ENTERTAINMENTS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 60, Issue 4285, 27 May 1940, Page 8

ENTERTAINMENTS

AT THE REGENT. AGAIN TO-NIGHT AND TOMORROW. “THE LITTLE PRINCESS.” In her first technicolour production Shirley Temple reveals all her radiant charm and amazing talen in “The Littie Princess,” the 20th Centuryr ox hit which brought the great Frances Hodgson Barnett classic to glowing life on the screen of the Regent Theatre on Saturday It was in direct answer to the thousands of requests that flooded the studio that Darryl F. Zanuck decided to cast the dimpled star in the immortal story, and it was instantly apparent from the reception she was accorded on Saturday that the fans had finally discovered a film adequate to the talents of Shirley Temple. As the countless thousands familiar with the story know, the setting for “ The Little Princess ” is London at the turn of the century. The Boer war has started the Union Jack flies from every building, and the streets are filled with marching Grenadiers. All London is alive with excitement, and Shirley is trying to hold back the tears- Her father is going to Africa with his regiment. Before Shirley’s father leaves he arranges for her to stav in Mjss Minchin’s Exclusive Girls’ School until his return. It is during the first few days of her stay here that “ The Little Princess,” as her school mates call her because of her lovely clothes, meets those who are to play such an important part in her life during the following months. AT THE EMPIRE. AGAIN TO-NIGHT AND TUESDAY. “TELL NO TALES.” “Tell No Tales,” which opened on Saturday at the Empire Theatre, is a remarkable production in many ways. To classify it is difficult. The picture is different. Drama predominates but it is all-embracing entertainment running the gambus of emotion-stirring situations and defying routine formula. It is a series of stories not unlke those that have come from the pen of the famous O. Henry, with all che elements of life in a great city moulded into one astounding plot. In fact, it is five stories within a story. Melvyn Douglas is a newspaper reporter into whose hands falls a hun dred dollar bill that is part of a sum of money paid for a ransom and murder. Douglas goes to work tracing the bill. Step by step his relentless pur-

suit of the bill’s source leads him to and through every haunt and purlieu of the city’s teeming life, with the menace of death ever at his shoulder until, in a final battering climax, he brings the criminals to justice. Never lagging in ts breathless suspense and intensity, the unusual story moves through constant changing scenes, from the ornate home of a wealthy gambling house, the home of a prizefighter in the slums, back-stage Broadway, cafes, a girls’ boarding school and a wedding sequence to a nerve-shattering railway wreck.