ENTERTAINMENTS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 61, Issue 4320, 16 August 1940, Page 8

ENTERTAINMENTS

at the regent. AGAIN TO-NIGHT “CLIMBING HIGH” Margaret Vyner, who appears in “Climbing High/’ the G.B.D. attraction at the Regent Theatre, was born in Armidale, N.S.W. Her father owned a cattle station, and she spent most of her youth on horseback. Then her father lost his money, and she had to look for a job. She knew no trade, but eventually she got a job in a big store and for a time was a mannequin. She took up fashion modelling, and during a fashion show was seen by a theatrical producer, who offered her a part. She stayed on the stage for a few years, and later went to Paris to study dress designing with Jean Patou, crossed over to England, and became the London correspondent for a group of Australian newspapers. She returned to Australia to play in “The Flying Doctor.” Charles Farrell, star of “The Flying Doctor,” arranged for a screen test of her in England, and so Margaret once more crossed the Atlantic. Six weeks later she was offered the lead in “Sensation,” opposite John Lodge. Other films are “The Cavalier of the Streets,” “Midnight Menace,” and “Sailing Along.” COMMENCING SATURDAY “ANDY HARDY GETS SPRING FEVER” Cecelia Parker, who has come to be known to millions of fans as Mickey Rooney’s sister, Marian, in the famous Hardy Family series, believes that aspiring actresses are wiser to pick the most difficult path to follow for their screen careers. “When I first decided to embark upon a motion picture career there were many paths open to me,” says Miss Parker, who makes her latest appearance as Marian in the lucky seventh Hardy Family hit, “Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever,” currently playing at the Regent Theatre during the week-end. “I could have taken the stage route, the stock player’s route, or the drama school route, but none of these appealed to me because they meant a long wait without actual daily screen experience of a responsible type.

“Figuring that it would be better experience to be a leading lady in a small picture than to be a bit player in a large picture, I decided to try for a lead in a serial short subject, and just to make it a bit more difficult I went after a ‘Western’ short subject. “I’ve never worked so hard in my

life. Riding horses for twelve hours straight, being thrown from wild broncs, all of these things helped me to build up a ‘character reserve’ that I now find very handy in meeting painful disappointments, both on and off the screen.”

AT THE EMPIRE.

FINAL SCREENING TO-NIGHT “GOING PLACES” Marking one of the brightest spots in the years’ cinematic entertainment, “Going Places,” which made its local debut on Wednesday at the Empire Theatre, is a highly hilarious farce with music, with Dick Powell and Anita Louise heading the cast. The name of Powell suggests that there must be some music in the picture, and that supposition is right, for there are four Harry WarrenJohnny Mercer songs in the piece, but, with the exception of one romantic ballad, even the song numbers contribute to the general hilarity, for those other three are all highly diverting novelty numbers. Because of the demonstration of his comic gifts he gave in “Cowboy From Brooklyn,” it is no surprise this time to see Powell enacting a role which is pure comedy from start to finish. Again he proves that he knew what he was doing when he decided to give up straight romantic leading men roles and concentrate on comedy. In “Going Places,” he sets the pace—and a fast and furious pace it is—for as skilful an aggregation of comedians as has ever been gathered together in one production. Notable among the funny men are Allen Jenkins, Walter Catlett, Harold Huber and Thurston Hall, and they all live up to their reputations. Miss Louise is, of course, Powell’s romantic vis-a-vis, and it is not her job to be funny but to be desirable and sympathetic. And she demonstrates that she can be just as warm and appealing as her loveliness to the eye promises.