ENTERTAINMENTS

Southland Times, Issue 21998, 24 April 1933, Page 5

ENTERTAINMENTS

MAJESTIC THEATRE.

THE GEM OF THE YEAR. “IF I HAD A MILLION.” If you have a shilling—or two—go to the Majestic this evening to see “If I had a Million.” On no account miss it. There has been nothing to compare with it for years. This sounds like an advertisement. It is not. It is an earnest entreaty from one who has seen the picture to all who have not seen it. Miss a train, a tryst or tram, but not this creation of the brains of Hollywood’s greatest directors carried out by such a galaxy of stars as has not previously been seen adorning the firmament of filmdom. A multi-million-aire lies dying. In his vast factories and offices employees are speculating on the chances of their inheriting some of his riches. In his luxurious home his many relatives are seated—“vultures waiting for the old steer to die” as the millionaire puts it when he looks over the banisters and sees them. In disgust he seizes a city directory, takes a syringe from the doctor and gives amillion dollars to seven people on whose names a drop from the syringe falls. What scope is there now for the genius of Lubitsch and his fellow directors! To say that they rise magnificently to the occasion is to put it mildly. An ordinary person would make his legatees have a riotous time with wine, women and song. But these clever Americans are psychologists who make their newly created millionaires react in much more satisfying and. subtle ways. There are really seven pictures in one, each containing enough stars to dazzle an audience with the brilliancy of their acting. After “If I had a Million” there should be greater realization of the power and faithfulness of American acting and of the correctness of their diction. But that is by the way. The first man who receives a cheque for a million is harassed in a china shop by the manager and at home by his wife. He can’t help breaking precious articles in the shop and many dollars are deducted on this account from his pay roll, much to the disgust of his wife. His first extravagance on acquiring his new status is to walk into the shop two hours late and before the eyes of the indignant, autocratic manager to smash crockery and statuary to his heart’s content. All who see him get ting his own back must realize that a million dollars can give mental satisfaction which is far greater than the mere delights of the flesh. And so.it is with a car owner who is the victim of a road hog and who buys a fleet of used cars with which to run down all road hogs; and with an inmate of an old women’s home who uses her newly acquired wealth to transform the gloomy sanctimonious place into a gay salon. But there are serious and dramatic sides to the picture. A forger finds that his reputation is so bad that he can’t cash the one genuine cheque he possesses, his vain attempts driving him mad. A murderer goes to the chair unconvinced that the cheque he has received in his cell cannot buy him justice. Throughout humour and pathos are most skilfully blended, it being difficult to say which is the cleverest formula for the spending of the money, though most of Saturday’s big audience would probably have voted for the clerk who finds his way to the sanctum sanctorum and then—but it would be a shame to disclose what .be does. Take the one and only remain-

ing opportunity of seeing it for yourself. Go to the Majestic to-night. There will be a matinee this afternoon at 2 o’clock.

