THE CIVIC

Southland Times, Issue 25308, 11 June 1935, Page 5

THE CIVIC

Now Showing: "Broadway Bill" (Warner Baxter. Myrna Loy. Helen Vinsen. Walter Conolley). Commencing Wednesday: Double Feature Bill “Helldorado” (Madge Evans, Richard Arlen, Ralph Bellamy, James Gleason. Henry B. Walthall), and “Gambling" (George M. Cohen. Wynne Gibson, Dorothy Burgess). Commencing Saturday: "Kentucky Kernels" (Wheeler and Woolsey). Coming Attractions: "Stingaree" (Richard Dix, Mary Boland, Conway Tearie, Henry Stephenson, Una O’Connor); "Music in the Air" (Gloria Swanson, John Boles, Jean Muir, Reginald Owen. Douglas Montgomery); “Jew Suss (Conrad Veidt, Benita Hume, Cedric Hardwicke, Gerald Du Maurier); “Bright Eyes" (Little Shirley Temple, James Dunn). » » » » “Broadway Bill” is now at the Civic Theatre with Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy in the leading roles. The name of the director (Frank Capra) is sufficient indication of the sort of delight which tliis picture offers (Writes one reviewer). Though not so deliberately Arabian Nightish as “Lady for a Day” and “It Happened One Night,” it shows once again the special ability which Capra seems to possess, in wedding episodes of the wildest fantasy to backgrounds of the sort of human life which everybody knows. In this instance his gusto for fantasy seems to have been restrained, but it bursts out, for a few moments at least, in one final scene which shows the state-burial of a racehorse with the sort of pomp of trumpets and flowers which one has come to associate with the deaths of kings. “Broadway Bill,” in fact, is the story of a racehorse, Capra has had only to select from the tragedy and laughter with which the turf teems to find the essentials for a story which, in any other setting, would have seemed wildly improbable.

Authentic in every detail, a complete California ghost-town was reproduced at Fox Movietone City as background for the climactic sequences of “Helldorado,” Jesse L. Lasky’s Fox Film production, which will come to the Civic Theatre to-morrow. Designed by Max Parker, famous art director, it was one of the largest, and most colourful sets ever erected for picture purposes. An unusual feature of the elaborate layout was a system of rainpipes constructed overhead to provide a downpour of water for some of the dramatic scenes laid in the village. Because of the necessity to simulate rain, it was impossible to use an actual ghosttown, although there are a number of such villages in California, Nevada and Arizona. None of the remaining ghost-towns are equipped with water-systems. James Cruze directed this Lasky-Fox Film special. Cruze, of course, is famed for his outdoor spectacles, among them “The Covered Wagon” and "Old Ironsides.” Heading the cast are Richard Arlen and Madge Evans. On the same programme is “Gambling,” with George Cohan in the lead, singing the theme song “My Little Girl.”

Wheeler and Woolsey are said to rise to new heights in “Kentucky Kernels,” a breezy and hilarous comedy coming, to the Civic on Saturday. This time they become involved in a family feud. ' With their usual gay abandon they become mixed up in the most farcical complications, which are only heightened when Wheeler falls in love with the daughter of the leader of the hostile clan, played by the talented Noah Beery, whose attractive voice is heard in a pleasing solo. The musical background of the film is exceptionally fine, and the subsidiary parts are said to be capably handled by a competent cast which includes Mary Carlisle and “Spankv” McFarland.