AMUSEMENTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24430, 16 October 1940, Page 10

AMUSEMENTS

THE CURRENT PROGRAMMES GRAND THEATRE With a cast that includes John Litel, Barton Mae Lane, Rochelle Hudson, and Glenn Ford, Columbia’s exciting ' Men Without Souls ” will open a season at the Grand Theatre to-day. The new film is said to be one of the best melodramas of the year and the excellent characterisations contributed by the featured players are reputed to be one of the reasons why it is not “ just another prison film." Lite! is said to be most noteworthy in this respect with his portrait of a minister who is appointed chaplain of a large modern prison He finds himself thrust into the middle of a struggle between the desperate inmates and the brutal administration, headed by the captain of the guards, Doin sides regard him with distrust, but he doggedly goes to work to improve conditions arid win the faith of the convicts. “ Hollywood , Roundup,” starring Buck Jones, is an unusual Western drama in that it is an interesting, thrilling story of Hollywood and a Hollywood cowboy actor. It gives Buck and his almost equally noted horse. Silver, refreshingly'new opportunities to entertain both adults and youngsters. Helen Twelvetrees, Grant Withers and Shemp Howard play important supporting roles. Box plans are at the theatre and Begg’s. REGENT THEATRE Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, and the rest of .the famous Hardy family are seen this week in “ Judge Hardy and Son,” which is now being shown at the Regent Theatre. This time, .instead of travelling, the family stays at home. Andy Hardy, son of the family, turns amateur detective to help his father in a law case, and becomes involved with three pretty girls who fill his life with trials and tribulations. The mother of the family becomes ill. and for a dark hour they fear they will lose her. It is in this episode that Andy inspix-es his father to a new courage In a poignant dramatic scene. Andy turns hero and pilots his sister across a raging flood to her mother's bedside. But the crisis passes, the mother recovers, Andy extricates himself from the entangling girls, and all ends well. Stone, Rooney, Cecilia Parker. Fay Holden, and Sara Haden, comprising the “ family," are all together in the picture. There is an entertaining supporting programme. The box plans are at the theatre and the D.I.C.

“ MAYERLING " The film, “ Mayerling,” coining to the Regent Theatre on Friday, is based on the French classic " Idyll’s End,” by Claude Anet, so far as the sequence of events is concerned, but the real basis is in the unhappy but beautiful love story of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and the Baroness Marie Vetsera. Set in the Vienna of 1888, the film shows Rudolf’s marriage, for reasons of State alone, to Stephanie of Belgium. Married for five years to this woman he never loved, pent in by police spies, irritated by court intrigues, Rudolf gets near to the point of rebellion. His only really human contacts are with his old servant, till he meets the beautiful seventeen-year-old Marie Vetsera by accident in an amusement park. From that time on all his thoughts and feelings are turned to her, even to the extent of seeking from the Pope an annulment of his marriage to Stephanie. STATE THEATRE ” Sailor's Lady,” a fine comedy with Nancy Kelly and Jon Hall, is being screened at the Slate Theatre. The navy is the background for this 20th CenturyFox picture. Smart, full of surprises, the picture moves along at a fast pace to a riotous climax when a sailor's sweetheart stows away her adopted baby on the flagship. Nancy Kelly, one of Hollywood’s most versatile young stars, has a fine comedy part in “ Sailor’s Lady.” Opposite her is Jon Hall, who plays the role of a sailor engaged to marry Nancy. A fine supporting cast includes Joan Davis, Mary Nash, Larry Crabbe, and “ Skipper,” the sea-going baby. The box plans are at the theatre and Begg’s. “ LITTLE OLD NEW YORK ” “ Little Old New York,” the Twentieth Century-Fox picture, will open a season on Friday at the State Theatre, with Alice Faye, Fred Mac Murray, Richard Greene and Brenda Joyce sharing top roles. A robust, romantic drama of the good old days when the Astors and tire

