ENTERTAINMENTS

Taranaki Daily News, 10 December 1931, Page 16

ENTERTAINMENTS

OPERA HOUSE. MATINEE TO-DAY, 2 P.M. “Daddy Long Legs,” starring Janet Gaynor and Warner Baxter, will be screened at the Opera House to-day at a special matinee at 2 p.m., and finally to-night commencing at 8 o’clock. Both the leading players are ideally suited to their roles, and an excellent supporting cast, headed by Una Merkel, John A pledge, Claude Gillingwater, sen., and Kathlyn Williams, and splendid direction combine to make “Daddy Long Legs” one of the real cinematic treats of°the year. “Judy’s” flaring tirade against her oppression in the “Orphan s Home,” “Pendleton’s” decision to send her to college, their dawn of love, misunderstandings and final reunion, are but a few of the story’s emotional peaks. Delightful settings, a group_ of highly lovable children in the “Institution” sequences, a clever adaptation of Miss Webster’s play by Sonya Levien, and Alfred Santell’s telling and always' sympathetic direction, alLaid in making “paddy Long Legs” a genuine treat for picture lovers. There is a splendid supporting programme. SATURDAY NEXT. "Almost a Honeymoon,” British International’s highly successful all-talking adaptation of the Garrick Theatre success, will play a return season at the Opera House on Saturday next at 2 and 8 p.m. Without fear of contradiction, it can be said that “Almost a Honeymoon” is funnier than any of the Aldwych Theatre farces starring Tom Walls and Co. Clifford Mollison is starred and a clever east is headed by Dodo Watts and Donald Calthrop. EVERYBODY’S. ” “ A'BR AHAM~LINCOIIN.” “Abraham Lincoln,” the United Artists special attraction which commenced a three-night season at Everybody’s last night, was directed by D. W. Griffith, the man who made “Birth of a Nation” and “Way Down East.” The whole pageant of Lincoln’s life passes in review, with the romance of the martyred President and Ann Rutledge stressed in an important and entertaining way. Heading a tremendous cast of 112 are Walter Huston as Lincoln, Kay Hammond as Mary Todd Lincoln, Una Merkel as Ann Rutledge, lan Keith as John Wilkes Booth, Jason Robards as Herndon, Lincoln’s young law partner, Hobart Bosworth as ' Robert E. Lee, Frank Campeau as Phil. Sheridan, and Lucille La Verne, playing an important character role. The shorts include Pathe Magazine, “The Haunted House” (Mickey Mouse cartoon) and Australian Fox News. THE REGENT. “Sinners’ Holiday” and “The Matrimonial Problem,” which were screened for the first time at the Regent last night, will again be screened to-night and to-morrow night. Adapted to the screen by Harvey Thew from Marie Baumer’s successful stage play, ‘ Sinners Holiday” vividly depicts the lives of people of the amusement world, showing how a girl, faced with the horror of seeing either her brother or sweetheart go to the electric chair, makes the supreme sacrifice for the man she loves. Grant Withers and Evelyn Knapp head the cast. “The Matrimonial Problem,” the latest Warner Bros, and Vitaphone production is an adaptation of th© Parisian stage success of M. Yves Mirande and M. Mouezy-Eon. The cast includes Lilyati Tashman, Florence Eldridge,. James Gleason, Beryl Mercer, Frank Fay, Marion Byron, Vivian Oakland, Arthur Edmund Carewe and James Bradbury. The direction is by Michael Curtiz. The story hinges on a supposedly dead husband who returns after five years to find his wife remarried. Suffering from amnesia, he has his memory restored by a hypnotist and then forgets his own second wife and remembers- his first. Funniest farce in years.