REGENT THEATRE NEWS

Opotiki News, Volume III, Issue 324, 22 October 1940, Page 1

REGENT THEATRE NEWS

No happier combination of stellar players has been achieved in recent months than that of Claudette Colbert and James Stewart, who are currently to be seen together on the Regent screen in “It’s a Wonderful World.” Miss Colbert at last has found a delightful successor to her Academy Award winner, “It Happened One Night.” James Stewart was never more happily cast than as her partner in some of the zaniest doings ever created for the screen.

With amusing situations tumbling over one another, and sprightly dialogue rattling off the laughs at almost machine-gun pace, the story reveals Stewart in the role of Guy Johnson, private detective, hired to keep an irresponsible, oft-married millionaire playboy out of trouble. When the. millionaire is accused of murder, Stewart becomes involved. He escapes to seek a solution of the murder and is caught in the act by Miss Colbert who plays Edwina Corday, a poetess.

Here is where rhyme and reason become hopelessly and hilariously mixed as the pair proceed to track down the real murderer. They become involved in a series of daring exploits and clever deductions, with Miss Colbert in her most scatterbrained and delightful strain and Stewart turning in one of his most engaging comedy performaees as the much-tried and hard-tested amateur sleuth to whom the poetess, with her unaccountable vagaries and unpredictable whims, is an even greater feminine mystery than the murder both are trying to solve.

The tale sweeps with unremitting energy from elaborate night club scenes to an apple orchard, from trains to yachts, from theatre to hot-dog stand, frcm auto camp to railroad trestle, motor boats and even Sing Sing prison, with hairbreadth escapes and spine-tingling murders to garnish the e.ver-delight-ful bill of dramatic fare.

A vivid, memorable presentation of a modern social problem is “in Name Only,” which opens at the Regent Theatre on Thursday with Carole Lombard, Cary- Grant and Kay Francis comprising its dramatic triangle. “In Name Only” is a sincerelytold story fashioned into an excellent entertainmet. A selfish, mercenary woman has married a wealthy young man for whom she has no love whatever. By the time he learns what his wife is really like she has finnly: entrenched herself in the affections of his unsuspecting parents. He does nothing about his marital difficulties until he meets a charming young widow and falls m love. When he asks his wife for Ins freedom she refuses, having no intention of giving up her secure position and her prospects. Out of this impasse the story

climbs to gripping dramatic heights, with splendid performances of the three principals aiding vastly in building its realism and emotional appeal. Miss Lombard’s work as the “other woman” and the portrayals of the married couple by Grant and Miss Francis are superlative, ranking among the finest of these three favourites.