ENTERTAINMENTS

Southland Times, Issue 24108, 23 April 1940, Page 7

ENTERTAINMENTS

REGENT THEATRE “THE WOMEN” SPARKLING COMEDY DRAMA With a cast headed by Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell and a sensationally successful and daring stage play providing the provacative lines and situations “The Women, which is to be shown again today and tomorrow could not be anything else but popular with picture theatre audiences. Last night the Regent Theatre was again packed by an audience which showed in no uncertain manner its appreciation of the film version of the sparkling stage success that created such a furore when it was first produced. This delightful satire, whicn purports to show exactly to what length women will go to suit their own ends, abounds in scintillating dialogue, and interpreted as it is by a cast that makes the best of every situation, it loses nothing by its transference to the screen. Comedy and drama are skilfully blended in this daring feature, and against spectacular backgrounds it moves slowly but surely to a climax that leaves one with the sudden realization that from first to last there has not been a male actor on the screen. This fact is one of the remarkable aspects of the film, and yet, the absence of a man from the cast in no way detracts from the entertainment value of the picture. A cast that is in every way suited to the requirements of die story has been assembled to play “The Women.” Norma Shearer, ii. the leading role, gives a performance that is marked by a strong sense of dramatic values, and she draws a brilliant portrait with sure, deft touches — a performance that is outstanding particularly in the instance where she is transformed from the hurt and, humiliated wife into the woman willing to fight other women. Joan Crawford also gives a convincing portrayal of a difficult part, and others in the cast are such well-known players as Paulette Goddard, Mary Boland, Joan Fontaine, Lucille Watson, and Phyllis Povah, all of whom have been entrusted with parts for which they are admirably adapted. A short but entertaining programme of short subjects is shown including a newsreel that is right up to the minute.

STATE THEATRE “20,000 MEN A YEAR” THRILLING AVIATION DRAMA For smash entertainment with a theme as timely as today’s headlines and romance to thrill you, run down to the State Theatre today at 2.0 or 8.0 and see “20,000 Men A Year.” This stimulatingly fresh Cosmopolitan production for 20th Century-Fox concerns the college youth of America, who are taking to the sky thousands strong in the year-old Civil Aeronautics Authority programme fof training civilian flyers. The purpose of this programme is the stimulation of private flying as a means of promoting commerce and contributing to the progress of American aviation. The film, which features Randolph Scott, Preston Foster and Margaret Lindsay, is told from the viewpoint of the girls who love them and the men who train these eager lads. The story is set in a small airfield in California, selected to train students from a neighbouring college. Randolph Scott is the instructor in charge, and the role is right down his alley. Foster is swell as an aviation official, described as a “tough buzzard with eagle feathers,” who wins Scott’s enmity but lives to change his mind. And Margaret Lindsay is delightful as the sister of one of the fledglings, who doesn’t want to see her brother fly—and doesn’t care for flyers, until she falls in love with Scott! Under the expert direction of Alfred E. Green, the picture moves at a smart pace, with plenty of pulse-quickening flying, thrilling drama, appealing romance and rib-tickling comedy. Executive Producer Sol M. Wurtzel lined up a great supporting cast, headed by Mary Healy, who fulfils the promise she showed in Irving Berlin’s “Second Fiddle,” in a romantic role opposite Robert Shaw; George Earnest (of the Jones Family films); Jane Darwell, Kane Richmond and Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom, the fighter who has become one of the screen’s champ comedians. Here’s a picture that has everything! You’ll love it! Special featurettes introduce the feature attraction. Box plans are at Begg’s or State, telephone 645.

MAJESTIC THEATRE “DEAD MAN’S SHOES” CLEVER MYSTERY DRAMA Leslie Banks, star of “Fire Over England” and “Sanders of the River,” has the leading role in “Dead Man’s Shoes” a drama with an ingenious theme which opens at the Majestic Theatre today. Mr Banks is supported by Wilfred Lawson, Judy Kelly, Joan Marion, Welter Hudd and Peter Bull. The story opens with Leslie Banks as an honoured citizen in Paris. He is a war hero and a leader of industry. Suddenly he finds himself blackmailed by being accused that he is assuming a false indentity and that he really is a criminal wanted by the law. He takes the case to court and in spite of the fact that one witness swears that he is the criminal a man in the body of the court (played by Wilfrid Lawson) stands up and declared that he cannot be as the criminal died five years previously. The associate feature “Fighting Thoroughbreds” produces plenty of of race track thrills. The cast includes George Windy Hayes, Mary Carlisle and Ralph Byrd and a great horse who fights to his last ounce of strength to the win the Kentucky Derby for his owners who have backed him to their last penny. Plans are now on view at H. and J. Smith’s Departmental Store, box office, Rice’s Majestic sweet shop or Majestic Theatre (telephone 738).

CIVIC THEATRE WILL HAY COMEDY “FORTY NAUGHTY GIRLS” “Oh, Mr Porter,” Will Hay’s most riotously funny comedy, is the first attraction on the Civic’s 6d and 9d programme screening tonight at 7.45 and finally tomorrow night at the Civic. Mr Hay plays a nitwit railway employee who cannot be sacked because he has relations in high places. Sent out .of harm’s way to an almost forgotten Irish station, he begins a terrific re-organiza-tion with the assistance of a fat youth (Graham Moffatt) and a doddering old man (Moore Marriott) An excursion train—the first ever promoted in those parts—gets lost, and the stationmaster goes in search of it, with his two “assistants,” aboard a decrepit engine, named “Gladstone” (an astonishing apparatus with a comic personality on its own account). “Forty Naughty Girls,” the detective thriller, brings the noted puzzle-solv-ing team of Inspector Oscar Piper and Hildegarde Withers to the screen for the sixth time and deals with two mysterious killings in a metropolitan theatre during a performance. Faced

with the necessity of letting the show go on while they try to find the murderer, the two sleuths run into problems that tax the ingenuity of the audience as well as their own talents. Marjorie Lord and George Shelley, a personable pair of screen newcomers, have the romahtic leads. Civic prices tonight and tomorrow are: All stalls 6d and all circle 9d.