MAJESTIC MYSTERY SHOW. AN ORIGINAL INNOVATION. Those who like the clement of chance, and most people are prone to become interested in anything that tends towards mystery, will be provided with an entertainment novelty that should prove a well merited success when Fuller Hayward’s offer to Wednesday patrons of the Majestic Theatre a special entertainment. The title of the main attraction is being kept a dark, dark, secret, but it is a very bright comedy .with popular stars and the picture is new to the residents of Invercargill. The complete programme has been especially selected for the occasion and the good name of the proprietors is staked on patrons having an evening of real enjoyment. THE REGENT. “A BILL OF DIVORCEMENT.” ARRESTING, EMOTIONAL DRAMA. A fine and finished piece of work is “A Bill of Divorcement,” an intensely human drama which in pictorial values is really outstanding. This picturization of Clemence Dane’s arresting play profoundly impressed Saturday night’s large audience at the Regent and small wonder either, seeing that its theme—the curse of bad blood, of the dreadful, uncertain stream that flows sunken from generation to generation and comes to this person or that as inherited insanity—has never been more powerfully or convincingly shown on the screen. But although this grim fact of latent madness makes the story possible, it is in reality only the cornerstone to a structure built most entirely of the material of human loyalty and self-sacrifice. Here is a brief outline of the well-knit drama—Margaret has married Hilary 15 years previously. Partly because of his war service, Hilary loses his reason, and, becoming violent, has been confined in a mental home since the first year of their marriage, and before his daughter, Sydney, is born. Margaret, who never cared very greatly for Hilary, obtains a divorce and is on the point of remarrying. Then, without warning, Hilary arrives home, cured. To him the 15 years are a blank, and he expects to take up his life where he left it off. The whole story then turns on the emotional strain which the unexpected return of Hilary throws on Margaret, Sydney and himself. John Barrymore makes a notable achievement of the part of Hilary. His dazed, pitiful bewilderment and the appeal he makes to the conscience-stricken Margaret are amazingly well done —in fact the sheer tension of sympathy was almost too much for the emotional comfort of many members of the audience. Sydney is also engaged to be married, ana with her father’s return learns for the first time that his mental affliction is as much hereditary as acquired, and that the taint is also in her own blood. It is she who rises to the occasion and, taking the affairs of her stricken parents in hand, smooths over the trouble at the cost of her own happiness. She assumes charge of the father and sends Margaret away to be married. None of the three has an easy part to play, but those of Barrymore and Katharine Hepburn (who is Sydney) are superby done. It would be very easy to emphasize the emotional strain until it becomes unreal, but the two go through the long, exacting scenes without a slip. Margaret t°o> as interpreted by Bilhe Burke, faithfully supports them. The picture is English rather than American in atmosphere, and in direction and technique gives very little scope for anything but praise. There have been few films that have searched such depths as this gripping production and it cannot be too warmly commended. The supports, generous and well-balanced, combine with the featured picture to make a two-hours’ programme of outstanding screen entertainment. CIVIC THEATRE. “WHEN LONDON SLEEPS.” “When London Sleeps” there is strife and turmoil going on hidden from, the eves of the curious and only at times visible to the custodians of the law who guard the greatest Metropolis in the world. The British film which will be shown at the Civic Theatre to-day and this evening for the last time the appropriate title of When London Sleeps” is one of the most vividly entertaining films of recent months. Presenting a new mystery theme in a variety of diversified and lengthy entertaining scenes, this production has an outstanding cast of stage and screen celebrities who render capable performances. A miserly millionaire left his fortune to a daughter he had cast out with her mother when a baby, and who was eventually left in the hands or a travelling circus. A rival in the shape of the old man’s rascally nephew, through burgling a safe, discovers the whereabouts of the girl, and to pievent her obtaining the money kidnaps her. His jealous mistress reveals the girl’s whereabouts to the dashing hero, who enters the girl’s life through accepting an invitation to fight “Puggy the unbeatable side-show champion, for £5 and a kiss from the showmans pretty daughter. The hero stages a raid on the girl’s lodging place, and after a thrilling encounter with the villain during which the house catches fire—everything turns out all right. Diana Beaumont and Rene Ray have the leading feminine roles, while Harold French is the principal male actor. During one of the more exciting moments in “When London Sleeps,” opportunity is afforded the audience of observing one of the most efficient fire-fighting forces of the world combat an outbreak that threatens life and property. All the very latest fire-fight-ing appliances are put into action, and the opportunity is offered of actually seeing a rescue from what looks like inevitable death. The population of St. Margaret’s Middlesex, England, watched a thrilling scene in the grounds of Twickenham Studios at mid-night recently. Local fire brigades in full force, battle with a burning mansion, the fierce flames being fed by petrol from an adjacent garage. The heroine, entrapped in the turret of the house, her escape cut off by fire and smoke, crawled through a tiny window and leaped on to neighbouring telegraph wires. There she swung perilously in mid-air until a safety sheet was held out by firemen below, and then she dropped 30ft to the ground. On another occasion Twickenham Studious present a very gay appearance with the studio grounds packed with sets representing a section of the country fair which figures prominently in “When London Sleeps.” Roundabouts, boxing booths, sideshows, caravans, and tents were commandeered and erected for these sequences. Rene Ray looked a delightful enchantress in the hooded robes of a professional palmist. “20,000 YEARS IN SING SING.” Stark, unrelenting drama is the description of “20,000 Years in Sing Sing.” It is tense drama of a dream shattered, a man ruined and the horror and brutality of the prison chain gangs. The story is written by Warden Lowes who became famous for his many exciting years when attached to this prison. “20,000 Years in Sing Sing” will be shown on Wednesday and Friday only as the theatre is engaged on Thursday.