AMUSEMENTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22719, 4 November 1935, Page 18

AMUSEMENTS

STATE THEATRE The popularity of “ Roberta,” which is at present being screened at the State Theatre, shows no signs of waning, although the picture is now in its third week. The talents of three stars, said to be most ideally suited to musical comedy, are combined in this picture. They are Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, and Ginger Rogers. With Miss Dunne singing, Astaire and Miss Rogers dancing, and a bevy of beautiful girls displaying the latest in feminine style creations, the film moves swiftly and tunefully through a most intriguing story. An American football player falls heir to a fashionable Paris gown salon. The hero and his band leader pal get the world of fashion agog during the course of their hectic adventures. Irene Dunne’s role is that of a Russian princess who is the fashion expert of the glamorous “ Roberta ” establishment, and hers is the chief heart interest of the film, as the romance centres around her and the new owner of the salon. Among the musical highlights of the picture “ The Pipe Organ Number,” “Let’s Begin,” “Yesterday,’ “ I’ll Be Hard to Handle,” “ Lovely to Look At,” “ Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” “ Russian Refrain,” and “ Touch of Your Hand." Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the two dancing stars, almost talk with their feet in some of the numbers. One of their feature dances, done to the haunting melody of “ Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” could almost be described as a poem in motion. Mies Dunne’s voice is heard at its best. Playing the romantic lead opposite Irene Dunne in the role of the football hero is Randolph Scott. There is a wide range of supporting attractions. The box plans are at the theatre and Begg’e. OCTAGON THEATRE The film version of Alexandre Dumas’s immortal story, “ The Count of Monte Cristo,” is now enjoying a return season at the Octagon Theatre. The film is good from all standards, and something of the atmosphere that Dumas instilled into his story is evident throughout the production. The success of the picture is largely due to the clever acting of Robert Donat and Elissa Landi, who play the parts of Edmond Dantes and Mercedes. The story itself is gripping in the extreme, and is enhanced in this fine production. Edmond Dantes, an unwitting. victim of a plot against the King of France, is sentenced to solitary confinement in the prison at Chateau d’lf by a rival in the affection of his sweetheart, Mercedes. There are three concerned in his unfair condemnation — Mondego, De Villcfort, and Danglars. Dantes endures terrible privations in the dungeon, remaining there for 20 years. The prison scenes are full of great sadness, and the meeting between Dantes and another prisoner, Abbe Faria, touched the sympathy of many in the audience. Together they plan to escape, and spend years laboriously chipping away stone to make a tunnel down to the sea. The Abbe dies, but leaves in Dantes hands a plan to immense wealth on the island of Monte Cristo. Escaping by daring methods, Dantes discovers the wealth and sets about wrecking the lives of those who secured his banishment. The denouement is subtly contrived, and each victim falls to his plans of revenge. The unexpected creeps in, however, and is only solved after many difficulties. There is an entertaining supporting programme. The box plans are at the theatre, M'Cracken and Walls’s, and Begg’s. STRAND THEATRE The principal attraction at the Strand Theatre this week is “ M'Fadden’s Flats,” an uproarious comedy which has already delighted several large audiences. The central figure ig a rollicking, quarrelsome, but kindly Irishman, played by Walter Kelly. He revels in his part of Dan M‘Fadden, a building contractor, a complete success in his business to his own knowledge, until late in the story, but not, of course, too late, he finds that his apparent prosperity has its foundation in the generous heart of his dearest enemy, Jock M’Tavish. It is when the influence of a "finishing school,” with all its social implications, becomes noticeable in the story that Betty Furness is given her most arduous task, and she emerges from it creditably. The reactions of a yopng girl on returning from an atmosphere typified by vaulted ceilings and dinner at 8 to her own humble home is very well done. Contrasting environments that transfer one from smart race tracks to the thrill of a tuna-fishing expedition and from the spotlessly-groomed decks of a battleship to the squalor of a garbage tug, provide a background of ever-changing interest for a strange romance in the supporting film, “ Hell and High Water.” The box plaiK are at the theatre and the D.I.C. ' GRAND THEATRE The double-feature programme at the Grand Theatre this week is comprised of the films “The Daring Young Man” and “ Oh! Daddy.” In the former Lames Dunn and Mae Clark are featured in a bright and breezy story of New York newspaper life. Dunn is cast as the