ENTERTAINMENTS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4186, 15 September 1939, Page 8

ENTERTAINMENTS

AT THE REGENT. AGAIN THIS EVENING. “JEZEBEL? No young actress of the screen appears to be quite so excellent in the portrayal of selfish, impetuous, hottempered (and sometimes even nasty) girls as Bette Davis, the blonde Warner Bros. star. She brought the most striking of her characterisations on Wednesday to the Regent Theatre, at which she appeared in “ Jezebel,” colourful drama of the southern United States of America, the locale being New Orleans of the early 1850’s, a decade before the Civil War. The audience which saw’ yesterday’s local presentation of “ Jezebel ” pronounced it even more exciting than her recent * Marked Woman ” or “ Dangerous,” for which she won the 1936 Academy award, or even her celebrated “ Of Human Bondage,” with Leslie Howard. COMMENCES SATURDAY. “ YOU CAN’T CHEAT AN HONEST MAN?’ W„ C. Fields now has a new weapon with which to carry on his feud with Charlie McCarthy. Tired of the insults Charlie had been hurling at him. Fields finally decided to “ fight w’ood with wood.” So he designed a dummy, Oliver, who makes his public debut in Universal’s “You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man,” coming to the Regent Theatre on Saturday. Oliver, a funny-looking chap with a typical Fields nose, high cheek-bones, black hair, and bushy black eyebrows, was made in the Universal carpentry shop. Then Fields figured out a very funny sequence in which he could use Oli-r ver in “ You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man?’ Of course, Fields is not a ventriloquist, so he wore a false moustache w’hen operating his dummy. The first time Charlie and Oliver met on the set it was quite apparent they weren’t going to be friends. Upon being introduced Oliver immediately cracked, So you’re the hunk of sassafras root who’s been making all those remarks about Mr Fields.” For once Charlie did not get mad. Instead, he very calmly asked, “ Did you say something ? As a matter of fact I dare you to say anything when Fields isn’t wearing that phoney moustache.” Supporting Fields, Bergen, and McCarthy in “You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man,” are Mortimer Snerd. Constance Moore, Mary Forbes, Thurston Hall, and Princess Baba-

at the empire. AGAIN TO-NIGHT,. “OUTLAWS OF; THE ORIENT.” After playing at the Empire Theatre for two days, Columbia’s “ Outlaws of the Orient,” which stars Jack Holt and features Mae Clarke and Harold Huber, makes its exit this evening. The film is a colourful adventure story of the Gobi desert. Holt is seen as the foreman of an oil field. Ernest Schoedsack directed “ Outlaws of the Orient ” from an original story by Ralph Graves, Holt’s former screen buddy. Schoedsack first won movie fame when he set a new standard for outdoor films with the memorable “ Chang ” and “ Grass.” OPENING SCREENING. DOUBLE-FEATURE PROGRAMME. The name of Edgar Wallace stands alone. It needs no explanatory appendage. Old and young in town or country know that Wallace is indisputably master of the art of telling crime and mystery stories, known generally as thrillers. The millions of people w’ho enjoy these tales unhesitatingly take up an Edgar Wallace if the title is not known to them; preliminary browsing to sample the contents is quite unnecessary. “If it’s .Wallace it’s good” is the unspoken thought. In “ The Terror,” showing at the Empire Theatre for the first time this evening, we have one of his best yarns, beginning with a bullion robbery on a road to London, entailing the use of a stupefying gas, and moving to a luxurious guest house in the country, where mysterious events are the more macabre in beautiful surroundings. As in all other Wallace stories, the police side playing in “ Star of the Circus,” aphas the stamp of authenticity.

Most villains, by a well-established theatrical tradition, are handsome, | but their good looks usually have a ' sinister bias, and it is rare that men j usually cast as heroes take a role on the darker side of the story. Once a hero, never a villain. Otto Kruger, playing in “ Star of the Circus,” showing on the same programjme, is one of the exceptions. After a succession of parts in films where his unusually handsome features typify him as being on the side of right and the soul of honour, he plays the villain in this latest story, where he causes his rival in love to fall from a high tight-rope.