AMUSEMENTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22808, 18 February 1936, Page 18

AMUSEMENTS

OCTAGON THEATRE A highly attractive programme is at present being shown at the Octagon '.theatre. • The two -films are "Evergreen," starring Jessie Matthews, aud " The Phantom Light," featuring Gordon Harker, Binnie Hale and Donald Ualthrop. The first film is a delightful romance with an unusual theme, it tells how a girl, in an endeavour to win stage fame, impersonates her mother, a favourite of the previous generation. The masquerade is discovered and trouble follows, but all ends happily. The chief attraction in the story is the fascinating singing and dancing of Jessie Matthews. Sonnie Hale is responsible for a lame portion of the comedy, and others in the cast are Betty Balfour and Barry Mackay. " The Phantom ' Light " is an exciting drama of wrecking activities on the Welsh coast. "Gordon Harker, tho Cockney comedian, is cast as the lighthouse keeper who eventually manages to unmask the plotters. Thrills and laughs abound throughout the production. The box plans are at the theatre, Begg's and M'Cracken and Walls's. GRAND THEATRE " She," a fine adaptation of H. Rider Haggard's well-known fiction masterpiece, will be screened for the last time at the Grand Theatre to-day. Naturally, the film is a spectacular production, and the difficulties which are easily apparent in the making of such a film have been triumphantly overcome. The story tells how a young scientist sets off for the hidden kingdom of Kor, which his ancestors are supposed to have visited 500 years before. Eventually, with his companions, he penetrates the region and finds there the mysterious ruler " She," a beautiful woman who has mastered the secret of achieving eternal youth. She has been waiting for the reappearance of her dead lover, the scientist's forefather, and the young man is bewildered by his reception. There is a spate of thrilling adventure, which rises to a strange climax. The part of She is played by Helen Gahagan, and others in the cast are Nigel Bruce and Randolph Scott. " Spring Tonic," a comedy featuring Zasu Pitts, is also screened. The box plans are at the theatre and Begg's.

double-featured programme. First ou.the legitimate stage and later on the silent screen, the success achieved by Betty Balfour in her delightful play, " Squibs," is still a household word throughout the British Isles. Now this happy-go-lucky story of a Cockney flower girls romance has been revived as a talkie, and will open a Dunedin season at the Grand Theatre to-morrow. 'An exceptionally strong cast of players is headed by the charming Miss Balfour herself, Stanley Holloway (last seen in "D'ye Ken .John Peel" and "In Town To-night"), and Gordon Harker. With tuneful songs and music and also spectacular dance ensembles, " Squibs" is said to possess all th.' ingredients that go to make the brightest of entertainments. EMPIRE THEATRE A gay romantic comedy of modern society is " No More Ladies," the Metro-(loldwyn-Mayer film which is at present being shown at the Empire Theatre. Joan Crawford. Robert Montgomery, and l<Vanebot Tone have the leading roles, while Charles Ruggles and Edna May Oliver are also prominently cast. Misa Crawford in the role of Marcia is shown at the opening very much in doubt, but likely to be susceptible to the advances of the unstable Sheridan, the young man about town, the part which is taken by Robert Montgomery. They are quite sure that marriage between them would be a tragic and utter failure and just to nonvince each other how right they are.they decided to wed. Sheridan and Marcia get on together in quite a satisfactory way for a newly-wed couple, but the first hint of trouble comes when Marcia's mother sees him at a night club with another woman. Sheridan also makes a bad break when he stay 3 away from home for a night, and when he returns a plea for forgiveness fails completely. Marcia plans a novel revenge. She arranges a bouse party at their Long Island home and invites all her previous ladv friends, including the lady of the night dub, who is specially engaged for the occasion as an entertainer. The arrival of the lady guests is extremely embarrassing for Sheridan, but he survives ths ordeal and greets them all with a show of more than average cordiality. Late in the evening Marcia leaves tor a night club with one of the guests, and she returns in the morning to find a furious husband. A very stormy domestic scene seems a distinct possibility, but Marcia breaks down, confesses that it was just a plot and that she only wanted to make her husband jealous and love her. This was the happy ending of it all to Sheridan's philandering and his wife's ruse, but on the way there is a wealth of intriguing situations and hilarious moments. There is a good supporting programme. The box plans are at the theatre and the D.I.C. "THE RAVEN." Was Edgar Allan Poe a mental derelict? The great American poet has supplied the topic of discussion for many debates in the last century, due to his super-imaginative writing. There are those who claim Poe was perfectly normal in his own way. but that he lived in a world apart. There are others who do not share this belief in his normality, maintaining that his fictitious characters were but a reflection of himself. Poe's characters it is pointed out, are complex and