AMUSEMENTS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18378, 21 April 1934, Page 3

AMUSEMENTS

REGENT THEATRE

MARIE DRESSLER’S HAPPY PICTURE: “HER SWEETHEART’’ Marie Dressier, favorite of millions of talkie-goers, has never had a more lovaliie role to portray than is allotted to her in “Her Sweetheart,” no.w at the Regent. As the laiLliful old servant anil equally faithful sweetheart of a painter who dies in poverty she immediately captures one’s wliule-iiparted sympathy. It is a role both dramatic and humorous, and in all the various shades of feeling she is asked t.o show Marie Dressier lives up to her already high reputation as one of the. screen s leading actresses. But though Marie Dressier is the main character, this is no one-man show. Opposite tier and hardly Jess praiseworthy, is Lionel Barrymore, in himself gooa enough to attract .capacity houses. The play concerns not Christopher Bean himself but his pictures. Ho was an artist of the school wliose fame is not acclaimed until they have lived their lives of abject poverty and gone to the grave broken men. Most of his days he lived in a little country township with Dr. Haggett and there he falls in love with Atiuy, their servant. He dies amt leaves behind him some 20 pictures, scattered around the Haggett household and looked upon by all except Abby as rubbish. But in New York the value of Christopher Beans is slowly recognised. and the few canvasses that can be found fetch very high prices. The publication of some of Bean’s letters gives a due to some art dealers, and they descend in force on the Haggett household, where the human drama is thereafter enacted. Marie Dressier as Abby gives quite the best performance of her career, and that is saying a lot. But as Abby she lias something to portray. There is comedy, plenty of it, but there is also deep feeling to lie shown. Lionel Barrymore, both as the hard-worked country doctor, and later as the schemer without a thought for Abby, also is superb. Each of the others catches the intense atmosphere of the play and does his work well.

MAJESTIC THEATRE

TWO GREAT DRAMAS If any picture was ever rated “big,” it is "Employees’ Entrance,” which heads the strong double bill now at the .Majestic. Concerned principally with executives and more important employees, “Employees’ Entrance” stages a panoramic view of the thousands engaged in securing their livelihood from an American city's largest department store, doing business by the hundred million dollars a year. It presents the romances and tragedies in the lives of the employees of a modern department store, with picturesque realism and emotional force. An excellent cast is headed by Warren William, Loretta Young, Wallace Ford, Allen Jenkins, and Alice White, the latter making her first screen appearance in two years. When Universal set themselves out to produce a super film, they do not deal in half-measures, but turn out something that gives the public a genuine thrill. They have released many great films in the past, but, great as they were, it is doubtful if they reached the standard set by “5.0.8. Iceberg.” The entire action takes place in the frozen stretches of the Arctic, whither trekked a company of bravo actors, who spent a year and a-half cut off from the world. The story concerns the fate of an expedition composed of five Inen who set out. for the Arctic to recover Valuable data lost with a previous ill-fated expedition. They get lost in the Arctic wastes, and have many terrifying adventures. They are carried by ail ice floe to a giant iceberg, on which they land. They succeed in sending out an 5.0.5., and an expert flyer starts on a rescue flight from Berlin to Greenland. The pilot engaged for the film is none other than Major Ernst Udet, one of the world’s most noted airmen. In “8.0.5. Iceberg” lie docs some amazing stunts, and gives tin* audience thrill after thrill when, flying perilously low, lie circles among the jagged icebergs. The photography in the picture is wonderful. as is also the Arctic, scenery. Those who are hard of hearing Should take advantage of the deaf phones, which are now available in the stalls.

KING’S THEATRE

NOVEL ENTERTAINMENT: “HAPPY EVER AFTER” Novel entertainment of absolute “Grade One” proportions is offered by the Gau-mont-British musical romantic comedy, “Happy Ever After,” which commenced yesterday in the King’s Theatre. Combining charm of story in novel settings with superb technique, Erich Poininer, the producer, has made a, film which will long be remembered. Set in Berlin, “ilappy Ever After” strikes a note which will most assuredly find an echoing chord in the hearts of entertainment lovers the world over. The cast is a brilliant one, consisting of Lilian Harvey, Jack liulbert, Cicely Courtneidge, and Sonnie Hale. The deft handling of fantasy and reality in this fascinating film is exceedingly clever, and this fact is impressed on the mind as the film unreels. Jack liulbert and Sonnie Hale are happily east as two pals, who earn their living as window-cleaners, and the Jilin opens with a team of window-cleaners, astride their bicycles, ladders and pails slung from their shoulders, merrily whirling their way to work. One is then introduced to ‘‘lllustrated Ida,” in other words Cicely Courtneidge, the “girl” in charge of the newspaper kiosk. After greeting Ida, the boys go cheerfully oil their way to the American Embassy, where they are due to clean the windows. There they see from their ladders a huge commissionaire endeavoring to throw out a very pretty little girl

and her dog. Our heroes go to the rescue with buckets of water and the lassie escapes on to the roof, where the friends join her. Her name is Jou-Jou (played delightfully by Lilian Harvey) and she tells them her sad story. Determined to go to Hollywood and be a film star she had left her country home on the strength of a letter purporting to be from an American producer promising her a job in Hollywood. Realising she is penniless the boys persuade her to go home with them to their country “castle,” a couple of railway coaches turned into living and sleeping quarters ! There she is very happy until both boys fall in love with her and commence hating each other. The story takes several unusual twists and right until the end the onlooker is kept wondering whether she will go to Hollywood or marry one of her cavaliers The accompanying music is excellent. ORGAN RECITAL Music-lovers are reminded of an organ recital to be given by Mr. Irvin Moore, A.U.A.M., on Anzac night, at 8 o’clock, in St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, lie will be assisted by Miss Dorothy Sharp, soprano. This recital, which is given annually on Ansae night, is to help the R.S.A. relief funds, and to that end a collection will be taken up. The general public are cordially invited to attend.