she is kidnapped by gangsters, and the story is filled with absorbing interest to its unusual climax An exceptional cast supports Miss Robson, including such popular players as Frankie Darro. William Benedict. Billy Burrud. Charlotte Henry. Henry Armetta, Laurence Grant, Herman Bing. Hedda Hopper, John Miljan and many others. The 1 associate feature is ‘The Invisible Ray.” More than any other screen stars, Karloff and Bela Lugosi are so indelibly associated with certain characters that Karloff has been nicknamed “Frankenstein” and Lugosi “Dracula.” Both these players are co-

stars in “The Invisible Ray.” a thrilling mystery drama of a man who drew power from the Heavens in his worldshaking invention, “Radium X,” and wielded his power for good and for evil. Frances Drake and Frank Lawton support the stars. There are no reserves on guest nights.