AMUSEMENTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21647, 18 May 1932, Page 5

AMUSEMENTS

EMPIRE THEATRE Based on a Ben Travers farca “Mischief,” which is being shown at the Empire Theatre, is proving to be a very enjoyable comedy. The inimitable Ralph Lynn in the role of the somewhat addleheaded friend who attempts to unravel a complicated matrimonial tangle, heads the cast, and the subsidiary parts are also capably handled. A strong supporting programme is screened, and Mr Paul Cullen presents an harmonious interlude at the organ. The box plans are at the theatre and the Bristol. “ THE AGE FOR LOVE.” Howard Hughes's latest production, “ The Age for Love," will be shown at the Empire Theatre, starting on Friday. “ The Age for Love ” is a United Artists picture, and metropolitan critics have praised it as one of the outstanding pictures of the year. It was directed by Frank Lloyd, who was recently voted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the _ outstanding director of the screen. It is based on the novel, a best-seller, by Ernest Pascal, who personally wrote the adaptation for the screen. It signalises the return to pictures after more than a year of vacation and preparation of Billie Dove. Included in the cast are such brilliant performers as Edward Everett Horton, Lois Wilson, Mary Duncan, and Charles Starrett. It introduces another new screen personality in the person of Adrian Morris, brother of Chester, and also presente a daring, sopliisticated, and ultra-modern theme of love and marriage. __ ST. JAMES THEATRE This week's programme at the St. James Theatre has as its principal feature a film entitled “ Over the Hill.” The picture contains all the elements of simple, direct drama adroitly blended with romance, comedy, and pathos, and the acting of the principals leaves nothing to be desired. Mae Marsh, James Dunne, and Sallv Eilers are seen at the head of a strong cast, and all of them give competent renderings of their respective parts. An entertaining supporting programme is shown. The box plana are at the theatre, at Jacobs’s, and at the Bristol. “THE CHAMP.” Two outstanding characters of the screen —one a veteran, the other filmdom’s latest child “ discovery ” —are teamed in “ The Champ,” Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s vivid drama of sporting life below the Mexican border, which will start on Friday at the St, James Theatre, Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper share honours in the new picture, which King Vidor directed. Thrills, comedy, and heart-throbs mingle in the drama, and much authentic detail waa actually filmed in Agua Caliente and j‘

Mexican border locales. Beery plays a broken-down prize-fighter, rearing his small son amid the surroundings of the border while attempting to “ come-back. The love of the two is great. _ Finally, the boy’s mother, who has married a rich man, seeks to take the boy that he may have better advantages. Despite his great love for the child, the old prize-fighter resolves to make the sacrifice. But the child runs away from his mother and returns to him. “The Champ” then makes his great resolve and stages an attempted “ come-back ” for money to send the child to school. Others in the cast are Irene Rich as the mother, Roseo Ates and Edward Brophy as the comical fight handlers. The box plans are at the Bristol. REGENT THEATRE “Her Majesty Love," a melodious and light-hearted fcomedy featuring Marilyn Miller and Ben Ls'on, heads the current programme at the Regent Theatre. The supporting cast is particularly strong, and includes such capable actors as Leon Errol, Ford Sterling, Chester Conklin, and W. C. Fields. The story begins with a wager by Ben Lyons that he will conquer the heart of a barmaid of a Berlin cabaret. An unusual and highly diverting climax is evolved. There is an entertaining supporting programme. The box plans are at the theatre and the Bristol. “24 HOURS.” Paramount’s “24 Hours,” starring Clive Brook, Kay Francis, and Miriam Hopkins, will be presented at the Regent Theatre from Friday. It reveals how several people, within the short span of two turns of the clock, are suddenly precipitated into an unusual and dangerous situation, from which escape seems impossible. .From the moment these men and women arc shown at a fashionable dinner party, to that exciting and breathtaking moment 24 hours later, when one of the men, the debonair Jim Towner, is arrested for the murder of his paramour, “24 Hours” builds and maintains suspense. As Jim Towner, the gifted Clive Brook is cast in one of his most interesting and engaging roles. Kay Francis, ns Towner’s estranged wife, is also effeective in a convincing role, and Miriam Hopkins, as the notoriously _ famous Rosie Dugan, rises to new heights. The supporting cast features Lucille La Verne, Regis Toomey, George Bnrbiei - , Minor Watson, and Adrienne Ames. STRAND THEATRE Thoroughly enjoyable entertainment is provided by “ Flying High,” which constitutes the featured attraction at the Strand Theatre this week. Charlotte Greenwood and Bert Lain- have the leading roles in “Flying High,” which is a production of the musical comedy variety, and in which the fun is fast and furious throughout. The ability of Miss Greenwood to handle comedy roles convincingly has been demonstrated on numerous occasions, and she fully maintains the high 'standard of burlesque she set in her

