ENTERTAINMENTS

Southland Times, Issue 24161, 25 June 1940, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

REGENT THEATRE “DAUGHTERS COURAGEOUS” SHOWING FINALLY TODAY Although not a sequel to the very popular film, “Four Daughters,” all of the cast are present again in “Daughters Courageous” with the delightful addition of Fay Bain ter in the role of the young and modern mother of the four girls, and Donald Crisp, as her solid, middle-aged fiance. The story of “Daughters Courageous,” however, deals with an entirely different family than last year’s screen play, and while the two films share the same charming, heart-warming quality, the new one has a good deal more humour interspersed with the romance. This time, as noted above, the girls have a mother, and it is the mother’s problem which primarily concerns the family. Woven into the story is a modern version of the Enoch Arden theme, which introduces a real problem in human relationship, for as the mother is about to remarry, her first husband and the father of the girls, turns up after a 20-year absence. Shall she welcome back the father of her four girls, the irresponsible but charming husband who deserted her when the children were babies? Shall she give up the steady, respectable business man who loves and wants to marry her and has promised to give the girls the financial help they need for happy futures?

“LADY OF THE TROPICS” In “Lady of the Tropics,” in which Hedy Lamarr and Robert Taylor will appear at the Regent Theatre tomorrow, the exotic actress plays a lovely Eurasian whose half-caste blood denies her any racial recognition. Taylor appears as a young' American who marries her and with her tackles the problems of their life and love. Featured in a large supporting cast are Joseph Schildkraut, Gloria Franklin, Ernest Cossart, Mary Taylor, Charles Trowbridge, Frederic Warlock, Paul Porcasi, Margaret Padula, Grace Hayle, Elise Cavanna, Cecil Cunningham, and Natalie Moorhead. The setting for the story is Indo-China, where all classes and races intermingle.

MAJESTIC THEATRE “SECRETS OF AN ACTRESS” “CHEER, BOYS, CHEER” The Warner Bros, drama, “Secrets of an Actress,” will begin a three-day season at the Majestic Theatre today. A particularly talented trio are starred in this fine picture. Kay Francis, lan Hunter and George Brent play the principal roles. The story concerns Kay Francis, a brilliant actress who has not had the good fortune to appear on Broadway. Through the efforts of lan Hunter, a British producer, she eventually makes the grade and is a huge success. The associate feature, “Cheer Boys Cheer,” has Edmund Gwenn, Nova Pilbeam and Jimmy O’Dea starred and is described as a rollicking comedy. The latest Universal News will introduce the programme and plans are now on view at H. and J. Smith’s department store, Rice’s Majestic sweet shop and at the Majestic Theatre.

CIVIC THEATRE HALF-PRICE TONIGHT COMEDY AND THRILLER The sauciest escapade in the history of fun, as gay as a Mardi Gras, with three delightful stars and merry with Gordon and Revel tunes, brings Don Ameche, Simone Simon and Robert Young to the Civic at 7.45 tonight in “Josette,” the first attraction on the half-price programme. It is vive I’amour in New Orleans as Ameche and Young chase Miss Simon, who must think faster than one and run faster than the other—but not too much faster!

An innocent romance that becomes involved in gangland intrigue and vengeance is the basis for “Law of the Underworld,” RKO Radio’s new thrill offering, the Civic’s second feature. Civic prices tonight and tomorrow only are 6d and 9d.

STATE THEATRE “I WAS A SPY” “MIND OF MR REEDER” “I was a Spy.” the State’s 1 first attraction at 2.0 and 8.0 today stars Conrad Veidt, Madeleine Carroll, Herbert Marshall, Sir Gerald du Maurier and Edmund Gwenn. This great British film on its first issue,so thoroughly deserved the packed houses which greeted it everywhere that the present reissue during the present war is more than justified. In its essentials the story has all the simplicity of greatness. It tells the true emotional and factual history of the young Belgian woman, Martha McKenna, who, with her parents, was in the town of Roulers in 1915, after the Germans had occupied it to make it a

base behind the lines. In a particular scene among German wounded installed in the market place, the woman’s slight medical training and her personal instinct show in her demeanour, and she is engaged by the medical authorities to serve in the hospital. Her untiring work there becomes invaluable. But still she is a Belgian and lives among her townsfolk; when her aunt in the intelligence service of the Allies takes brief refuge in her home, Martha helps her in furtive missions, and gradually accepts her destiny to become a unit in the machine—soon a very important unit, although until near the end, an unobstrusive one. In the second attraction, “Mind of Mr Reeder,” an Edgar Wallace thriller, Will Fyffe is seen as J. G. Reeder, a kindly-looking old man, but behind the affable mask a particularly shrewd investigator attached to Scotland Yard. Box plans are at Begg’s or State.