AMUSEMENTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18653, 23 August 1930, Page 21

AMUSEMENTS.

HOOT GIBSON AT THE THEATRE ROYAL. Hoot Gibson rides his old cay use into some of the most exciting situations ever seen and heard on the screen in “The Mounted Stranger,’ Universal all-talking action picture, at the Theatre Royal this evening. Riding, fighting, romance and humour feature “The Mounted Stranger from the word “go.” Hoot returns to his old stamping round, down along the horder, where men ride hard and fight hard, and life holds a thrill a minute. Hoot plays the part of a young cowboy who sets out to avenge the death of his father, murdered by a gang of bad men. How he acocmplishes this, aided by a beautiful girl, makes one of the most interesting and exciting pictures. Between plots, fights and air breadth escapes. Hoot finds plenty of time to indulge in his inimitable brand of humour, which is among the many things that make his work distinctive as a western star. Winsome Louise Lorraine plays opposite Hoot. As a beautiful girl of Spanish descent, she risks her own Jife to save that of the hero. Bright featurettes on the programme will be. “Oswald the Rabbit” cartoon comedy; a number by the new Collegians; and the Fox Movietone News. Seats may be reserved through ’phone 570. A matinee will take place this afternoon at 2.15. THE MAJESTIC OPENS WITH “THE LOVE PARADE" TO-DAY. It is a new Maurice Chevalier that this latest film production reveals as its star. “The Love Parade” has brought musical numbers to the screen story without the backstage situations that have as a rule been needed to insert a song on a musical film since the screen found voice. This production not only reveals a new Chevalier, but a new Ernest Lubitsch. Once again does the German demonstrate his uncanny directorial ability. Lubitsch has touched the production with an intriguing imagination, particularly in the scenes outside of the boudoir, where statesmen and a retinue of servants with a sly humour describe what is taking place within the royal bedroom. Then there is a-third surprise in the film in the work of Jeanette Macdonald Miss Macdonald makes a thoroughly captivating Queen. She has an innate sense of humour that fits nicely into the character of the Queen, who, after all, was a woman at heart. Miss Macdonald’s voice registers nicely both in song and in spoken line. “The Love Parade” is a triumvirate triumph for Jeanette Macdonald, Fmstf Lubitsch and Maurice Chevalier. To the screen Chevalier brings a humour, a halo of romance, a gay and knowing “air” that is distinctly and adorably French, and in his second picture, “Tne Love Parade,” which will be screened at the Majestic Theatre this evening, he quite excels his former efforts on stage or screen. In a story specially written by Vadja, directed by the one and only Ernst Lubitsch, and assisted by the soprano, Jeanette Macdonlad, there is really no reason why Chevalier and his friends should not have turned out. in ‘The Love Parade,” a superlatively brilliant and engaging piece of work. Tney have succeeded in transforming the talking and musical screen into a medium for exquisite song and music—they have made it, in “The Love Parade,” at any rate, a thing of beauty. The story of Queen Louise of Sylvania, and her diplomat, courtier and sometime husband, Count Alfred, is a gay and witty story that bristles with that piquancy that can be conveyed only by a Frenchman such &s Chevalier, and Miss Macdonald, too, as the lovely and lonely and very human Queen, is a graceful figure who brings reality to her picture. When a commoner, even if he be such an irresistible force as Count Alfred, marries a Queen, he must expect to be merely the Prince Consort, and, by the grace of Lubitsch, this awkward and discreetly amusing situation is transformed into one of the most piquant scenes in the little drama. ‘The Love Parade” is domesticity in song, dance and word in a palace, with Chevalier, Macdonald, Lupino Lane and Lilian Roth as the premier exponents, and if that is not sufficiently intriguing for the average person, one does not know what is. Some of the songs sung by the two stars are “Anything to Please the Queen,” “Nobody’s Using It Now.” “Paris! Stay the Same” “Let’s Be Common,” and the March of the Grenadiers. Other attractions will embrace, The Fourth Rugby test played at Wellington between Britain and New Zealand. A clever singing cartoon presents an old favourite song in “I’m Afraid to go Home in the Dark.” The Universal Reporter News will also be shown. The usual matinee will take place this afternoon.

“CAUGHT SHORT.” AT THE GRAND. The amusing side of the recent American stock market crash will be depicted in “Caught Short,” a MetroGold wyn-Mayer all-talking comedy featuring Marie Dressier and Polly Moran, which will be shown to-day at the Grand Theatre. The story, suggested by Eddie Cantor’s book, was written by Willard Mack. The supporting cast includes Anita Page, Charles Morton, T. Roy Barnes, Gwen Lee, Herbert Prior, Edward Dillon, Gretg. Granstedt, Lee Kohlmar and Alice Moe. Charles F. Riesner directed. In ‘Caught Short” Miss Dressier and Miss Moran will be seen as landladies with competing boarding houses across the street from each other, whose dabbling in the stock market results in their sudden rise from comparative poverty to financial independence and then back again by way of the crash. Love interest is furnished by the romance between Morton and Miss Page as the respective son and daughter of the comedy pair. “Caught Short” is said to be distinguished by expert characterisations cii the part of Barnes, Prior and Dillon in the role of boarders. The settings of the picture are reported to be a relief from the excessively modernistic interiors seen in recent productions, the scenes of “Caught Short” being laid chiefly in the Washington Square “Village” district of New York City. The boarding house atmosphere further carired out in scenes laid In tenements, meat markets, old-clothes emporiums, pawn shops and similar localities of the class of humanity represented in the picture. It is only when the stock-dabbling landladies come “into their own” that the scene shifts from the lower class districts to a luxurious hotel in Atlantic City and more elegant quarters. Musical touches of the picture include a travesty called ‘l’m Spanish Now,” sung by Miss Dressier in a party sequence and “Somebody” which Chas. Morton sings. Supports include a colourtone revue, a good comedy and Metrotone News.