ENTERTAINMENTS

Southland Times, Issue 21894, 21 December 1932, Page 2

ENTERTAINMENTS

THE MAJESTIC. “WASHINGTON MASQUERADE.” LIONEL BARRYMORE IN HIS FINEST ROLE. Lionel Barrymore last year secured the coveted distinction of winning the cup presented annually by the Motion Picture Academy of Fine Arts for the best performance of the year. Ana there seems little doubt that he will carry off that honour again with his brilliant characterization in “Washington Masquerade,” which opens at the Majestic Theatre this afternoon. The story is primarily just another variation on the old.theme of what a beautiful woman can do to a man. It would be difficult to. make anything but a successful talkie with Lionel Barrymore—perhaps the most brilliant actor on the screen as the star. Whether the Government or private enterprise shall own the electric lighting and power schemes of the country was the livest domestic political issue in America till the depression ousted it, and it is on this question that Lionel Barrymore, a crude country lawyer, goes to the Senate. He is on the side of Government ownership, against big business, and when he makes his first speech—incidentally, he would have been a wonderful politician—from the floor of the Senate, big business decides that he has to be “fixed.” The lobby expert who represents the private power interests sets the spectacular Karen Morley after him. Cupid, it is realized, will tangle up an honest man sooner than dollars will. Cupid and Karen and the power trusts win, and Lionel is in a mess. But an honest man who has had his newlywon illusions perforated, who has sold his friends, half-knowing that he was doing it, is apt to be a nasty customer when he finds that the other people haven’t kept their bargain, and Barrymore gets a chance for a marvellous piece of acting when he re-establishes himself in the eyes of the men who had backed him to beat the trust. Karen Morley is about as decorative as anything that has wandered about the screens of the city lately, and a good deal more clever than most of her rivals. Diane Sinclair, who plays the senator’s daughter, is a surprise. At last we have an actress who does her job, and isn’t too good-looking to be real. The newsreels contain some outstanding items. Tennis enthusiasts will be thrilled at a glimpse of the Australian tennis champions in action in America, and an amazing dive from a bridge 160 ft high will thrill swimmers and non-swimmers alike. A Charlie Chase comedy is included in an outstanding bill. A matinee will be held this afternoon. ’ THE REGENT. EDMUND LOWE, CLAUDETTE COLBERT, STUART ERWIN. “THE MISLEADING LADY.” Carried off, struggling, at mid-night. Chained up while her captor laughs! Is it all in fun? This question is answered in “The Misleading Lady, new Paramount thrill comedy romance, which will open at the Regent Theatre to-night. ‘‘The Misleading Lady” costars Edmund Lowe, who has a strong way with women, and Claudette Colbert, who has a silent, but equally effective way with men. Stuart Erwin, George Meeker, Selena Royle, Robert Strange and William Gargan are among those accorded conspicuous supporting parts. Stuart Walker directed. Miss Colbert lures Lowe into a proposal of marriage in order to win a wager. He retaliates by kidnapping her and breaking her spirit with the help of chains and an escaped lunatic. Before the final scene is allowed to disclose a all s-well-and-happy solution, a reporter, two drunks with a.mystery they never quite spill, an avenging lover, and two other visitors from the asylum, are involved in complications that transpire in a mountain rendezvous, far from law and order, telegraph or the railway. Fast farce, charming romance and broad comedy combine to make this a guaranteed blues-cure. Look at the names that head the featured cast: Claudette Colbert, beautiful, gorgeous-ly-gowned and more vivacious than ever. Edmund Lowe, in another of those “Hl-show-the-world” roles that made him famous. Stuart Erwin, who re .ped a tremendous harvest of laughs ir “Strangers In Love,” in the best comedy role of his career. The supporting cast of this production includes the names of players mentioned above. The supporting programme includes a Paramount News with many items of particular interest, one being the winning of the 220 metres breaststroke swim at the Olympic Games by the Australian, Claire Dennis. The Paramount Pictorial deals with trout fishing, new footwear styles and Rubinoff and his violin. There are also a Mack Sennett Comedy and a Cartoon. GEORGE ARLISS. MATINEE TO-DAY. This afternoon at the Civic Theatre a: 2 p.m.. Amalgamated Theatres announce the only matinee of George Arliss in “A Successful Calamity.” This picture for this time of the year, when nearly everyone is thinking of Christmas holidays, is having an exceptional successful run and will be screened again to-night also Thursday and Friday evenings. Mr Arliss contributes another of his faultless performances to “A Successful Calamity,’ his role of millionaire, who tells his family that he has lost his fortune in. order to bring them closer to him again, allowing him a wide range of action. The star reveals his ability as dramatic hero and comedian in this picture of modern life among the millionaires, where only butlers and maids are truly faithful to the head of the house. Mary Astor, one of the screen’s loveliest heroines, appears as the young wife of Mr Arliss, whose “scads of money” permits her to indulge in such luxuries as befriending and subsidizing young composers, redecorating the once comfortable mansion in modernistic fashion and giving musicales for dowagers and debutantes. The children in “A Successful Calamity” are portrayed by Evalyn Knapp and William Janney. Both of them are so occupied with idle pleasures that their father is almost a stranger to them. The supporting programme includes “Screen Snapshots, “Herald News,” “A Mail Bride,” “Ritzy Hotel” (cartoon) and “Sports Slants. ’