ENTERTAINMENTS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 54, Issue 3896, 30 April 1937, Page 8

ENTERTAINMENTS

AT THE REGENT. FINAL SCREENING TO-NIGHT. “CLIVE OF INDIA.” The most beautiful and powerful love story to reach the screen in the memory of this reviewer is being enacted at the Regent Theatre to-night. Ronald Colman and Lcretta Young are the principals and “Clive of India,” the first million dollar pro- ' duction of Darryl F. Zanuck and Joseph M. Schenck’s 20th Century Pictures company, which last season gave us “The House of Rothschild,” is the vehicle. But this true story of Robert Clive, a poor young clerk in the East India Company, who conquered an Empire at 26 and became England’s greatest hero, cnly to see his star fall when the woman he loved had drifted from his side, is more than a great love story—it is a reflection of a life of trully heroic proportions—of staggering achievement, attained because a man believed in his own destiny. The play of the same name on which the screen play is based enjoyed almost two years’ run on the London stage and 20th Century is well rewarded for its conscientiousness in bringing the authors, W. P. Lipscomb and R. J. Minney all the way to Hollywood to make their own adaptation, and following up this gesture with a truly magnificent production. One secret of its greatness —if secret it is—is certainly that “Clive of India” dares to tel', the whole truth about a great man, glossing over nothing—not even the man’s less admirable deeds. SATURDAY AND MONDAY. “GOLD DIGGERS OF 1937.” Patrons of the local Regent Theatre on Saturday and Monday are to see the big spectacular production. "The Gold Diggers of 1937,” wliicn has created so much interest in the metropolitan theatres. It teams the everpopular Dick Powell, Joan Blundell and Glenda Farrell, and they have as supporters a wonderful galaxy of proved and popular talent. As is usual with such spectacles, there is a plot interwoven, and for this production it is taken from the successful stage play, “Sweet Mystery of Life.” Need more be said except that there are also good supporting featurettes.

THE EMPIRE THEATRE. COMMENCING TO-NIGHT. “SWEET SURRENDER.” “Sweet Surrender,” to be released for the first time at the Empire Theatre this evening, marks the debut in pictures cf Tamara, the Russian actress and singer who made worldfamous the song, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.” It is a wonderfully entertaining production, a gay, colourful, and smart musical romance, studded with stars of radio, screen, and stage. Associated with Tamara, whose dance numbers are a real delight to the eye, is Frank Parker, whose appealing tenor voice is heard to advantage in seven fine song hits. Many of the sets were filmed in the state rooms and salons aboard the giant liner, Normandie, and in Jack Dempsey’s restaurant, where the onetime world’s champion boxer also struts his little piece. The new “Apassionata” dance may be aptly described as a dance sensation, a scene in which 132 beautiful girls keep rhythmic time to a chorus of 16 voices in a huge ballet of brilliance.