ENTERTAINMENTS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 61, Issue 4358, 15 November 1940, Page 8

ENTERTAINMENTS

AT THE REGENT. FINAL SCREENING TO-NIGHT. “ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES.” It is hardly necessary here to sit down and enumerate the amazing parade of gangster picture successes turned out by Warner Bros. That this company knows where it’s going with this sort of stuff goes without saying, and “Angels With Dirty Faces,’’ which opened- on Wednesday at the Regent Theatre, is no exception. Starring James Cagney and Pat O’Brien, who grow up in the film from a pair of guttersnipes, the former to be a big-shot gangster, the latter to become a priest, this picture hits squarely and hard with both hands. In an hour and a half of thrilling cinema fare Regent Theatre audiences will receive an emotion work-out which leaves them with the feeling that in “ Angels With Dirty Faces” they have seen something. Here actually is a work which Warner Bros., Michael Curtiz, the director, John Wexley and Warren Duff, the writers (from Rowland Brown’s story) may well be proud. One hesitates to say whether it’s -he story itself, the powerfully human message it carries, or the amazing performance by the actors which is outstanding. COMMENCING SATURDAY. “ MIDNIGHT.” Five pictures in a row with a Paris background I That’s the record established by Paris-born Claudette Colbert, to be seen with Don Ameche, Francis Lederer, John Barrymore, and Mary Astor in Paramount’s “ Midnight,” when it opens on Saturday at the Regent Theatre. The films are, in the order named, “ I Met Him in Paris,” “ Tovarich,” “ Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife,” “ Zara,” and of course “Midnight,” a comedy of the adventures of a penniless American girl on the loose in internnational society. Although she was born within the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, Miss Colbert’s acting experience is 100 per cent American, her first role being a three-line role in a New York play called “The Wild Westcotts.” Her first important picture was “The Big Pond,” with Maurice Chevalier.

AT THE EMPIRE. FINAL SCREENING TO-NIGHT. “OUTSIDE THE THREE-MILE LIMIT.” Set against a spectacular and kaleidoscopic series of backgrounds, Columbia’s “ Outside the Three-mile Limit” revealed itself as a colourful and exciting melodrama at the Empire Theatre on Wednesday and yesterday. Jack Holt, two-fisted action favourite, is starred in the new film as a daring G-man who battles single handed with a crew of villains which include Harry Carey, Eduardo Ciannelli, and Sig Rumann. The story begins on board a palatial gambling ship which Holt is keeping under surveillance because it seems to be the source of a flood of counterfeit bills. Eduardo Ciannelli, the proprietor, surprises one of Holt’s assistants at the safe, and murders the operative. The .floating casino then puts to sea in an attempt to escape from justice. When the crew mutinies and Captain Harry Carey leads the fugitives ashore to the hide-out of the former public enemy, Sig Rumann, the courageous G-man finds the end of the trail. Before he can take command, however, the tables are turned, and the gangster factions join together to convert his defeat into a triumph in thrilling fashion. SATURDAY AND MONDAY ONLY. “ NICK CARTER.” Nick Carter, most beloved and most read of any detective character in history, comes to life in a thrill-filled romance, with Walter Pidgeon as the screen personification of the master sleuth, in “ Nick Carter, Master Detective,” a drama of thrills by air> land, and sea, coming to-morrow to the Empire Theatre. The story deals with the machinations of an international spy ring stealing secrets of the builders of secret new war planes. Carter is set to ferret out the mystery. In a trans-continental flight he notices strange actions of a pretty stewardess (Rita Johnson), who later proves instrumental in saving him in a battle in the desert. In the airplane factory he traces this and that suspect, trails a mystery group by painting the top of their car white and following by plane to attack them in a fleeing yacht from the air. Thrill follows thrill until the criminals in the strange case are disclosed in a whirlwind finish. Players include Henry Hull, Stanley C. Ridges, Donald Meek, and Addison Richards.