ENTERTAINMENTS

Southland Times, Issue 22497, 6 December 1934, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

CIVIC THEATRE. WILL ROGERS’ GREATEST HIT: “JUDGE PRIEST.” Will Rogers—in the most human and lovable role he has yet played! That is the screen fare at the Civic Theatre, where Will’s latest Fox picture, “Judge Priest,” is showing. The star has never been so well suited as by this screen character, the shrewd, kindly but strong-willed Kentucky jurist, who is already famous in the stories of Irvin S. Cobb, perhaps America’s most noted humorist. With his characterization of the “Judge,” Rogers adds a new and original figure to his all-American gallery, which includes such memorable portraits as David Harum, Mr Skitch, Dr. Bull and the Connecticut Yankee. This time he plays a wise old fellow who, following the Civil War, has settled down in his native Kentucky village with his confederate cronies. The story opens in his courtroom on a lazy spring day in 1890. One does not expect drama in a village, perhaps, but in “Judge Priest” plenty of it transpires. The Judge’s nephew, a novice lawyer, and his sweetheart, a girl, whose birth is shrouded in mystery, figure importantly in the touching and dramatic story. Always there is Judge Priest, who dilutes justice with the milk of human kindness and who helps to shoulder the troubles of the town. Rich human interest blends with laughter and tears in this tale of a sleepy southern town, which still is not too sleepy to cradle stirring drama. Millions of readers know this grand old jurist of fiction. Now millions more will know and love him. John Ford has directed “Judge Priest.” He h».s brought to the story a deep humanity and an amazingly accurate flavour of the Old South, in its difficult days of transition. The cast recruited for Rogers’ support includes such names as Anita Louise, Tom Brown. Rochelle Hudson, Henry B. Walthall, David Landau and the ever hilarious Stepin Fetchit. Also showing on the same programme “The Right to Live,” Fox’s first full-length British production. The cast includes David Burnaby, in his first “straight” role, Richard Bird. Pat Paterson, Francis Sullivan, Frank Atkinson and Lawrence Anderson. It is a powerful drama, the central character of which is a director of a chemical research company. On discovering a compound which will neutralize poison gas, he decides not to exploit his discovery for gain, but to offer it to humanity. A financial shark gets hold of the information by blackmailing the company’s office manager, robs the safe, discovers the secret of the invention and acquires a controlling interest in the company. The scientist’s co-directors seeing big money to be made side with the financier and agree to sell the formula to the highest bidding nation. In retaliation the inventor threatens to divulge the formula before the Royal Society. The financier, faced with ruin, plans to kill him but, in a thrilling climax, he is outwitted by the resourcefulness of the admirer of the scientist’s daughter and himself falls a victim of his plot. There is a strong romantic element in the love story of the daughter and the young man who plays an important part in the unfolding of the Story. THE MAJESTIC. “YOU CAN’T BUY EVERYTHING.” A DRAMATIC STORY. \ There is a remarkable performance by May Robson in “You Can’t Buy Everything,” the dramatic story of a woman’s conflict with the world of business and with her own son, which was screened at the Majestic Theatre for the first time yesterday. There is a mystery about Hannah Bell’s early life which is not revealed until near the close of the film, but it has resulted in implanting in her a mortal hatred of Burton, a big banker and one-time fiancee. For her only child she sets aside everything but the desire to amass money in order to make her son the most powerful man in America. She succeeds so well that she owns many millions of dollars and then, when her son reaches manhood, he falls in love with the daughter of her enemy. The story relates how Hannah Bell, plodding New York’s streets, takes her twelve-year-old boy, Donny, to a free clinic in the winter of 1891. He has an injured knee and must remain in the hospital for several days. As she leaves the hospital Hannah picks up. a discarded newspaper, reads the financial page, and with her face convulsing with rage charges to the Knickerbocker Bank and demands all her money ,declaring that John Burton shall never handle a cent of hers. Years before Hannah and Burton had been engaged, but he had jilted her without explanation. She now has a fortune in cash and securities, but since the death of the spendthrift whom she had married to spite Burton, she had become an eccentric miser with the sole ambition of making her son the richest man in America. Kate Karley, also wealthy and who has known Hannah since childhood, visits the clinic—her pet philanthrophy—and finds Hannah’s boy there. She visits Hannah and politely blackmails her out of a contribution. Kate keeps in touch with Hannah and her boy as the years roll by and tries to reform Hannah’s miserly ways. Hannah refuses, continues to wear secondhand clothes and carries sandwiches in her purse to save money, while her wealth increases. Donny graduates from Princeton and tells his mother he wants to become a writer. He is miserably unhappy when Hannah puts him in the bank. Kate, still hoping to help the boy, decides that a reconciliation between Hannah and Burton might make Hannah less bitter. She tries to arrange a surprise meeting between the couple. This fails, but Donny meets Elizabeth, Burton’s daughter, and they fall in love. From this stage the story moves up to a good climax. There is an interesting selection of supports.

THE REGENT. “THE CRIME OF HELEN STANLEY.” ENGROSSING STUDIO MYSTERY. “Inspector Trent! Come immediately —l’m afraid!” Ten minutes later Helen Stanley, great screen star, was dead—shot through the heart! This is the gripping situation which lays the foundation for Columbia’s “The Crime of Helen Stanley,” which opened last night at the Regent Theatre. Many persons in and about the studio have reason to hate or fear her. Inspector Trent, convincingly portrayed by Ralph Bellamy, arrives a few minutes after the shooting has taken place in the midst of the filming of a scene in which Helen Stanley is the central figure. Circumstances point immediately to her ex-husband, Stanley Wallach, who, in the scene, was to have fired at her with a pistol containing blank cartridges. The man had really intended to kill her, substituting a bullet for one of the blanks. He breaks for freedom but is apprehended on the roof of one of the mammoth stages. Screaming that he killed Helen, Wallach leaps to the ground and is killed. But, it is proved by police that the lethal bullet was

never fired from the fugitive’s gun. Three others then come under suspicion, George Noel, the dead actress’ manager who is 60,000 dollars short in his accounts; Carl, her bodyguard, who is revealed as a “finger-man” for a gang of jewel thieves; and Lee Davis, ace cameraman, her former lover, whom she has threatened to blackball in the industry, because he is in love with her sister Betty. Circumstances also involve Betty, who is script girl on the picture, Gibson, the director and Baker, the head electrician. Trent decides to reenact the scene which brought death to Helen Stanley. Through this medium the real murderer reveals himself and the fiendish device used in the killing. Bellamy gives an excellent performance, as he did in the first two pictures of the series. Shirley Grey, as Betty, lends her usual brilliance and ability to the part and Gail Patrick is seen to advantage as Helen Stanley. It is her first venture into the field of villiany, incidentally, and most convincing. The remainder of the cast proves extremely capable, with outstanding performances by Bradley Page, Kane Richmond, Vincent Sherman, Clifford Jones and Ward Bond.