ENTERTAINMENTS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4171, 11 August 1939, Page 8

ENTERTAINMENTS

AT THE REGENT. COMMENCING TO-MORROW. “THE SHINING HOUR.” Joan Crawford returns to pictures as a talented dancer in her new vehicle, “The Shining Hour,” which will open at the Regent Theatre to-mor-row evening. The picture is an adaptation of the New York stage success by Keith Winter. Appearing with Miss Crawford are Margaret Sullavan, Robert Young, Melvyn Douglas, and Fay Bainter. The story is an appealing combination of Broadway gaiety, with the lights and music contrasting with the tranquility of a mid-western farm. Briefly it is the account of a charming dancer who marries a grave young farm expert for security and peace rather than for love. When he takes her into the cold heart of his Kansas family her difficulties begin. A youngbrother falls in love with her, and she is attracted to him. His wife, a courageous and unselfish girl, is heart-broken. A dour spinster sister is bitter and unrelenting. In this predicament the dancer is helplessly trapped as the play of human emotions reveals the good and bad* in all of them, herself included.

TO-NIGHT. MATINEE TOMORROW. A DOUBLE-FEATURE* PROGRAMME. Such stars as John Barrymore, Greta Garbo, Victor McLaglen, and Charles Chaplin were cast for minor roles—mere bits. But that is only half the story. Clark Gable, William Powell, Joan Crawford, Marion Davies, and Irene Dunne appear in the picture only as atmosphere players, with no lines of dialogue. This truly all-star production, with characters embracing a total of twentynine of Hollywood’s highest-priced and most internationally known artists, is “ It Happened in Hollywood,” the Columbia comedy drama to be shown at the Regent Theatre this evening and to-morrow afternoon, with Richard Di if in the title role. Fay Wray is his leading lady. The stars mentioned as cast for the picture, however, are seen as “ photographic doubles.” The plot of the story concerns itself with a climatic hoax in which Dix, in the role of a movie star, stages a party for the benefit of a young boy fan from the East. He has promised the lad that he shall meet all the notables of the screen colony. He keeps this promise by inviting doubles to at-

tend the party and pretend they are the real stars.

“ When G-Men Step In,” a thrilling account of the constant warfare waged in America against crime, with Don Terry and Jacqueline Wells in the leading roles, is the second attraction on this fine double-feature programme. AT THE EMPIRE. COMMENCING TO-MORROW. "‘THE PATIENT IN ROOM 18.” “The Patient in Room 18,” a mystery melodrama with almost all of its action taking place within the walls of a hospital, will be shown at the Empire Theatre to-morrow evening. This thriller is a Warner Bros, production, based upon a novel by Mignon Eberhart, creator of some of the finest detective yarns in recent years; and it is altogether novel because the detective here involved is able to solve several inter-dependent crimes while confined in hospital himself as a patient. Patrick Knowles, a handsome young British leading man who was imported by Warners for “ The Charge of the Light Brigade,” plays the part of this sleuth, who bears the interesting name of Lance O’Leary. With a hospital as a background it is only natural that the heroine should be a nurse—and she is. She is the tall, red-headed pretty girl from Texas, Ann Sheridan, who became a Warner leading lady a year ago with her very first picture. There are not only two mysterious murders in “The Patient in Room 18,” but there is also the theft of £20,000 worth of radium, which is eventually located through the use of an ultra-modern device called an electroscope, which can detect the valuable element wherever it may be hidden. This is a fascinating scene for the scientifically-minded.

AGAIN TO-NIGHT. A DOUBLE FEATURE PROGRAMME. A vivid contrast in action and theme is presented by the double feature programme to be shown for the the last time at the Empire The, atre this evening. An action-packed dama, “ Reformatory,” with Jack Holt and Charlotte Wynters in the leading roles, is the main attraction. The second film is a bright and amusing comedy, “ Freshman Year.” It is not often that two such excellent films and of such differing appeal are down on the one programme, and patrons of all tastes will have something to interest and entertain them in each.