Roosevelts were just starting oh' their way, “ Little Old New York " tells vividly the story of a fiery belle of the waterfront who fought for the love of handsome Robert Fulton, while the whole boisterous little old town cheered her on. Andy Devine.' Henry Stephenson and Fritz Feld are also prominently featured in the cast. .Raymond Griffith was associate producer. I _ EMPIRE THEATRE Featuring Douglas Fairbanks, jum, and Joan Bennett in the leading roles. Green Hell ’! forms the principal attraction on this week’s bill at the Empire Theatre. Young Fairbanks comes through with an intensely sympathetic, restrained, and yet forceful characterisation of the womanhating bachelor who battles with himself to keep from falling ill love at the same time he is battling the jungle to keep alive, Joan Bennett has an acting part worthy of her great acting heritage, and she more than lives up to her role. Alan Hale is a kindly, middle-aged archaeologist, and John Howard is a young, happy-go-lucky chap. George Sanders is an English urbane man of the world, while George Bancroft is a big, bluff cowboy who. likes to sing. Vincent Price is a brooding, aloof man, and Gene Garrack is an enthusiastic young fellow who is plainly on his first adventure. James Whale has done an excellent job of directing, achieving a maximum of suspense and action from Frances Marion’s powerful story, the first to be produced by Harry Edington’s Famous Productions for Universal release. The box plans are at the theatre and the D.I.C. “THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS” H. G. Wells’s idea of invisibility is not entirely fantastic. When you consider that as our bodies are made up of different tiny cells, treated chemically these ceils could be made to appear transparent, and if transparency was increased sufficiently they would become invisible. Therefore, could not a whole human body be treated in this manner? Just imagine what one would do had one the power to become invisible. Regaining one s normal appearance would be the difficulty—and such is the plight of Vincent Price in “ The Invisible Man Returns,” the Empire Theatre’s coming attraction. Sentenced to be executed for a murder he did not commit, he obtains a potent drug which makes him Invisible and also insane and in this manner he escapes. STRAND THEATRE ■•You’re not so Tough,” which is at present being shown at the Strand Theatre, is another story of the Dead End Kids, this time set among the fruit-growing districts of California. Here the young boys are seen as fruitpickers, and their leader, after trying to dupe an old Italian woman into thinking he is her long-lost son, is treated with such kindness that he suffers a change of heart and uses fils little band to outwit the unscrupulous members ot the Growers’ Association, who have embarked upon a campaign of exploitation. The second feature is “ The Kid from Kokomo,” in which the racketeering which apparently surrounds professional boxing in America Is exposed. Wayne Morris and May Robson are the principal players. The box plans are at the theatre and the D.I.C. “ HOT STEEL” Romance blends with stirring dramatic scenes in the Universal film “ Hot Steel.” which stars Richard Arlen and Andy Devine and will open a season at the Strand Theatre on Friday. Proving itself one of the most impressive productions In which these two favourites have ycl appeared, the story is told in and around a giant steel mill where the stars have roles of furnacemen. Martha Raye and Charlie Buggies romp their way through the comedy which will be in support. If Is “ The Farmer’s Daughter,” and tells of the difficulties of film producing while on " location.” st. James~theatre The most recently produced George Formby picture, ” Come on, George,” is providing excellent entertainment at the St. James Theatre, It tells of the hilarious adventures of George when he is appointed to look after a horse with the formidable name of “ Maneater.” The horse, however, belles its reputation and under the training of Formby and his assistants it does some remarkable things. Several new songs, which are well up to form, are introduced. The associate feature is “ Colorado Sunset," starring the popular Gepe Autry. There is the customary mixture of melody, melees and excitement. The box plans are at the theatre, the D.I.C. and Jacobs’.

“BAB LITTLE ANGEL” An orphans’ life can be as difficult in 1885 as in any yeuou, and patsy.-, t Virginia Weidlerj, toe iiUiti nerome of “Bad j_,ittie Angel,” vvn.cn win ue snown at the St. James Tneo.re on Friday, is an orphan vvxixi prooxems. Vvneu xvns Per Kins (raizaoeth Patterson) o»es, Pacsy is re aimed to, the orphanage uy ivxr xhttie lArUiur AylesWortn;, vvno sevs she xs a jinx because bad xuck has come to tliree persons who had adopted her. Taugnt py Mrs Perkins to xoox to the Joioxe for guidance, Patsy opens the oooic at random and reacts, v E’xee to With Rags, ner ciog, she runs away xrom home to Egypt, incw Jersey, there she meets Tommy Wilks turene Reynolds), son of "Ked” Wilks (Henry Huh), town ururncard, who takes her to his ooss, Jim Creighton (lan Hunter), editor ox the paper, creignton taxes Patsy to ins wxte iLo.s Wilson), and, although they already have two children, tney give her a home, trie support, " Fast company,'’ concerns the efforts of an ultru-inouern marrxeu couple, played hy Melvyn Douglas and Florence Rice, to break up the activities of an international stolen rare book gang. They combine mai’ried love and a business career by tracking down the suspects- to a murder. OCTAGON THEATRE Highly entertaining comedy, with witty dialogue and piquant situations, is provided in “My Favourite Wife, which heads the current programme at the Octagon Theatre. That accomplished comedy team, Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, have the principal roles in a diverting tale ot a man who marries for the second time, only to find that his first wife, whom he thought to be dead, has returned to life via a desert island on which she had been shipwrecked for seven years* The young man cannot nerve himself to the task ot telling his new wife that their marriage must cease before it has begun, and the lady is driven to a state of bewilderment by her husband’s strange attitude until at last the truth leaks out. Thei'e are several exceedingly amusing sequences, culminating in an hilarious climax. The box oians are at the theatre and at Begg s. “ TOM BROWN’S SCHOOL DAYS ” The widely-read story of schoolboy life, “ Tom Brown’s School Days,” the next attraction for the Octagon Theatre, comes to the screen as an unusual and memorable entertainment. Produced by Gene Towne and Graham Baker for RKO Radio, this vivid picturisation of the famous Thomas Hughes book records the adventurous development of Tom Brown and his chums, plus - the remarkable career of Dr Thomas Arnold, Rugby’s historic headmaster, who Introduced revolutionary scholastic methods which startled the world. Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Freddie Bartholomew, Jimmy • Lydon, Josephine Hutchinson, and Billy Halop fill the principal featured roles. MAYFAIR THEATRE Paul Muni has the role that made him in " Scarface." which wlil head the new bill coming to the Mayfair Theatre today. This thrilling drama is based on the activities of gangsters. Real star of " Little Accident,” which features Flovence Rlcc and Hugh v Hcrbert, is “Baby Sandy,” who steals the picture completely. It is an amusing comedy. Box plans are at the theatre and the D.I.C.