AMUSEMENTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXX, Issue 20165, 20 July 1935, Page 21

AMUSEMENTS

“ WINGS IN THE DARK ” SPECTACULAR AERIAL DRAMA For Paramount's stirring picture of adventure and romance above the clouds, “Wings in the Dark,” which opens at the Regent to-day, Myma Loy and Cary Grant have been cast as flying sweethearts in the co-starring roles. The film provides something new and different in air pictures and is spectacular in the extreme. The fine cast has an excellent story on which to work and the many humorous interludes are bound to keep an audience in good mood throughout. Miss Loy plays a head-line hunting, thrill seeking aviatrix, while Cary Grant acts the role of scientist of the air. His life wrk is the perfection of blindflying and piloting devices that will make flight absolutely safe. The two are first brought together when Miss Loy’s brazen attempt to cash in on the publicity of Grant’s trans-Atlantic flight forces his withdarwal from the project. He attempts the flight again but is blinded by an accident and flees to the woods for solace. Miss Loy, who has learned to love him, follows him to his hide-out, brings him one of the famous “Seeing-Eye” dogs,, and helps him to regain his self-respect and interest in his work. Just as Grant is convinced that his experiments are reaching their climax he loses his plane because he lacks funds. As a last desperate gesture. Miss Loy undertakes a Moscow-New York flight for enough money to enable Grant to complete his work. The flight is completed safely, but only through Grant’ last-minute heroic efforts, during which he confesses his love. <• GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935 ” j MAJESTIC’S BRIGHT PARADE A gold digger need not necessarily be a platinum blonde who preys on unsuspecting elderly and wealthy men. Under the heading there are bellboys, porters, bartenders, stenographers, and even hotel managers, all of whom are anxious for their percentage of anything that can be won by fair means or foul from those whose pockets have a silver lining. This is the impression given in “The Gold Diggers of 1935.” the extravagant production which will open at the Majestic to-day. The setting for the production is a fashionable hotel at the height of the summer season, and with such players in the cast as Adolphe Menjou, as a temperamental impresario. Nicoleff, Dick Powell as a young hotel clerk with a voice of beautiful quality and range, and Gloria Stuart, who trips her way through many dance numbers, as the daughter of an exceedingly rich but careful woman, there is not a dull moment from first to last. The stage effects are lavish throughout, but perhaps the most spectacular of them all are those in the scene in which pianos are made to perform all manner of evolutions and finally merge into an immense white stage. There is plenty of love interest in the piece, but the most consistent pair in this respect are Diok Powell and Gloria Stuart, who startle the rich mother of the latter by deciding to wed. Alice Brady, as Mrs Prentiss, who makes every penny go as far as possible, and goes into hysterics when her shares fluctu - ate the slightest fraction, is a particularly convincing character, but for all her carefulness she cannot escape the wily Nicoleff, who successfully relieves her of her money by extravagantly producing a charity stage presentation which she has guaranteed to back to a limited extent. Much of the comedy of the production rests on the shoulders of Hugh Herbert, and whenever he is about there is a constant stream of witticisms that keeps the audience amused. THEATRE ROYAL DOUBLE FEATURE BILL “The Firebird,” a strange and fascinating romance set in the background of Austria’s gay capital, with a four-star cast, including Verree Teasdale, Ricardo Cortez, Lionel Atwill and Anita Louise, leades the double feature programme which opened at the Royal last night. The four form a quartette, who together with several others, are involved in a most unusual clandestine romance and a baffling murder mystery. Miss Teasdale and Miss Lousie are seen in. the roles of mother and daughter with Atwill as the husband and father, and Cortez the menacing, although magnetic figure who threatens to destroy the aristocratic household. The theme deals with the fatal fascination of a young girl for a popular but unscrupulous actor which ultimately results in a baffling murder. Several persons are suspected of the crime and two separate women confess to it. The police finally manage to untangle the intricately woven threads of crime in a strange and smashing climax, which brings scandal to a great diplomat’s family. The second attraction is “Strange Wives,” an exciting comedy in which Esther Ralston and Roger Pryor are seen in the chief roles. TIMARU ORCHESTRAL SOCIETY. The first orchestral concert of the 1935 seasonfi the tenth year of the Timaru Orchestral Society, will be held in the Theatre Royal on Monday, July 29, when a full orchestra under the baton of Mr W. H. Osborne, hon. conductor, will present a request programme of classical and popular music. Included in the programme will be “Sword and Lance” march; “Unfinished Symphony” (Schubert); “Incidental Music to Henry VIII" (A. Sullivan); “Peer Gynt Suite No. 2” (Greig); “Norwegian Scenes” (A. E. Matt); “Wai-ata Poi” (Alfred Hill); “Rienzi Overture" (Wagner). The assisting artists will be Miss Chrissie Talbot, soprano, and Mr F. G. Taplin baritone (Dunedin), and the Boys’ High School Quartette; Miss Talbot will sing "The Indian Bell Song," from the opera “Lakme” (Delibes), and a group of modern songs, while Mr Taplin will sing “When the King Went Forth to War” (Koeneman), “Elegie” (Massenet), and two songs by Vaughan Williams, “The Vagabond," and “Linden Lea,” Altogether the first concert promises to uphold the high standard of music set by the Society. Intending new subscribers may enrol at Beggs’.