difficult; self-willed. self : indulgent, easily swayed by moods. Poe himself was like that; a dreamer whose imagination dwelt constantly in the mystic and horrible. But his mind was brilliant and acute. The themes of his poems were few. Man's loneliness, the hoplessness of struggle. and remorse for a wrecked life constituted the basis of his writings. His stories were invariably weird and filled with horrors. He emphasised the power of fear on a sensitive soul and his analysis of morbid and tortured souls was unsurpassed. His speculation hovered around the improbable and the horrible, but his originality and literary craftsmanship never have been questioned. " The Raven," his greatest imaginative effort, has been made into a motion picture by Universal and comes to the Empire Theatre on Friday. Poe wrote " The Raven" at a time when his wife was suffering untold pain and torture from an illness of which she ultimately died. It is this suffering and torture that supplied the theme for the picture with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi in the starring roles. STRAND THEATRE Two pictures of widely different types but equally entertaining were selected for this week's programme at the Strand Theatre. They are " Colonel Blood," an exciting historical drama which has been well received wherever it has been shown, and "Uncertain Lady," a witty modern comedy-drama, either of which would in itself constitute a first-class programme. " Colonel Blood " unfolds the true-to-life story of an Irish adventurer who w,ent to London entirely unknown in the reignof Charles 11, and by his assurance, daring and impudence became a close friend of the Merrie Monarch. One of the outstanding features of the film is that it is played throughout in naturalistic manner, and the dialogue reproduces exactly the life of the people of the seventeenth century. Frank Cellier has the leading role, and playing with him are Anne Grey, Mary LawsOn, and Allan Jeayes. Featured in "Uncertain Lady" are Genevieve Tobin and Edward Everett Horton, who are supported by some first-class players. The supports are good, and the box plans are at the D.I.C. and the theatre. STATE THEATRE Gay English comedy is seen at its best in "Stormy Weather," which will conclude its season at the State Theatre to'day. Adapted from the hilarious stage play of the same name, " Stormy Weather " is one of Ben Travers's brightest efforts, and as can easily be imagined it provides plenty of scope for that inimitable pair, Ralph Lynn and Tom Wails, one of the most popular combinations of comedians ever seen on the screen, and a pair which never tires. Playing opposite to them is the amusing Yvonne Arnaud, with her attractive broken accent and drol style, while othera

in the east are Robertson Hare, Stella Moya and Gordon James. There is a good programme of supporting features, and the box plans are at the theatre and Bogg's. ;'•* CURLY TOP." Shirley Temple seems to have no limit to her resources for winning and holding audiences. In one picture she dances, in another she sings; sometimes she is -pathetic, and often she is amusing. In " Curly Top," her latest film, which opens at the State Theatre to-morrow, she is seen in a new role when she plays the part of a matchmaker. In this film, a charming story, of a little girl who captures the heart of a lonely bachelor and makes both their dreams come true, Shirley has two new songs to sing, and several new and intricate dance numbers to perform. In this Fox Film comedy-drama John Boles is cast 4 as a bachelor who adopts Shirley and her big sister, Rochelle Hudson. His generosity takes them from the drab and dreary atmosphere of an orphanage to the sunny summer surroundings of a palatial home .in Southampton. There the romance of Boles and Rochelle Hudson flourishes under the childish guidance of little Shirley, who sings, dances, and laughs her way into their hearts. REGENT THEATRE Sensitive and restrained acting and discrimination of direction all find a place in the United Artists' release, " The Dark Angel," which is at present being screened at the Regent Theatre. Naturally one expects such a heralded picture to be out of the path of dramatic productions emanating from the studios to-day. From tne start of the film it seems that the principals, and even the lesser players, are out to do or die, for the pens of the overseas critics have raced continually in 6uch a frenzy of enthusiasm for "The Dark Angel" that the average filmgoer has come to expect the perfect picture. It need not be said that the perfect picture has, as yet, not been produced, but at the same time and in the same breath, " The . Dark Angel " is the nearest approach that has been shown in Dunedhr for some considerable time. Of the, persons in the leads, little except that they are Merle Oberon and Fredric March need be said. It can be assumed that they give superlative performances. MarcE is ever the virile, quick-thinking, yet impetuous lover, and in this film, with a tinge of war sorrow, he gives more than most actors in the same category. Merle Oberon plays to a standerd tar removed from the exotic roles she previously had. Herbert' Marshall also gives a splendid characterisation. The story has: been' brilliantly directed by Sidney Franklin, who maintains the film on'a level remote from mere sentimentality. The photography throughout, and