THE THEATRES

Southland Times, Issue 24438, 19 May 1941, Page 5

THE THEATRES

REGENT HILARIOUS COMEDY ‘HE STAYED FOR BREAKFAST’ Every now and then Hollywood produces a comedy which is so unusual, so hilariously funny that it enjoys a universal appeal. It would not be rating the film now showing at the Regent, “He Stayed For Breakfast,” too highly to include it in that categorv. It has all the essential elements for first-class entertainment. The story is well-knit, the dialogue is crisp and witty, and the acting is all that film patrons have come to expect of stars of the calibre of Melvyn Douglas and Loretta Young. Alexander Hall, who was responsible for such successes as “The Doctor Takes a Wife” and “The Amazing Mr Williams,” directed. Douglas is seen as an impulsive and hot-headed young waiter who unwillingly falls in love with Loretta, estranged wife of the prosperous banker, Eugene Pallette. Incidentally, Pallette, who has a large following among patrons for his vivid character portrayals in many box-office successes, gives a fine performance in “He Stayed For Breakfast,” and one which will lose him no admirers. Miss Young is at first intrigued and then a little interested, and finally hopelessly in love with the handsome waiter. How he is forced to spend a night in her apartment to avoid the police is a sequence which is particularly deftly handled. Alan Marshall, who was recently seen in “Irene,” provides a lot more fun and complications in the role of another suitor to the hand of the glamorous Loretta, and Una O’Connor deserves creditable mention for her performance as Loretta’s maid who finds it hard to keep up with the speed of the modern generation. An excellent supporting programme includes the latest Airmail News, a I Screen Snapshots introducing many Hollywood favourites, a cartoon in colour, a Canadian travel film, and other subjects. Box plans are at H. and J. Smith’s, Rice’s Regent shop, and the theatre.

MAJESTIC ‘KING OF THE LUMBERJACKS’ Warner Bros, have taken stars and camera crew up among California’s big timber in order to produce “King of the Lumberjacks,” which will conclude a three-day season at the Majestic Theatre today, with John Payne, Gloria Dixon and Stanley Fields starred. Stanley Fields’s boisterous lumber camp boss is a finely etched character. John Payne and Gloria Dixon, of course, provide the romantic interest. Fields, enraged at finding his wife, Gloria Dixon, in the arms of his best friend, John Payne, knocks out Payne and locks him in a railway box-car, which he sends rolling down a steep incline towards a broken trestle-bridge—and certain destruction. Meantime, Fields discovers that his rash act has endangered the life of his friends. He rushes to a cutting and manages to bring the runaway to a stop on the brink of the damaged bridge. Bringing back to the screen those exciting days in American frontier history when the covered wagon, speeding its way into the crimson west, was the target for savage Indian raids, Columbia’s “Prairie Schooners” is the Associate picture. The picture features the further exploits of the west’s greatest cowboy hero, Wild Bill Hickok. Chapter six of the secret service thriller, “Junior G-Men,” featuring the Dead End Kids and the Little Tough Guys, together with the latest issue of Cinesound News will also be screened. Plans are now on view at H. and J. Smith’s. Rice’s Majestic shop, or the Majestic Theatre. “THE GREAT DICTATOR” STATE AND CIVIC Charlie Chaplin in “The Great Dictator” will be seen today at 2.0, 4.45 and 8.0 at the State Theatre and also at the Civic Theatre tonight at 7.45. “To me the funniest thing in the world can be the ridicule _of ‘phonies’ and ‘stuffed shirts in high

places,” writes Charles Chaplin in a special article. “The bigger the ‘phony’ you have to work on, the better chance you have for a funny picture—and it would be difficult to find another ‘phony’ as big as Hitler. He is the best target in the world for satire and ridicule. That’s why I enjoyed making ‘The Great Dictator.’ Some people have suggested that I made the picture for propaganda purposes. That is far from the truth. I am not interested in propaganda as such—most propaganda is didactic and dull. I made ‘The Great Dictator’ because I hate dictators and because I want people to laugh. If I had a motive in making the movie other than the desire to provide entertainment, I would not call it propaganda. I am not in politics; I am not particularly impressed with systems of politics, but I do think I am a humanitarian, as everyone who follows the artistic piofessions believes himself to be. I don t like the idea of an individual or a system kicking around a lot of small, helpless people. Hitler, to me, beneath that stern and foreboding appearance he gives in newsreels and news photographs, actually is a small,, mean, and petty neurasthenic. Mussolini suggests an entirely different character loud, noisy, boastful, a peasant at heart. Box plans for the State are at Begg s or State Theatre. Civic plans are at Matheson’s till 5 p.m., then at the Civic Theatre.