AMUSEMENTS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19371, 8 July 1937, Page 3

AMUSEMENTS

RECENT THEATRE

FINAL SCREENING: COMEDYMYSTERY. "THE LONGEST NIGHT’

Love, murder, and comedy form a contrasting combination in "The Longest; Night,” which concludes at the Regent Theatre to-night. It may seem incredible that, despite the number of mystery stories on the screen an entirely novel plot is possible, but here it is. —To-morrow: “Rose Marie”— “Rose Marie,” the film all Gisborne has been impatiently awaiting, will come to the Regent Theatre to-morrow with the singing stars of “Naughty Marietta,” Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, in the leading roles. Under their magic spell the lull beauty of “The Indian Love Call,”

“Rose Marie, 1 Love You,” “Song of the Mounties” and other classics trom the Herbert Stothart-Rudolf Friml score live again. Filmed almost entirely out-of-doors, in the mountainlike country ol the Sierra Nevadas, the production is'sairl to he a pictorial sensation. Glimmering lakes, lowering peaks, dangerous passes, all the beauty of Nature “serves as background for the romantic saga of the great North-west. One of the outstanding sequences is the totem pole Indian dance, the grotesque set mounted on a sandspit extending into a broad lake. Peopled by more than a thousand dancers, lavish in costume, with music thri’lingl.v beautiful, it sets a new high note for effect photography and spectacular direction. A strong supporting cast assists Miss MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in “Rose Marie,” among them being James Slewart, as the criminal brother, Reginald Owen as the star's manager, Allan Jones, who scored so decisively in “A Night al the Opera.” George Regas. Robert Grci.fi, Una O'Connor and I.ueien Littlefield.

KING’S THEATRE “CRACK-UP”: THRILLING MELODRAMA A powerful, fast-paced, thrill-filled melodrama of daring American llyers matching wits and courage with an international spy-ring, “Crack-Up,” the Twentieth Century-Fox picture which ends to-night at the King’s Theatre, maintains its suspense right through. A giant airship is being christened by Ralph Morgan, its manufacturer, Brian Donlevy, ace flyer who will pilot it, Thomas Beck, his co-pilot, and Peter Lorre, crippled half-wit and mascot of the airfield. Donlevy, the hired tool of a spy ring, tells Beck, who idolises him. that the manufacturer for whom Helen Wood. Beck's sweetheart, is secretary, has stolen the plans of a propeller from him. Subsequent scenes build up a terrifiic and wholly unexpected climax.

—To-morrow: "Sea Devils"—

Victor McLagicn and Preston Foster have the leading roles in Sea Devils." which will be the principal film on the new programme lo start to-morrow at the King's 'lheatre. Ihe story deals with the romantic entanglements of two sailors in the coastguard licet of the United-Stales, and a number of exciting scenes aie introduced. This picture is the first to deal with the activities, of the coastguard. Their work of rescue and patrol at sea is , fully shown and against this background has been placed a lively romantic plot. Many scenes were filmed on board a culler and the whole production bears the unmistakeable stamp of authenticity. Ida Lupino supplies romantic interest and Donald Woods, Helen Flint and Gordon Jones have minor roles. MAJESTIC THEATRE LAST NIGHT OF DOUBLE BILL Two mystery dramas of outstanding merit, "Case of the Black Cat," and "Woman in Distress,” will be screened finally to-day at the Majestic Theatre. —“Mad Holiday” and “Crimson Circle” To-morrow — While a Chinese dragon writhes its way across the silage, blood drips from a theatre box in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and thus murder finds its unique setting in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s mystery thriller, "Mad Holiday,” which opens at the Majestic Theatre to-morrow, with Edmund Lowe and Elissa Landi in the leading roles. The “movie within a movie angle of the picture centres upon Edmund Lowe appearing as a Hollywood star who, sick at being typed in mystery parts, walks off the set and takes the fateful coastwise steamer voyage. Miss Landi, playing the author of the picture out of which he has "walked,” also embarks on the steamer, determined to bring the actor back at any cost, even to devising a make-believe murder. When the hoaxed murder turns out unexpectedly to be a real one the complications begin. Edgar Wallace's “The Crimson Circle” is an intriguing thriller, in which the wits and resources of Scotland Yard are pitted against the mysterious head of a secret society of blackmailers. A strong cast of international players is headed by Hugh Wakefield, Alfred Drayton, Noah Beery, and 17-year-old June Duprez, whose performance has created a stir amongst the critics overseas. "Crimson Circle” is the associate feature opening to-morrow at the Majestic Theatre.