CIVIC THEATRE

Otaki Mail, 22 December 1939, Page 2

CIVIC THEATRE

TO-NIGHT AND TO-MORROW "ANGELS WITH DERTY FACES" It is hardly necessary here to sit down and enumerate the amazing parade of gangster picture successes turned out by Warner Bros. That this company knows where it’s going with this sort of stuff goes without saying, and “Angels With Dirty Faces,’’ which shows to-night at the Civic Theatre, is no exception. Starring James Cagney and Fat O’Brien, who grow up in the film from a pair of guttersnipes, the former to a big-sliot gangster, the latter to a priest, this picture hits squarely and hard with both bands. In an hour and a-half of thrilling cinema fare, Wellington theatre audiences received an emotion workout which left them with the feeling that in “Angels With Dirty Faces" they had seen something. Here actually is a work of which Warner Bros., Michael Curtiz, the director, John Wexley and Warren Duff, the (waiters (from Rowland Brown’s story) may well be proud. One hesitates to say whether it's the story itself, the powerfully human message it carries, or the amazing performance by the actors which is outstanding. At any rate, “Angels With Dirty Faces’’ seems destined for a mass attention and a successful run at the Civic Theatre. MONDAY—CHRISTMAS NIGHT “LUCKY NIGHT" A scintillating new comedy team comes to the Civic Theatre next Monday (Christmas night), in “Lucky Night," in which Myrna Loy and Robert Taylor make their first appearance together before the cameras. It was a lucky thought on the part of M-G-M to take the romantic" Taylor and team him with the joyous and irrepressible Miss Loy. Taylor demonstrates a flair for comedy as authentic and virile as hs has displayed in drama. Miss Loy is even more beautiful and stunning than we have seen her in previous pictures, for the producers have beerf lavish with their budget in gowning her. TUESDAY—BOXING NIGHT “STAND UP AND FIGHT” The Western comes into its own in a brand new locale in “Stand Up and Fight,” with Wallace Beery and Robert Taylor teamed for the first time as protagonists of a new type of outdoor action drama which bids fair to set a precedent in film cycles. The picture shows on Tuesday at the Civic Theatre anfl presents to filmgoers western Maryland in the ISoO's, with the bitter struggle between the railroad and stage coach lines forming the theme of a stirring story which combines all the elements of the best of the alwayspopular Westerns with an authentic historical background. Moving at breathless pace, with hand-to-hand battles, gun fights, waggon wrecks, gaol dynamitings and saloon brawls studding the action, “Stand Up and Fight” leads us to the vigorous connotation of its title. Beery and Taylor are in fine fettle, Beery typical in u made-to-order role as the hard-boiled manager of the stage coach line, and Taylor combining the romantic and the two-fisted. •WEDNESDAY—“KEEP SMILING” Grade Fields sings seven songs in her latest 20th Century film, “Keep Smiling,” ranging from the broad comedy number “Mrs. Binns’ Twins,” calculated to be as popular as “Walter,” to Fred Weatherley’s two popular classics, “The Holy City” and “May Morning.” Monty Banks directed “Keep Smiling,” which screens next Wedges-, day at the Civic Theatre.