AMUSEMENTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23225, 24 June 1937, Page 20

AMUSEMENTS

EMPIRE THEATRE Theodora Lynn was apparently all that a well-brought-up young girl should be, but her home town received the shock of its uneventful life when Theodora went wild and became the most notorious woman in New York, the authoress of the year’s most daring novel, “ The Sinners.” The circumstances surrounding this state of affairs comprise the plot of “ Theodora Goes Wild,” which will be screened for the last time at the Empire Theatre today. The box plans are at the theatre and the D.I.C. "HOSE MARIE” ‘‘ Naughty Marietta ” established Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy as the screen’s most popular singing team, and now, under the magic spell of their lyrical voices, the full beauty of world-famous melodies lives triumphantly again in “ Rose Marie.” which will be commenced to-morrow at the Empire Theatre. Replete with haunting music, a tender story, magnificent photography and backgrounds, it is truly the film sensation of the year. Miss MacDonald plays the name role, an opera star who travels disguised into the wilds in searched her dissolute brother, a fugitive from justice. Nelson Eddy portrays Sergeant Bruce, as fine a “ Mountie ” as ever rode a horse. Assigned to bring the criminal to justice, there is the thrust of personal duty when these two meet and fall in love. With all its outdoor scenes made against natural backgrounds of surpassing beauty in the mountain lake country of the Sierra Nevadas, “ Rose Marie ” is a pictorial work of art. The musical numbers are brilliantly staged and brilliantly sung. One of them, the Totem Pole sequence, is peopled by more than 1000 dancers. Spectacular in its giant effects it will go on record as one of the most thrilling scenes ever brought to the screen. A strong supporting cast includes James Stewart, Reginald Owen, Allen Jones, George Regas, Robert Greig, Una O’Connor, and Lucien Littlefield. STRAND THEATRE “The Secret of Stamboul,” which is now at the’Htrand Theatre, has an exciting story of intrigue and danger in the Turkish city. Frank Vosper plays the part of the eunuch, Kazdim, whose cunning plans to bring about a revolution are defeated by a young Englishman. “The Luckiest Girl in the World” is a comedy-romance portraying the story of a rich _ man’s daughter who attempts to live in New York for a month on 150 dollars. The box plans are at the theatre and the, D.I.C. “ LADY FROM NOWHERE ” Mary Astor’s latest film, “ Lady from Nowhere,” is to be the next attraction at the Strand Theatre. .The film is a melodramatic comedy which also serves to introduce a handsome screen newcomer, Charles Quigley, a favourite of the New York stage. The story concerns Polly, a manicurist, who is witness to a gangland murder, and has to flee for her life. In the little town of Clearview she meets a young newspaper reporter, played by Charles Quigley. The gangsters trace her to the town, and Polly hides out on the farm of the boy’s grandfather. She tells him she is an heiress who has run away to escape an unpleasant marriage. “Gramp” senses a chance to make some money, and notifies the father of the real runaway heiress that ’his daughter is there. Things become thoroughly complicated when the gangsters make their, appearance on the scene. What follows is a series of uproarious events which abound in thrills and laughs. The spine-chilling melodrama of a demented murderer who lives and plots his sinister crimes in a chamber of horrors waxworks is unfolded in “Killer at Large,” which will also be screened. Mary Brian, Russell Hardie, and Betty Compson head the large cast. Briefly, the story concerns a wax expert, capable of remaining in statue-like stillness for several hours, whose maniacal desire to kill and rob involves the romantic leads in a thrilling, blood-curdling series of events. STATE THEATRE Portraying in part the story of Saccho and Vanzetti, who were executed in the United States several years ago for alleged murder, “Winterset, which is now at the State Theatre, is a dramatic and straight-dealing film. A miscarriage of justice which sends an innocent man to the electric chair forms the basis of the plot, with the dead man’s son striving later to clear his father’s name. The plans are at the theatre and Begg's. “ IT’S LOVE AGAIN ” “It’s Love Again,” which will be commenced at the State Theatre to-morrow, is Jessie Matthews s best film for Gaumont-British. Into it she has put all the verve and sparkle that characterised her former triumphs. Peter (Robert Young), a columnist on a fashionable daily newspaper, is so destitute of real news that, at the suggestion of his asinine friend, Freddie (Sonnie Hale), he creates an imaginary society woman whom he names Mrs Smythe-Smythe, and surrounds her with exotic glamour. Elaine (Jessie Matthews), a young dancer anxious to secure recognition, upsets everything by impersonating the fictitious Mrs Smythe-Smythe, whose glamorous, mysterious personality is now the talk of the town. She and Peter eventually get together, and after a series of piquant complications she finds fame, and he wins her, without either being any the worse for their outrageous escapades. This grand film, radiating all the points of rich humour, engaging romance, melodious tunes, and miraculous dancing, is a worthy setting for the world’s dancing star. REGENT THEATRE It is uncommon to see a film that makes no false concession to sentiment. “Beloved Enemy,” which is showing at the Regent Theatre, has a love story which is important to the development of the plot, but the circumstances are such that to bring this romance to a conventional conclusion would be to rob the picture of reality. The story is based on the Irish rebellion after the Great War, a grim episode in English history in which romance has little place. As the secret leader of the Irish Brian Aherne is the vortex of the turmoil. He is a carefree, daredevil lad, who risks his safety at every - turn. but. like a fox, evades the traps. Merle Oberon is the daughter of Lord Athleigh (Henry Stephenson), and arrives with her father from England who is to put down the uprising. She and Aherne are destined to meet, fail in love, and be parted. Their struggle for and against each other is intrinsically bound up with Ireland s fight for independence. The plans are at the theatre and the D.I.C. “GOD’S COUNTRY AND THE WOMAN” How life in a lumber camp and a girl of the backwoods make a man or Steve Russett, formerly the neer-do-well of the family, is the story of “God’s Country and the Woman (the latest technicolour film from the James Oliver Curwood novel), which will be commenced to-morrow at the Regent Theatre. Essentially, the story is of menial, physical, and romantic conflict. It moves at a steady, unflagging pace, splendidly combining the three necessary qualities of good kinema entertainment —tense drama, appealing romance, and mirth-provoking comedy. The part of Steve Russett is taken by George Brent, who capably fills the part of the man of fashion. He is recalled by an angry elder brother, senior partner in the Russett Timber Company, who takes him by foice to the lumber camp. Soon after arriving he goes off in an aeroplane, but is forced down near the Barton lumber camp which has a feud with the Russett company. There is no way out, as all approaches are picketed by Russett men. who do not know Steve; so he is set to work in the. timber on pain of starvation, by the beautiful red-haired Jo Barton, who has taken

