ENTERTAINMENTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 15 June 1940, Page 5

ENTERTAINMENTS

CURRENT ATTRACTIONS REGENT TO-NIGHT: GENE AUTRY IN “PUBLIC COWBOY NO. 1” AND “BLIND ALLEY” No more fitting title could have been chosen for Gene Autry’s new Republic Western romance than "Public Cowboy No. 1.” Gene is seen as the sheriff’s deputy, an ultra-modern cowboy who uses his own technique in detecting and apprehending modern cattle-rustlers—-as well as in his love-making. The story deals with a controversy between the local newspaper—run by a girl—and the old-time lawmen on the proper procedure of catching lawbreakers. Gene and his pals believe that the oldtime methods are still good and scorn the idea of trailing the rough ranges in a motor car. Then they discover that the rustlers are operating by means of direction by short-wave from an aeroplane. Meanwhile, through the influence of Helen, the lovely young newspaper editress, city slicker detectives are imported to solve the mystery. In direct defiance to these city men, the rustlers stage a gigantic raid. Smiley Burnette, Gene’s comical stooge, picks up the short-wave broadcast, and Gene broadcasts a counter announcement to bring out all the townsmen and ranchers to apprehend the raiders. And despite the modern equipment of the city force it is Gene. Smiley and the sheriff who secure the arrests of the entire gang. Gene also finds time and place to sing several catchy and tuneful songs of the saddle. Ann Rutherford is the lovely girl in the case, and an old favourite of yester-year—William Farnum—is the sheriff. The associate attraction Columbia’s "Blind Alley” with Chester Morris. Ralph Bellamy and Ann Dvorak, heading the brilliant cast, ell a sensational story of a mobster who could not be destroyed by bullets . . and a fearless doctor who took the gunman’s brain apart, piece by piece and before his very eyes, to blast his career of slaughter! The film has been hailed as the most weirdly fascinating film of the season. Others in the cast include Joan Perry, Melville Cooper, Rose Stradner, John Eldridge, Marc Lawrence and Scotty Beckett. MAJESTIC: FRANK CAPRA’S COMEDY lIIT, “MR SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON”, WITH JAMES STEWART AND JEAN ARTHUR. Frank Capra’s big picture of the year, “Mr Smith Goes to Washington” is at the Majestic Theatre with James Stew-

an and Jean Arthur in the leading roles, and advance screenings of the film have shown it to be made on the broad canvas in which Capra delights. This director, whose name is now the bjggest in Hollywood, has taken politics for his field to repeat wHit he did in “Mr Deeds Goes to Town.” There a simple trombone-player went to the city and shamed at least one or two people by his refusal to behave in the way they did. In the new picture the adventures of a young man who believes in democracy are shown. Mr Smith is picked out to go to Washington because he is believed to be simple. He is a starry-eyed young man who takes his politics from the speeches of his heroes, believes that the country stands for something, and strives to dc something for it. This way he runs foul of the leaders of the party machine which sent him there to vote as he is told, and the battle which follows reveals that idealists can be made of stern stuff. Jefferson Smith is a youth leader, and he is picked by his Governor to fill the vacant post of Senator because the Governor cannot stand the heckling from the party that results from the mention of the man the bosses want. At Washington he is caught up by the spirit of the place, impressed by the memorials of the young republic’s struggle to freedom, its preservation of its unity in the war between the States, and the | great figures which dot the scene. In this mood he finds what the party ! machine is up to—a piece of graft hid- ! den away in a Bill to provide relief ! for the unemployed, and determines to , fight it. But the machine has an answer to that, and before he can begin his offensive he is caught in a trap set by the man he admires most. How he refuses to be defeated by this trick, and manages to win through to rehabilitate himself is shown in the movie. James Stewart is at his best in this film, and Jean Arthur has just another such role as she owned in “Mr Deeds Coities to Town,” and plays it admirably. There is an enormous cast, and notable names in it are Edward Arnold, as the political boss, Claude Rains as the other Senator who traps his colleague, Thomas Mitchell, as a Washington correspondent, Guy Kibbee and Beulah Bondi.

STATE, ELSA MAXWELL’S “HOTEL FOR WOMEN.” SPICY BRIGHT COMEDY

More fun than any party Elsa Maxwell- ever gave is her first movie, Elsa Maxwell’s “Hotel For Women.” Elsa’s the world-famous life of the party who’s been everywhere, seen everything and in this Cosmopolitan production she tells plenty! Elsa says: “Take the light things seriously and the serious things lightly” and how yesterday’s audience took to the smart, beautiful young things who do just that in the film! The production is jam-packed with girls and glamour; there are girlr who’ll go to your head, girls who’ll go to your heart, office girls in love with their bosses, girls on the make for fame, girls looking for life in a penthouse, girls longing for love in a cottage, girls who want a good address and a liberal edu-, cation —it’s a world of girls on their own, with Elsa to guide them. A stellar cast for the film features Ann Sothern, Linda Darnell, James Ellison, Jean Rogers, Lynn Bari, June Gale, Joyce Compton, Elsa herself, John Halliday, Katharine Aldridge, ; Alan Dinehart and Sidney Blackmer. The film is as wise and witty as it is glamorous (and there’s plenty of glamour, with much of the action set in Manhattan’s smartest spots). Elsa inimitably comes across with such nifties as: “You can’t get to the top : without men—the dogs!—l don’t care ; | what you say!” “Cocktail parties are i only given for people not good enough ;I to be asked for dinner.” The screen , play by Kathryn Scola and Darrel Ware takes us New York’s smartest places, , reveals the inside story of how an ad model makes good and includes an ap- , pealing romance. Gregory Ratoff, onetime dialect comedian, directed the film, : with Raymond Griffith associate produc- ; or. An additional highlight of the film ; is Elsa’s own popular song composition, r “Whistle a Little Old Melody,” which ■ she sings to. her own accompaniment as a feature of the typical Maxwell l party she throws in the picture.