AT THE PICTURES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 11 August 1942, Page 4

AT THE PICTURES

Majestic, tinally to-night: Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in “Hold that Ghost." Commencing Tuesday: Alexander Korda's great English production “Private Life of Henry VIII," with Charles Laughton, Robert Donat. Merle Oberon and Wendy Barrie. In Laughton's greatest picture and performance, five of six wives are shown: Elsa Lanchester, Laughton’s wife, playing Ann of Cleves, Binnie Barnes • Kathervn Howard!, Merle Oberon (Anne Boleyn)* Wendy Barry (Jane Seymour), and Everley Gregg (Katherine Parr). The first wife. Katherine of Aragon, is dismissed by an opening title that says her storv is of no particular interest. The picture* opens with the execution of Anne Boleyn at the Tower of London, with Anne commenting about her “little neck” while the crowds gather for the execution and the King prepares to wed Jane Seymour so soon as the guns tell of the death of Anne. From Jane, who dies, the lory passes on to the King’s interest in Katheryn Howard who becomes his fifth wife after his marriage to his fourth, Ann of Cleves, and the divorce that she wins from him in a card game played on the royal bed on their wedding night. It is his sixth and last wife who inspires him to comment that “the best of them's the worst.” State: Commencing Friday, “49th Parallel”: It's about fugitive Nazis, with Laurence Olivier, Leslie Howard, Anton Walbrook. Raymond Massey and a magnificent portrayal by Eric Portman. A British unit went to Canada to film this anti-Nazi adventure, as the exhilarating splendour of the backgrounds alone testify. The lilm is interesting, stimulating and dramatic. Its story is of six Nazi sailors who escape across Canada after their submarine has been sunk in North Canadian waters, and is superbly acted. In their flight the Nazis meet a French Canadian trapper (Laurence Olivier), a religious settlement of German Hutterites led by Anton Walbrook. a whimsical writer in retreat in the Rockies (Leslie Howard). and a tough Canadian soldier (Raymond Massey). All are eloquent representatives of the democratic forces opposed to the ruthless Nazi ideal. These players give brilliant performances, each so completely different from their usual, as to occasion surprise. To Walbrook goes the most bitter indictment of Hitlerism, to Howard the most subtle. It is "a must see" picture. Regent to-night: Two hilarious comedies. Grade Allen in "Mr and Mrs North,” and Ann Sotliern with Billie Burke and Ronald Young in “Dulcy.” In "Mr and Mrs North" the mirth begins with the opening scene and it will still be rippling in the lobby after the curtain falls. Grade Allen solves a murder mystery with u clue obtained in effect from a lobster claw. "Dulcy,” the second feature, outlines the exploits ot a modern young woman who has good ideas but whose faculty for running, other people’s affairs gets them is well as nr-r-eli into hilarious difficulties.