ENTERTAINMENTS

Taranaki Daily News, 10 May 1930, Page 7

ENTERTAINMENTS

“SUNNY SIDE. UP.”

TALKING MASTERPIECE;

It is just six months since talking pic-, tures were first presented at The People’s Theatre, New Plymouth, and in that six months the patrons of that house have witnessed some excellent productions, some of them recognised as the best talkies produced in Hollywood. But, of course, there has to come a time when the very best of them all open its season, and “Sunny Side Up” is that picture-to commence oh Wednesday night, It is rather difficult at first glance to decide just what makes “Sunny Side Up” the masterpiece it is. The. two leading players,'Charles Farraj! arid Janet Gaynor, are definitely among Hie most popular _players on stage or screen, and they both act, talk, dance and sing in a manner that simply radiates happiness and the joy of living; the music, by de Sylva, Brown and Henderson, ’ls good music, not merely emphemerally tuneful; the ballets are gorgeous affairs, and Janet Gaynor dances in a way one would never have thought her capable of; arid to complete this cycle of good things, the story is a sound, solid one that starts strongly and works up, with never a scene that lags,’ right up to a sfriashing climax. There have indeed been other sound pictures that have boasted story, cast, music and ballets; pictures that have not lagged in interest, and have written their “Finis” in a burst of glory, but, it is declared, they have not been “Sunny Side Up.” And it must not be assumed that, because, this .picture has its interludes of song and dance and music, that it is another story of stage life, or back-stage life; it is a story of every-day people that you’ll love. “Sunny Side Up” will show for a week with matinees daily at 2 p.m.

PEOPLE’S TALKIES.

MATINEE TO-DAY AT 2 P.M.

At The People’s talkies, New Plymouth, to-day at 2 p.m. and to-night at 8 p.m. the management are presenting the first all-talking, two-star bill to be shown in New Plymouth. The first one to be screened will-be the thrilling western drama entitled “The Long, Long Trail.” Popular. Hoot Gibson, is the star, and it is a fine comedy dealing with a bashful cowboy who falls in love with a beautiful city girl. “Strange Cargo,” the second picture, is packed from start to finish with tense drama, thrills arid heart appeal. The plot has to do with the mysterious slaying of. the owner of a, palatial pleasure yacht while on a voyage to the Azores. When last seen, the man is talking to his friends ih a brilliantly illuiriinated salon. The lights go out suddenly, ti groan is heal’d and when lights are brought the man had vanished!. Every passenger is suspected and a searching investigation is made, in the course of which strange .happenings occur. How the assassin is discovered makes one of. the most amazing climaxes ever seen on’ the screen. Notable stage players are included in a practically all-star cast. There will be a “talkie” news reel to open.

EVERYBODY’S TALKIES.

MATINEE TO-DAY AT 2 P.M. r

■ "Frozen Justice,” which heads the new programme commencing at Everybody’s talkies, New Plymouth, to-day at 2 p.m. and to-night at 8 p.m., is a stirring, elemental theme of love and hate, pagfiion. and greed, revenge .arid self-sacrifice. Packed with intense emo-; tional situations, it recounts the tale bS a woman who seeks to free herself, from the fetters of her half-caste racial heri- r tage. Her chance comes with the arrival of a tradirig crew in her Eskimo From there to Nome she flees, filled with indignation over her husband’s bru-; tality. The gay fabric of civilisation turns out to be shoddy stuff in the. license of a Yukon dance hall. Taunts, of the habitues drive her into frenzy, and despair. Conflict again claims her and her decision to return, to her peo--pie brings violence and death. The uh-' folding of the plot is • colourfully punctuated with tribal songs and roustabout’ ballads. Lcnore Ulric, Louis Wolheim and Robert Frazer head the cast in this all-talking production. The supporting programme will include Fox Movietone' News, "Old Tunes for New” (remark-, able, musical novelty), “Pussie Willie”' (all-talking comedy starring Clark and (Oswald cartoon), and “Knights Out” McCullough).

OPERA HOUSE.

TWO BIG FEATURES TO-NIGHT.

At the New Plymouth Opera House to-night two fine features will be screened. “Slim Fingers” will be the first to be screened and is sure to give patrons plenty of thrills. Bill Cody and Duane Thompson head the cast in a picture that tells the tale of a boy’s brave fight to save his sweetheart from a gang of art thieves. The second attraction, “The Prince of Adventurers,” starring Ivan Mosjoukine, is one of the greatest pictures that has ever been produced. Photographed partly in technicolour, it is the daring story,of Casanova, the greatest philanderer in European history. It includes a supporting cast of 10,0t}[), and takes you to Venice, the beautiful, at carnival time, and presents to your eyes brilliant scenes Jin the palace at St. Petersburg. The musical accompaniment for this fine programme will be rendered by the Opera House Orchestra of six instruments. “RIO RITA.” ' The management of Everybody’s talkies, New Plymouth, have been fortunate in securing such a super attraction for their patrons as “Rio Rita,” adapted to ths screen from the famous Ziegfeld musical comedy success. The Radio Pictures Corporation secured Bcbe Daniels for the leading role, and she enhances her silent screen fame greatly # ; n this production. John Boles ably assists.her, and there is a supporting cast of thousands of supers, etc. All the rich qualities which drew Broadway crowds for sixty-two consecutive weeks to the Ziegfeld Theatre have been retained in the film production, and to these have been adder! mobility and magnitude which the stage, even under the-direc-tion of a Ziegfeld, could not hope to attain. Against the most lavish sets yet seen on the screen is played and sung the magnificent drama of the Mexican borderland by Bebe Daniels, John Boles and supporting cast. Mighty vocal choruses, inspiring dance routines' and beauty assemblies show for the first time the endless possibilities of the speaking screen. In the huge cast are

Robert Woolsey and Bert ' Wheeler, crack comedians of the original show; Don Alvarado, popular screen player; Dorothy Lee, player sensation of “Syncopation”; Helen Kaiser, Follies beauty; Georges Renevant, Tiby Sandford, Sam Nelson and Eva Rosita. More than a hundred glorious girls, the PieJ.o Cimini grand chorus of eighty male voices, and the famed Radio Pictures’ Symphony Orchestra, are among other features. The whole of the second part of the production is filmed in technicolour aboard a sumptuously furnished galleon anchored in the Rio Grande. “Rio Rita” commences a special six-fright season on Wednesday, May 21, and there will bo daily matinees at 2 p.m. The box plan opens at Collier’s on Friday, May IU.