star reporter of the Ledger, who is sent to write an account of the happenings inside a gaol about which there have been some curious stories. In order to secure the information he reaches the cells as an ordinary prisoner and is thus an unsuspected observer. What happens inside that gaol certainly merits an inquiry, and the audience is kept amused by the life led by the prisoners. How the gaol is visited by the prison commission and the reporter is unceremoniously evicted makes good entertainment. Running through the story is a romance between the reporter and a woman journalist on a rival newspaper, a role played by Mae Clark. The conclusion is, of course, a happy one. In “Oh! Daddy,” the central figure is Lord Pye of Dumhampton (pronounced Dumton), whose puritanical uncle has recruited him as a soldier in a campaign against pleasure. But Lord Pye (Leslie Henson) and his timid friend, Mr Roddy (Robertson Hare) are imperfect prudes. “We must fight sin with his own weapons,” declared Lord Pye, and before they know where they are they are fighting on the enemy’s side. The plot of this farce is unimportant. There is just enough of it to provide three brilliant comedians with space in which to romp. They are Leslie Henson, whose Lord Pye is a fascinating nincompoop; Robertson Hare, as bewildered as ever amid the whirl of the gay life; and Frances Day as a cabaret singer. The transitions from one scene to another are cleverly made, and the slight, cheerful farce moves along at a consistently brisk step. The bos plans are at the theatre and Begg’s. EMPIRE THEATRE Thrilling and exciting entertainment of a most attractive kind is to be had at the Empire Theatre this week in “ The Werewolf of London,” which is one of the best screen productions of its kind. It is an eerie and grotesque type of film, and it abounds with horrors and murders. The story opens with Dr Glendon, ( an English scientist, whose whole interest in life lies in the collection of rare flowers from various parts of the earth, on a quest in Tibet for a werewolf flower, this being the only antidote to save a man from turning into a wolf at every full moon. In Tibet he finds the flower, but in attempting to procure some sped mens is bitten by a werewolf, and, according to legend, he now becomes a werewolf himself. Desperately he fights the affliction, but one day a thief enters his laboratory and steals the flower, which hafi acted as a cure for Glendon in the past. And this brilliant scientist becomes a howling wolf overnight. London is thrown into a turmoil by his activities. and the police are at a decided loss to account for the murders that have taken place. At last they suspect Dr Glendon, but the hard-headed police officials cannot take to the belief that a man can turn into a werewolf overnight and be quite sane again in the morning. So he continues to remain at large until his continued staying away from hie wife and residence arouses the interest of the detectives. One night he comes in contact with his wife, and at once sets about murdering her. Agile ; n the process, Glendon is interrupted by the arrival of Mrs Glendon’s lover. Paul Ames, and before he can do any damage he is shot. The supporting programme is a good one, and the box plans are at the theatre and the D.I.C.

ST. JAMES THEATRE Some old film favourites and a host ot new ones parade in the picture “Times Square Lady,” which is now at the St. James Theatre. Robert Taylor as the hero and Virginia Bruce as the heroine head a large cast which includes Helen Twelvetrees, Isabel Jewell, Nat Pendleton, Pinky Tomlin, Henry Kolker, and Raymond Hatton. _ The story, almost incomprehensible in its _ kaledoscopic sequences, tells of the coining to Broadway of a simple country girl, albeit a dazzling blonde, to inherit half a dozen sporting enterprises which her lately dead father had run at a handsome profit. The managers of the various. concerns, which include an ice hockey rink, a dog-racing track, a night club, and a horseracing stable, plan to trick the girl into selling her holdings to them for next to nothing by making it appear to her that with a woman as owner they cannot possibly pay. But the lowa Miss is not so simple as her racketeer opponents imagine her to be, and, with the aid of three trusty friends, a fast car, and a couple of automatic pistols, she successfully outwits the bad men to reach an appropriate climax on the deck of an outward-bound luxury liner. Only Hollywood could have produced such a picture as “ Times Square Lady.” The supporting programme .is full of good things, principal of which is the coloured cartoon, “ The Calico Dragon.” It is one of the best of its kind seen here for some months. Bad little boys who disobey their mothers can see what the fierce giant is likely to do to them in “Mama’s Little Pirates,” an exciting and amusing “ Our Gang ” comedy. “ Goofy Movies ” recalls the exaggerated melodrama of former years, and a brace of newsreels complete the programme. The box plans are at the theatre, the -D.1.C., M‘Cracken and Walls’s, and