ENTERTAINMENTS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4184, 11 September 1939, Page 8

ENTERTAINMENTS

AT THE REGENT. FOR TWO MORE NIGHTS. “BOYS' TOWN.” Mickey Rooney has been elevated to stardom in “ Boys’ Town,’’ culminating an unbroken list of successes during the past year which have made him one of the screen’s most popular personalities. The new picture, which stars Rooney and Spencer Tracy, shows at the Regent for two more days. Teamed for the first time since Captains Courageous,” Tracy’s most recent smash hit was scored in “ Test Pilot.” while Rooney continues to win acclaim for his work in “ Love Finds Andy Hardy.” In their new picture Tracy portrays a living man, Father Edward J. Flanagan, who has devoted twenty-one years of his life to building a home for neglected and abandoned boys. Rooney plays Whitey Marsh, a boy from the streets, who learns that a boy has to be really tough to be good when his gangster brother places him in Father Flanagan’s care. Directed by Norman Taurog, who made “ Skippy ” and more recently “ Tom Sawyer ” and “ Mad About Music,” the film is the factual story of Father Flanagan’s courageous and dramatic life and the colourful history of Boys* Town, Nebraska, now an incorporated village with a population of 275, of which 200 are boys.

AT THE EMPIRE. TWO MORE SHOWINGS. “FLIRTING WITH FATE." Although Joe E. Brown’s middle initial, does not stand for Entertainment, his new picture, “Flirting With Fate,” which opened at the Empire Theatre on Saturday, certainly does. The film is crammed with inspired comedy, thrills that had the audience holding on to their seats, and the best Joe E. Brown pantomime which has been seen in the stellar comedian’s pictures in some time. Brown is a clown incarnate, touching with that rare genius for grotesquerie that gives all great pantomimists their immortality. For once, the Comedian has been given a cast commensurate with his own ability. Leo Carrillo is seen as a gay, bad man, head of a bandit crew. Lovely Beverly Roberts plays the feminine lead opposite the star. Wynne Gibson, Steffi Duna, who dances a torrid rhumba in the film, Stanley Fields, Leonid Kinsky and Charles Judels are included in the capable list of supporting players. The hilarious story of the manager and star attraction of a vaudeville troupe touring South America is the basis for many of the laughs which the film affords. Difficulties encountered when Brown as the troupe manager, offends everyone who can help him and decides to end it all so that his friends can collect his insurance money and return to the United States, add to the waves of laughter which greeted the first showing of the film. Just when Brown feels that his efforts at self-annihilation are to be rewarded he is offered a year’s contract for himself and company touring the major cities of the continent. In a dilemma he manages to extricate himself from impending doom and winds up the picture in a furore of laughter.