ENTERTAINMENTS

Taranaki Daily News, 3 September 1934, Page 13

ENTERTAINMENTS

EVERYBODY’S THEATRE. TOM WALLS AND RALPH LYNN. “A Cuckoo in the Nest,” which was greeted with roars of laughter on Satur- • day at Everybody’s Theatre, is a Gau-mont-British picturisation of the famous farce by Ben Travers, which played to i packed houses at the Aldwych Theatre, • London, for many months. It is good to have Mr. Tom Walls back in partnership with Mr. Ralph Lynn. The Combination spells perfect harmony in any farcical situation; and in this story of ; absurd misunderstandings involving two eminently respectable married couples, it is unalloyed delight. “A Cuckoo in the Nest” is the funniest of their come- ’ dies sees for soijie time and Tom Walls, disguised in military face-foliage and , chronically bibulous, is even more amusing than when he is playing “straight” comedy. If there were nothing else in the picture except Ralph doing his original and painstaking best to curl up and go to sleep under a washstand, it would be worth paying to see. Part of that particular bit of fun is the outrageous manner in which Yvonne Arnaud, cosily installed in a comfortable bed, laughs at his struggles. Mary Brough re-creates her part of Mrs. Spoker, the acidulous and suspicious landlady of the village inn at Maiden Blotton. She has ample scope for delineating this narrow-minded, highly “proper” old party. A splendid supporting programme includes the second of the series dealing with the life of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. Screening will be repeated twice daily to-day and tomorrow. PICTURE OF EERIE THRILLS. GOOD REGENT PROGRAMME. The Regent Theatre has excelled itself with its present programme in providing an ideal bill for those numerous theatregoers who enjoy real eerie thrills punctuated with a few shudders. Saturday’s programme presented to a full house was headed by “The Black Cat,” featuring the two outstanding portrayers of sinister and chilling roles, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, with David Manners and Jacqueline Logan the only pleasantlooking persons in a series of weird happenings in an isolated modem fortress which a man had built on the site of a spot where he betrayed 10,000 soldiers to their death. Karloff is the traitor, and Lugosi the man who returns from living death to avenge the host of betrayed and seek his wife and daughter. Manners and Uliss Logan are a honeymoon couple who stumble by accident' into this bed of horror and devil worship. The scenes of the satanic festival of the darkened moon are particularly interesting-in a film full of spine-chilling and creeping things. Henry Armetta makes a brief appearance and is as amusing as ever. In its class “The Black Cat” is of a high standard. The second feature of the programme is “The Love Captive,” with the accomplished Nils Asther as a doctor and. hypnotist who carries things too far, It..is .an interesting picture and whets the appetite for the thrills of the main attraction. In a' budget of newsreel events the most topical is the exciting contest for the great American turf classic, the Kentucky Derby. The programme will be repeated to-day and Tuesday. HEPBURN IN “MORNING GLORY.” NEW TREATMENT OF OLD THEME. It is difficult to furbish old ware until it shines brighter than new. All the more credit goes to R.K.O. Radio, therefore, in producing “Morning Glory,” which opened at the New Plymouth Opera House on Saturday. When an unsophisticated girl comes from amateur stage successes in a small town expecting to. take practical money-grabbing New York by storm the stage is set for the dreariness of hackneyed light romance. But the producers flooded Katharine Hepburn in the limelight, and let the story develop round her as it would. The result is a psychological study that depicts with unfaltering consistency the way in which an amazing initial innocence is gradually over-laid by experience. The rather ridiculous, rather pathetic egotism of the young tyro affords comedy that deepens naturally and imperceptibly into a drama striking out daringly on new paths. It ends triumphantly on a challenging high note which ignores conventionality in favour of a truer conception. Douglas Fairbanks, jun., vindicates his claim to be something more than a handsome romantic lead. C. Aubrey Smith is kindly and reliable, and Adolphe Menjou is at his suave best. The supporting programme is excellent.