AMUSEMENTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20098, 3 May 1935, Page 2

AMUSEMENTS

MAJESTIC THEATRE “ DR. MONICA ” “Doctor Monica,” which concludes at the Majestic to-day, is a thrillingly dramatic story in which two women battle for love and happiness. Kay Francis has the title role while others in the cast include Warren William, Jean Muir, Verree Teasdale, Phillip Reed and Emma Dunn. William Keighley directed from the screen play by Charles Kenyon. “Carolina” To-morrow. Teeming with emotion, and abounding in richness and beauty, Fox Film’s latest release, “Carolina,”’ opens at the Majestic to-morrow. The cast is studded with seven great stars, all of whom do more than justice to the film that promises to be one of the outstanding productions to come from Hollywood. The screen play depicts realistically and dramatically the aspirations and the struggle of the South, and a Southern family to regain the glory that once was theirs. Janet Gay nor and Lionel Barrymore have the leading roles, and their portrayals are superb. Robert Young, Henrietta Crosman, Richard Cromwell and Mona Barrie head the supporting cast, and each and every one of them gives an unforgettable performance. Others in the cast are Stepin Fetchit, Russell Simpson, Ronnie Cosbey, Jackie Cosbey, Almeda Fowler and Alden Chase.

REGENT THEATRE “THE LOST PATROL” Featured in “The Lost Patrol,” which concludes at the Regent to-day, in a drama of heroism on the Mesopotamian desert are Boris Karloff, Wallace Ford, Reginald Denny, Alan Hale, Billy Bevan, Sammy Stein, Paul Hanson, Brandon Hurst, J. M. Kerrigan, and Douglas Walton. The story centres about the plight of a detachment of British cavalrymen lost on the desert without orders when their officer is slain by Arabs. “ The Old Curiosity Shop ” Much of the magic that is Dickens is preserved in the screen version of “The Old Curiosity Shop,” which will open at the Regent to-morrow. It is no light task to attempt the transference to the screen of a Dickens novel, particularly a classic of such breadth as the lovely tale of Little Nell, and it is to the credit of British studios that they have produced a film capable of proving to the present generation that Dickens was not a somewhat fusty old gentleman, with a pronounced Victorian outlook. It is too much to ask that in a picture lasting only an hour and a-half, all those figures should appear in the rich colours in which Dickens painted them, and that the story itself should have the same brave sweep of the novel. What does matter is that the Dickensian atmosphere is there. The story loses none of its charm and at least half a dozen of the great characters of the book are gloriously alive. The triumph of the film is scored by Hay Petrie, who makes Quilp the snarling, loathsome ogre that tradition demands. Mr Petrie is famous in England as an actor of Shakespearian clowns, but his Dickens role fits him like a glove. Marvellously made up. and with countless tricks of body and voice to aid him, he dominates the film in a role of unrelieved villainy. Little Nell and her pathetic old grandfather wander through the film, two perfect character types. Ben Webster is ideal as the grandfather, and little Miss Elaine Benson, as well, acts with delightful placidity.