THE REGENT

Southland Times, Issue 25314, 18 June 1935, Page 5

THE REGENT

Now Showing: "Mrs Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch” (Pauline Lord. Zasu Pitts. W. C. Fields, Evelyn Venable, Kent Taylor). Coming Wednesday: "Madam Spy” (Fay Wray, Nils Asther, Edward Arnold. John Mlljan. Noah Beery, David Torrence). Next Saturday: "Radio Parade of 1935” (Will Hay. Clifford Mollison, Helen Chandler, and 40 stars of screen, stage and radio). . Coming Attractions: “The Gilded Lily” (Claudette Colbert. Fred Mac Murray, Ray Milland, C. Aubrey Smith, Edward Craven).

There is a very strong cast and an abundance of drama in "Madam Spy which is opening at the Regent Theatre to-morrow. Fay Wray is cast as Maria, a Russian spy, posing as a nurse. Captain Franck, played by Nils Asther, is an Austrian intelligence officer, who is injured in an aeroplane crash. Maria nurses him back to health and then marries him with the intention of gaining information from him. However, she falls in love with him and the complications which arise make an interesting story. Miss Wray is wholly convincing and Nils Asther gives a pleasing performance. The strong supporting cast includes Noah Beery, David Torrance, Edward Arnold and John Miljan.

Boosting a really magnificent cast of international stage, radio, and screen stars, the “Radio Parade of 1935” which comes to the Regent Theatre on Saturday, differs from the usual musical comedy revue film in that each artist is introduced logically and effectively into the story of life behind the scenes of a big broadcasting station, and not in just a series of individual turns. The three leading figures as far as the story is concerned are screen favourites. Will Hay as the director-general, Clifford Mollison as the complaints manager appointed programme director for the period of one month as a step towards "pepping up” the station’s entertainment, and charming Helen Chandler, as the director’s daughter installed in Mollison’s office as his secretary. Almost everybody else is a headline stage or radio star, and each is presented in

such a manner as to reveal to the greatest possible advantage his or her remarkable entertainment talents. In fact the cast reads lik* a “who’s who’ in the entertainment world. Such artists as the inimitable comedy duo Clapham and Dwyer, whose records enjoy tremendous popularity, and whose names are household, words. Another is Ronald Frankau, One of the world’s cleverest and most popular monoioguists, whose records also command very big sales. The Western Brothers (who hasn’t heard their “Delightful People, Aren’t We All” number), are seen in an hilarious sequence as two announcers. The Carlyle Cousins, popular crooning trio are cast as three telephonists.