particularly that; of the English countryside, is excellent. There is an interesting supporting' programme, including a Walt Disney coloured cartoon, " Mickey's Garden," and a Regent Newsreel. The box plana are at the theatre and the D.1.C.. • " THE LAST OUTPOST." "The Last Outpost," in which. Claude Rains, Oary Grant, Gertrude Michael, Colin Tapiey and Kathleen Burke head the cast, will be screened at the Regent Theatre on Friday. Reminiscent in treatment and significance of "Lives of a Bengal Lancer," but with a distinctly individual appeal, "The Last. Outpost " tells a strangely intriguing story of the relentless warfare that the t Turks waged .in Kurdistan in their endeavour to. strike at India. Into this seething field of battle comes Gary Grant, captain of a British armoured car division. Captured by a band of Kurdish cavalry, lie is rescued by Claude Rains, a British intelligence who refuses to reveal his identity. The two form a strange friendship, and together, they save an entire Armenian Balkan village from massacre by taking men, women and children across a swollen river to the Mesopotamia Mountains, at the same time averting a surprise attack on the British Army stationed there. Gripping drama, fastr moying action, romantic interludes following each other in rapid succession, in this photoplay of the friendship of two men, disrupted by their love for the same woman, and complicated by the* common mission as soldiers in the sun-scorched deserts and jungles of Arabia, are all said to make "The Last Outpost" a noteworthy achievement. Gertrude Michael, a . young actress who has been steadily climbing to screen success, enacts the role of a hospitei nurse. ST. JAMES THEATRE' Charlotte Bronte's great story "Jan« Eyre" is the current attraction at the St. James Theatre. The translation of " Jane, Eyre" in terms of the screen in rather a daring undertaking. It is not 'the story alone that is to be considered, but the essence of Charlotte Bronte, a/id that is an' elusive factor. There are a few discrepancies between the text and the play, but the translation i s fairly accurate and literal. Its highlights are derived from Virginia Bruce, as Jane, and in a lesser degree from Colin Clive. as Rochester. An important point is that in a cast, of 26 the minor parts have all been placed in good hands, so that no jarring note creeps in. The Charlotte Bronte lover looks upon "Jane Eyre" as something holy and sacrosanct, and they will not like some of the liberties that the . director has been obliged, or fell; obliged, to take. On the whole, however, he has done better than might be expected with a very delicate task. It is a picture in which atmosphere weighs more than acting or technique, and from this of view the results are satisfactory. The glimpses of Jane's early life and _ her teaching experiences are convincing. It is, however, when she comes into contact with Rochester that Virginia Bruce gives us the real Jane—the individuality that makes the picture. The difference between her Jane and Colin. Clive's Rochester is that she is living the part and he is acting it. Because of its type the film is not likely to be a popular production—which is all the more to its credit. But those who like it will like it very much. There is an excellent supporting programme, and the box plans will be found at the theatre, at the D.1.C., at M'Cracken and Walls's, and Jacobs's. , MAYFAIR THEATRE A particularly strong cast for the type of story related is contained in, " Mark of the Vampire," which is now showing on the double-feature programme at the Mayfair Theatre. The leading roles are in the hands of such players as Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allen, Jean Hersholt and Bela Lugosi, the last of whom will be remembered for his masterly portrayal in "Dracula." The picture, which deals with the manner a murder mystery is solved, treats of the weird in an unusual manner, and the attention of the audience is riveted on the action. The acting, it need scarcely be is on a very high level. The second picture is "Flirtation Walk." a musical romance in which Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler are the featured players. "THE GAY DIVORCEE." There is nothing sad about the particular divorce transactions which form the background of the lavish musical extravaganza " The Gay Divorcee," which will commence its third local season at the May fair Theatre to-morrow. Dance, music, song, *nd mood are in keeping with divorce a la American. The story concerns Guy Holden (Fred. Astaire) and his friend, Egbert Fitzgerald (Edward E. Horton), who return to London after a gay time in Paris. Holden meets Mimi (Ginger Rogers) in unusual circumstances and falls in love with her. Although he searches London, he is unable to find her, but, unknown to him, Fitzgerald accepts his first case in arranging a divorce for Mimi. At a seaside hotel Mimi mistakes Holden for the professional co-respondent, and from then onwards the story whirls to its climax. The picture is interspersed with tuneful melodies, popular among which is the now celebrated song, "Night and Day," which is sung by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in a dancing item. Featured in the climax is the rhythmic number, "The Continental." Other song hits are "A Needle in a Haystack," "Let's Knock Knees," and " Don't Let It Bother You.