ENTERTAINMENTS

Southland Times, Issue 20522, 26 June 1928, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

POPULAR PICTURES. SYD. CHAPLIN IN “CHARLEY’S AUNT’ —WITH EVELYN BRENT AND WM. POWELL, IN “LOVE’S GREATEST MISTAKE.” Another crowded house was in attendance last night to witness the ever popular, ever new, “Charley’s Aunt.” Like old wine this popular comedy improves as time moves along, and those who have seen it before, are still returning to have one more good laugh. To-night is the last night, and it is sure to attract another crowded house. The supporting feature “Love’s Greatest Mistake,” is an excellent production, combining first-class photography, a tip-top, feasible and sensible story with a high-class cast of star performers. Two extra comedies make this programme the quintescence of quantity and quality

COMING TO-MORROW. “THE SON OF THE SHEIK.” The many admirers, “and they are legion,” of Rudolph Valentino, “the prince of lovers” will welcome the announcement of the re-appearance of “The Son of The Sheik,” for a three night season commencing to-morrow night. This picture is a continuation of “The Sheik,” and many of the original characters have been retained, principal of whom is Agnes Ayres, who plays the role of the mother. On the same programme will be included a dashing drama, “Seven Sinners,” featuring Marie Prevost and Clive Brooke. CIVIC PICTURES. MUNICIPAL THEATRE TO-NIGHT. LAST NIGHT OF “RASH PRIVATES” AND “LADIES MUST DRESS.” A NIGHT OF LAUGHTER.

There are more laughs to be had out of the current programme at the Civic than out of many of the much-boomed comedy features. Simple and unpretentious yet filled with those qualities which set audiences rocking with mirth, both the big pictures, “Rash Privates” and “Ladies Must Dress,” are remarkable for the bright and hilarious situations with which they abound. “Rash Privates,” like that big laughprovoker “The Gay Retreat,” is another laugh of the war. It is a story of the army left in occupation of a Continental town after the war with two rash privates falling in love with the village belle. Her father is a rabid pacificist—but he is always ready to fight! Lya de Putti is the belle and has a much more pleasing role than we have seen her in hitherto. Malcolm McGregor and Eddie Gribbon both fall in love with her. Daddy throws them both out of the house and dire punishment is threatened to both soldiers and girls caught fraternising. Many laughable situations develop before Malcolm McGregor wins the favour of the girl and Eddie Gribbon is captured by Zasu Pitts, a couple who provide some of the biggest laughs the picture provokes. Another very bright production is “Ladies Must Dress,” which features Virginia Valli, Hallam Croley and Earle Fox. Miss Valli is cast as a somewhat old-fashioned stenographer who has not learnt the act of dressing. The other girl—a shop girl—very much the flapper—sees to it that she has her adventures despite a husband who works at a nearby counter. There’s a stenographer who doesn’t know so much what it is all about. You mix up the characters, place them in the store and in a gay boys’ apartment and eventually they are extricated from the necessary complications. In the shuffle the old-fashioned stenographer learns how to put them on to attract the men.

CHARLIE CHAPLIN IN “THE CIRCUS.” MAJESTIC TO-NIGHT. Charlie Chaplin, whose new United Artists comedy, “The Circus,” is at the Majestic Theatre, has recently added to the names of George Bernard Shaw, St. John Ervine, H. G. Wells, Sherwood Anderson, Thomas Burke, Carl Sandburg, and other dramatists, novelists and poets who have praised his art, Elie Faure, French art critic and philosopher. M. Faure has written of Charlie Chaplin in his newest book of essays, “I have often seen Charlie, the man of the silver screen. I ask you to believe that I am not joking at all when I say that Charlie Chaplin is the only poet of our time who looks upon life from a constantly and’ consciously heroic angle. There is more style in the most apparently insignificant of his gestures than in all the combined works of all the institutes of France and of German culture for a hundred years. And there is more drama in tile judgment that Charlie expresses on life, than in all the military horrors and social miseries which reformers conjure up to incite us to revolt. He makes almost all of us laugh because almost all of us do not expect the conclusions which he draws from his knowledge of the world. But to those who do expect his conclusions, this laugh becomes something sacred. Look at him, with his solfes, his little hat, and his cane. Observe his sudden twists at right angles, his hops on one foot, his leaning jubilations, his fancy steps in the battle, the silent joy and irony toward himself and everything else with which he underlines the most holy and most terrible of our acts —love, war, work, theft, play. Look at him juggling with his passions and our own as with soap bubbles and keen pointed knives.” These are only some of the hundreds of compliments paid to Chaplin by men who rightly consider that is is among the foremost artists of this generation. His latest picture, “The Circus,” is fully up to the great standard which he has set himself, and this is borne out by the enthusiastic remarks of the crowded houses that have witnessed the picture. The supporting feature includes Jackie Coogan’s most recent picture for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, “Buttons.” In this picture young Coogan takes to the sea in a modern liner as a bellboy, and out of loyalty to his captain, becomes involved in a stirring drama that ends only with the wreck of the huge steamer —a most spectacular scene. This programme together with the usual high standard of orchestral accompaniment by the Majestic Orchestra, under the baton of Mr H. Halbert, puts the finishing touch to an outstanding evening’s entertainment, which will be screened again to-morrow.