charge of the camp since her father’s death, and whom Steve’s presumption has antagonised from the start. Under an assumed name he makes himself indispensiblc in the camp, and in the end turns the losing fight against Russett company in her favour by dynamiting a huge jam of logs under fire. The film’s appeal is unusual in that it is equally strong to both sexes dition not usually achieved in outdoor films, apart from comedy and pantomime. George Brent and the delightful and talented little newcomer, Beverley Roberts, are the stars with a spectacular supporting cast consisting of Robert Barrat, Alan Hale, Barton Mac Lane, Billy Bevan, Rosco Ates, El Brendel, Bert Roach, Addison Richards, Susan Fleming, and Eily Malyon. ST. JAMES THEATRE

Edgar Rice Burroughs’s romantic character. Tarzan of the apes, whose role on the screen has been so successlully interpreted by Johnny Weissmuller, appears in his third film. “Tarzan Escapes,” which is now being screened at the St. James Theatre. Maureen O'Sullivan appears in the role she has made famous as Tarzan s mate, and together they go through a series of thrilling adventures worthy of the best Tarzan traditions The mysterious country of the great bats, the herds o wild elephants, and weird native rituals are among the striking camera shots. Tarzan’s thrilling fight with a crocodile is one of the highlights of the film. The box plans are at the theatre. Jacobs’s, and the D.I.G. OCTAGON THEATRE Charlie Ruggles can usually be relied on to raise laughter, and his acting in “Mind ''our Own Business, now at the Octagon Theatre, is full of humour. Ruggles has the part of the writer of Nature notes in the town newspaper, but by juggling with his words he turns out a veiled commentary on local gossip, scandal. .Politics, and graft. Alice Brady provides the foil to Ruggles. “ The Great 0 Malley, the second feature, has Pat O Brien and Svbil Jason in the chief parts. O Bnen has the role of a policeman in New York’s East Side, among the poor. He is responsible for a man he knows being sent to prison for theft, but nevertheless he helps the mans family in their trouble and shows that he is sorry for the trouble he has caused. The plans are at the theatre and the D.I.C.