earlier productions. The programme o short subjects is unusually interesting The box plans are at. the theatre anc the Bristol. “BUSINESS AND PLEASURE.” Booth Tarkington’s famous comedy "Business and Pleasure," will provide hilarious entertainment for Strand Theatre patrons, commencing on Friday. The character of Earl Tinker, razor blade manufacturer, has been transcribed almost in toto from the book. Tinker embarks on a Mediterranean cruise with hia jealous, nagging wife and resentful daughter, ostensibly on pleasure bent, although he actually has a very shrewd piece of business in mind. Wife and daughter are promptly laid low by mal de mer, and Tinker has a good time roaming the boat without hindrance. How he averts the tribal war, wins a coveted contract, and makes peace with his family, supply one of the most hilarious situations ever filmed. A splendid cast includes Will Rogers, Jetta Goudal, Joel M Crea, Dorothy Peterson, Peggy Ross, Boris Karloff, Cyril Ring, and Jed Prouty. OCTAGON THEATRE The story of “The Beloved Bachelor,' oiie of the two pictures on the current programme at the Octagon Theatre, u woven round the love of a younw sculptor for a beautiful society girl, and the fact that Paul Lukas is seen in the leading part is sufficient guarantee of its quality The supporting picture, “Heaveu or Earth,” is based on the struggle of an ignorant boy who is thrown on his own resources, and this part is brilliantly portrayed by Lew Ayres, who scored such a triumph in “All Quiet on the Western Front.” ' The box plans are at the theatre and at the Bristol. “ROAD TO RENO” AND “ COMPROMISED.” “What price divorce?” That is the question propounded by Paramount in “The Road to Reno,” which will be shown at the Octagon Theatre on Friday. The collective result of all the colourful, exciting, humorous, and, at times, gravely dramatic action of the play is to_ bring forward an argument against divorce. Against it, at least, as a remedy for the plight of the central characters in the play—Lilyan Tashman and Irving Pichel. Charles Rogers, Sheets Gallagher, William Boyd, Peggy Shannon, and Wynne Gibson complete the cast. The other feature picture is “Compromised, featuring Ben Lyon and Rose Hobart, is a modern version of the immortal Cinderella story. KING EDWARD THEATRE The double-feature programme which will be shown at the King Edward Theatre to-night includes “The Costello Case” and “Sea Legs.” A large cast of prominent players is seen in the featured roles of the former production. _ Tom Moore, cast as a shrewd, genial ppliceman. is the prime mover in the solution of a

f baffling murder mystery around which the plot revolves. Lhla Lane appears iu i the role of Mollie, and playing opposite her as the juvenile leading man is Russell Hardie, a recent recruit from the New York stage. Others in the cast are Wheeler Oakman, as Mile-Away-Harry; Roscoe Earns as a newspaper reporter, and William Davidson as Police-captain Saunders. As a sailor, shanghaied into a foreign navy as a substitute for a lazy millionaire, Jack Oakie has many irksome duties to perform in ‘Sea .Legs, under the jovial supervision of Eugene Pallette. Harry Green, the author of all his misfortunes, is the bane_ of Oakie s existence, until his attention is attracted and his mind distracted by a dozen of the captain’s beaiitiful daughters, with Lillian Roth as the chief distractor.