AMUSEMENTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23884, 11 August 1939, Page 6

AMUSEMENTS

THE NEW PROGRAMMES STATE THEATRE British troops are seen in action in the film “Gunga Din," which is now in its second week at the State Theatre. Taken from the famous poem by Rudyard Kipling, the picture has as its central character the humble watercarrier Gunga Din, who wants to be a soldier and dies like one. and unfolds on the North-West Frontier of India, After a long period when all thought it was finally destroyed, the Thugee rises again and the story of its suppression makes fine entertainment. Victor McLaglen, Cary Grant and Douglas Fairbanks jun., appear as three roistering sergeants, whose daring exploits provide the main theme of adventure* The feminine lead in the production is taken by Joan Fontaine, as the girl whose romance with Douglas Fairbanks threatens to break up the comradeship. A Donald Duck cartoon is on the supporting programme. The box plans are at the theatre and Bcgg’s. ST. JAMES THEATRE The ambitions, struggles, disappointments and joys of a group of young people who form a caste by themselves, whose thoughts and behaviour differ widely from other strata in the social structure, are revealed in “ Dramatic School,” which will be screened to-day at the St. James Theatre. The new picture brings to the screen two brilliant acting portrayals. one offered by Luise Rayner as the poor student who works in a factory at night in order to earn her tuition, and the other by Paulette Goddard, as a fashionable student of the school. “ Dramatic School ” is the story of Louise Mauban, a drama pupil who lives in a world of dreams. She even creates an imaginary lover whose existence her classmates doubt. They plan to expose her to place her face to face with the handsome young Marquis whom she boasts as her lover But the Marquis falls in love with her Then calamity falls upon Louise She is threatened with expulsion from school and the Marquis abandons her Faced with defeat on all sides. Louise awakens to find herself nominated by her class to play the leading role In the year’s most important play Others in a finely balanced cast include Alan Marshall, Lana Turner, Genevieve Tobin, Anthony Allan, Henry Stephenson and Gale Sondergard. “ While Parents Sleep ” will be the second feature. Certainly the mood of this picture is not all English. A new actress. Jean Gillie, suits the film perfectly. The story is a gentle satire on the lighter side of the class distinction ’’ question. The home of an upper middle-class English family Is the scene of the action. Two sons of the family are very different types. One is a conscientiops soldier, who never gets drunk; and the other is a sailor who always gets drunk and is in every way a merry fellow. These two. with their different tastes start the trouble for their family. The soldier takes home a noted society woman, and the sailor a shop girl. Excellent support is given Jean Gillie by a strong cast, which includes Mackenzie Ward, Athol Stewart, Ellis Jeffries and David Burnaby. The box plans are at the theatre, the D.1.C.. and Jacobs’s. REGENT THEATRE A tender, poignant love story—-one of the greatest ever to reach the screen —is told in the Paramount drama, “ Invitation to Happiness,” which will open at the Regent Theatre to-day. Lovely Irene Dunne, one of the screen’s mpst versatile actresses, is co-starred with Fred Mac Murray, one of Hollywood’s best-liked young leading men. in this splendid production. It is a story of great emotional conflict, depicting the problems of a young couple who get married despite the fact that their upbringing and environment have been radically different. They are happy for a while, but the lure of the boxing ring is too much for the husband He is determined to become champion, and leaves his bride while he barnstorms around the fight circuit. During one of his absences a son is born to the couple. As the boy grows up he comes to hate his father, knowing his mother is lonely without him Finally the parents are divorced. The judge awards the father trial custody of the boy for a period of six months, after which time the boy must decide whether he wants to stay with his father. The efforts of the fighter to overcome his son’s hate and to reunite the family bring the drama to a tense and beautiful emotional climax. Irene Dunne is cast as a society girl. Fred Mac Murray as a fighter. Billy Cook plays the role of the son, and the supporting cast also includes Charlie Ruggles, William Collier, sen., and Marion Martin. The supporting programme is of a high standard. The box plans are at the D.I.C. and the theatre. STRAND THEATRE Timeliness has been the watchword of the Warner studio ever since it first set a new fashion in screen entertainment with “ Public Enemy ’’ and “ Little Caesar,” and the Warner Bros.-Cosmopolitan production entitled “Racket Busters,” which opens to-day at the Strand Theatre, carries on that tradition of live pictures about live topics. Since one great essential of this type of picture is that it seems a veritable factual document, “ Racket Busters ’’ was cast with an eye mainly to the convincingness of its characters, and the studio executives are sure they did a fine job when they put Humphrey George Brent, Gloria Dickson, Allen Jenkins and Walter Abel in the leading roles. While the city in which the plot of “ Racket Busters ” unfolds is obviously New York, the film treats of a condition which is common to virtually every large American city. It depicts the ruthless methods employed by a sinister racketeer played by Bogart, to exact tribute from the trucking business of a great city. It tells of the efforts of a special prosecutor, played by Abel, to end the racket. But mainly it tells of the heroic fight against the mobsters put up by a small number of truckmen and now eventually this fight is successful when Brent, first a leader in the fight and then forced by domestic troubles to make peace with the racketeers takes up the battle again when the racketeers endeavour to cut off the whole city’s food supplies. Columbia’s “Girls’ School,” with an all-star cast supported by a bevy of talented young girls of high school age. is the associate attraction. Anne Shirley, Ralph Bellamy, Nan Grey Doris Kenyon, Gloria Holden, Margaret Tallichet and Heather Thatcher are among the principals. “ Girls’ School ” tells what transpires at an exclusive finishing school on the day and night of the annual senior prom. The box plans are at the theatre and the D.I.C. EMPIRE THEATRE What happens when an internal war among gang leaders involves the leading citizens of an entire community is shown in Paramount’s new crime thriller, “King of Chinatown,” which will be commenced to-day at the Empire Theatre Struggling for the lordship over a big-time racket. Akim Tamiroff, Anthony Quinn, and J. Carroll Naish find out that gangland had best keep its own secrets, when Anna May Wong, a hard-headed woman surgeon, and daughter of Chinatown’s most important personage, decides to engage in a little racket busting of her own. Bad man roles are getting to be a habit with handsome Anthony Quinn, who has been in nearly a dozen of them during the past year Born in Mexico to the son of a princess of the ancient Aztec line, Quinn was brought to Los Angeles at an early age when the famed bandit Villa made things too hot for his father Others on the right side of the law, along with Miss Wong, are Philip Ahn the voung Chinese actor who remained in America to attend the University of California when his family returned to their native Shanghai, and Sydney