“RETURN OF SOPHIE LANG Sophie'Lang has returned .from the dead. When she finished her career as “The Notorious Sophie Lang and supposedly died, it was only to the world, being in reality in the safe harbourage of Elizabeth Patterson, who gives one of her first-rate renderings of a wealthy and witty old lady in her latest film, “Return of Sophie Lang, which will be commenced at the Octagon Theatre to-morrow. Miss Patterson is travelling to America with the famous “Krueger” diamond with her converted companion, meeting on board the news reporter, Ray Milland, with whom Sophie makes a second in a romance. Sir Guy Standing, in an outstanding performance as Sophies whilom partner in crime, is resurrected in the same capacity, but cannot now draw the girl into criminal practices. But determined on his own line, he is deft enough to get the diamond into his possession. Sophie sets her wits to work tp recover it, and in a senes or enthralling incidents she finishes one ahead of Standing. In “ Now and Forever,” the associate feature, Shirley Temple plays the daughter of Gary Cooper, an amiable, ingratiating confidence man. How his loye for the child reforms him, and at last impels him to do one brave act for her sake, furnishes the material for a human and sympathetic story. Carole Lombard has the leading feminine role. GRAND THEATRE A striking and not altogether fiattering commentary on the parole system operated by the United States Justice Department forms the theme of the story of “Don’t Turn Em Loose," the featured film on the new bill which opened its Dunedin season yesterday at the Grand Theatre. Frank to the point of brutality, this dramatic story seeks to show that, while the practice of freeing prisoners on parole may prove successful in some cases, there are instances where it merely becomes an incentive to further crime. The prisoner in this case is a thoroughly unregenerate young gangster named Bat, Hotels, whose parents fondly imagine him to be a bnlliant civil engineer, and who, when the story opens, is undergoing reformative detention in the State penitentiary. An unscrupulous lawyer so P °A the feelings of a benevolent parole board that Roberts is released under the usudl conditions, but he Is no sooner free than he drops easily into his old ways again, and a murder and a sensational robbery are only two of the methods he adopts to keep himself occupied. These crimes are committed while he is staying with his doting family, ostensibly home on leave from South America, but Nemesis, in the shape of a detective, overtakes him., and tea. prison for violation of his P aroie ; Cleverly, he breaks out for a few hours during which time he kills his betrayer The action takes an unexpectedly grim, twist when Roberts | father is appointed to the faroie Board and the most dramatic situaUon hi the film occurs. » h “d IC"d fellow comes before the board. Sturmed bv the knowledge that his son is a criminal, the father gives way to a threat that the family history will be exnosed and makes arrangement* for hh release Again the young fellow searches round for an easy way. to get some money, but on this occasion he over-reaches himself, and in an exciting climax he is shot by ms %'Z m°r must be e giverm /“"to the nart of the father, he draws a convincing character sketch that stands out as one of the best things he has ever done Others in the. cast are, James Gleason. Louise Latimer and Bettv Grable. Joan Bennett, uary Grant and George Bancroft are the leaders of the brilliant cast assembled to play “Wedding Present,”. an hilarious’comedy romance which is the sup norting picture on the programme. The plot centres around two hilarious newspaper reporters—a man and a girl—who are from day to day on the verge of being dismissed, and are lust as regularly reinstated as thJesuit of some y particularly smart niece of news-getting. Eventually the partnership is dissolved when the man fs appointed city editor, and the girl makes for New York, where she becomes engaged to a novelist. It Is only when she has gone that the editor realises he loves her, but his attempts to win her back are fruitless, until, with the aid of a gangster whom he has saved from drowning, he evolves the idea of sending her the most sensational wedding present of all time. How he does so, and what happen* as the result of his gift, bring the story to a somewhat surprising but entirely satisfactory climax. Wedding Present has been written with a light, racy touch, and m the hands of the competent cast which presents it the film provides light but thoroughly enjoyable fare. Cary Grant, whose irresponsible and hectic adventures keep the picture moving at a fast pace, is a host in himself, and Joan Bennett is very much at home in the leading female role. The. box plans are at the theatre and Begg s. MAYFAIR THEATRE The film adaptation of the wellknown novel by Jeffery Farnol, The Amateur Gentleman, is now at the Mayfair Theatre, with Douglas Fairbanks jun., in the title role. The plot is set in the time of the Prince Regent, when the aristocrats of England blossomed 'forth as the most fashionable and dashing fops of many reigns. It is into this section of people that Barnabas Barty. the educated son of an innkeeper, finds his way, and tne action and drama of the story are woven about his efforts to obtain the release of his father from prison. Elissa Landi, Gordon Harker, and Esme Percy form the supporting cast. Ed-

mund Lowe and Gloria Stuart fire the principals of “The Girl on the Front Page,” which is also showing. It is the story of a young society woman who inherits a newspaper business, and much to the disgust of the managing editor, Lowe, decides to work on the paper herself. She and Lowe have’ same quarrels over the work, but later combine to try to snare a blackmail ring which is rife in the city. The blackmailers work through a “ Thursday Club,” on which day they meet and compare notes on likely 1 victims. Even if a person cannot be connected , with any scandal the criminals often succeed in fabricating a case against him. The box plans are at the theatre sweet'shop and the D.I.C.