Jacobs’s. “MR DYNAMITE.” One of the most thrilling murder mystery stories of the year is claimed to be “Mr Dynamite,” starring Edmund Lowe, which will be screened at the St. James Theatre, on Friday. The story by Dashell Hannnet, who will be remembered for his “ Thin Man,” offers a neatly constructed plot, involving no fewer than three murders, and at no time is there a lapse in interest. Lowe plays the role of “ Dynamite,” .a reckless black sheep detective, who is given a police escort out of every town he enters. He is called in by private interests to solve the mysterious murder of a young boy who is shot down as he is leaving the grounds of the Casino gambling resort. While Lowe endeavours to pick up the threads of a clue around this murder, two more murders take place, to which the police refuse to give him access. How Lowe eventually gets round these difficulties makes a most absorbing picture. Lowe is said to be excellent, while Jean Dixon as his wise-cracking secretary, is also good. Miss Dixon is a product of the stage who bids fair to increase her popularity on the screen. Others in the cast are Verna Hillie, a newcomer who shows plenty of talent and personality; Victor Varconi, Esther Ralston, and Robert Gleckler. REGENT THEATRE The film version of Edgar Wallace’s famous story, “Sanders of the River,” is attracting widespread interest at the Regent Theatre, where it is now being screened. While the film has a deep appeal, as entertaining in its superb acting and entrancing musical aspects, it is a cameo of British colonising history, for it reveals with striking effect the secret of British power that has moulded heathen and cannibalistic peoples to the tenets of civilisation. “ Sanders of the River” contradicts a popular assumption that the British flag has been hoisted over so much of the earth by means of military force and punitive expeditions, for while the fearless, head-hunting tribes of Darkest Africa were completely subjugated, the fundamental influences were unyielding authority that created an awesome respect in the native psychology, and a firmness that could not be tampered with at any price, for the lives of a few daring whites were the price of weakening, judiciously and skilfully tempered with a high appreciation of justice and an admixture of mercy. Leslie Banks vas called upon to impersonate these i ttributes, and he accomplished this complicated task with wonderful success. With him was Paul Robeson the personification of the native mind, who registered the favourable native reaction to the will of the civilieer and coloniser, and he too reached heights of acting that left one spellbound. His voice has all the weird appeal and power of a dominating personality, homogeneous to the system of life that ' haunts the jungle races, and carries fear and inherent respect in its train. The production has been created in the very heart of the jungle, and there has been no problem for the directors to create a mice en scene suitable to the film, for they have gone to natural surroundings. “Sanders of the River ” lifts the veil of mystery that has surrounded the life, customs and beliefs of people who have hitherto dwelt in impenetrable darkness. The fearsome warring tribes, the terrifying dances of death, and above all the tragic mystery of the drums that stirs to maniacal fervour the native bloodlust by the beating of the skins of enemies stretched over hollowed limbs of trees, carry at once a lesson and an example. It is a never-to-be-forgotten film, the highest tribute to the intrepidity of British officialdom, and behind that a triumph of British production. The supporting numbers on the programme are all of a high standard. The box plans are at the D.I.C. and the theatre. MAYFAIR THEATRE Plenty of action and a good sprinkling of humour are provided in “ Broadway Bill,” the new attraction at the Mayfair Theatre, which features the carefree and ever-popular Warner Baxter. “ Broadway Bill ” is a story of the turf, but there are so many new and bright features about it that the usual development to the final fortune-winning gallop retains the interest and excites the imagination to a much greater extent than might be expected. In this, his latest effort, Warner Baxter is seen as a reckless, lovable racehorse owner, who finds the life of the course more interesting than managing his father-in-law’s box factory, and who deserts the more mundane business for the chances of the turf. He has opposite him Myrna Loy, one of the most talented and charming actresses seen in recent times, in a part which suits her admirably. Both of them have taken “ Broadway Bill ” lightly, in the way it was intended to be taken, and their teamwork has made the film most enjoyable. Chester Morris and Virginia Bruce are featured in “ Society, Doctor,” the supporting feature. Said by some critics to be one of the best pictures of the year, “ Society Doctor ” has been favourably commented upon wherever it has been shown, and there is no doubt that the reception given it on Saturday was well deserved.