ENTERTAINMENTS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4219, 4 December 1939, Page 8

ENTERTAINMENTS

AT THE REGENT. AGAIN TO-NIGHT AND TUESDAY “LOVE FINDS ANDY HARDY.” The Judge Hardy Family is loose again; In “Love Finds Andy Hardy” they create another alternately humorous and dramatic episode from the life of a typical American family. Opening last Saturday night, at the Regent Theatre, the picture impressed the audience with its youthful charm, its exuberance and scintilating moments of high comedy. The fourth episode in the life of the Hardy Family is by far the most amusing and entertaining to date. Once more it affords the family, consisting of Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden and Betty Ross Clarke with every opportunity for capitalising on the homespun drama of everyday life. In addition, Judy Garland makes her appearance as one of Mickey’s three girl friends. In one climactic scene, she grows up for a night, attends the big dance of the year with Mickey and stakes iff over witlr her rendition of ’three 'new songs.’ ’George Seitz handled the direction of the picture expertly, with a sure knowledge of the inner workings of average family life in America. Mickey Rooney again proves himself one of the most versatile actors on the screen with a characterisation surpassing his best previous efforts. Lewis Stone is superb as the head of the family, handling his role adroitly and with an innate understanding of the problems of family life. Judy Garland, growing up gives the finest performance of her career.

AT THE EMPIRE. / AGAIN TO-NIGHT AND TUESDAY. “WEST OF SHANGHAI.” Now it may be told why Boris Karloff has “ turned human ” in pictures. After mechanical or semi-human or supernatural “horror men,” he has just finished two pictures in which he plays real human beings, and rather likeable ones at that. “ I found that I was frightening children throughout the world,” Karloff explains simply. That was reason enough for the man who had built a great reputation for one particular kind of picture to turn away from that career and, in effect, embark upon another. “ Night Key,” at one studio, introduced Karloff as a human being on the screen, and his newest picture, “ West of Shanghai,” made for Warner Bros.,

and now playing at the Empire Theatre, is another and very important step toward his “humanisation.” This picture, with an all-star cast that includes Beverley Roberts, Gordon Oliver, Ricardo Cortez, and Sheila Bromley, is based on the famous old stage play, “ The Bad Man.”