AMUSEMENTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20862, 19 October 1937, Page 8

AMUSEMENTS

“AS GOOD AS MARRIED” SMART COMEDY AT MAJESTIC The New Universal’s brilliant comedy drama, “As Good As Married,” is at present at the Majestic. In producing his picture, the New Universal assembled a splendid cast, including John Boles, Doris Nolan, Walter Pidgeon, Talaßlrell, Ernest Cossart, Katherine Alexander, Alan Mowbray, and Esther Ralston. Boles plays the part of a successful architect, w’ho is about to lose the major part of his large income through taxes, marries his secretary, played by Doris Nolan, in order to reduce those taxes. California law making such allowances, the resulting complications make for rollicking comedy and tense dramatic situations. “Naughty Marietta” Produced on a spectacular scale by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Jeanette MacDonald, and acknowledged one of the greatest singing stars of the screen, and Nelson Eddy, operatic baritone, hailed as a sensational “discovery” among romantic leading men “Naughty Marietta” was filmed as a thundering drama of romantic days, a vehicle that gives to the famous Victor Herbert music the importance it merits. “Naughty Marietta” is acknowledged one of the five greatest comic operas ever composed in America, the others being De Koven’s “Robin Hood” and Herbert’s “Serenade.” “Fortune Teller” and “Mlle. Modiste.” “Naughty Marietta” will commence a return season at the Majestic on Wednesday. “Lost Horizon” Coming to the Majestic Theatre on Saturday is a film which has been acclaimed in London and New York as one of the supreme achievements of the sound film. Nothing like “Lost Horizon” has ever been attempted on the screen. It appeals equally to those who appreciate symbolism and idealism, and to those who look merely for action and adventure in such a film. Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, Margo, and H. B. Warner head the cast. The film opens in a riot of action as aeroplanes, in a lurid evening setting, evacuate European refugees from a Chinese city where howling mobs seek to kill the foreign devils. It is here that one sees the action side of Ronald Colman as Conway, fighting his way through crowds, burning the hangar in a final flare, and getting safely away with refugees in the ill-fated aeroplane that lands them in remote Tibet. In the aeroplane are Conway’s own brother George (played by John Howard), a touchy Englishman (Edward Everett Horton), and a fraudulent American (Thomas Mitchell), who supply the comedy, and a female termagant played by Isobel Jewell. The scene changes to the Shangri-La Monastry, where the strange story is played out in a scene of almost unbelievable beauty. In Shangri-La George Conway meets Maria (played by Margo>, who is aged forty-eight, but in that age-defying atmosphere looks twenty. They determine to escape, and they persuade Robert Conway to repudiate the High Lama’s trust and escape with them, notwithstanding that he has developed a sweet little romance with Sondra, a fair damsel of ShangriLa, played by Jane Wyatt. Pursued futlly by the faithful and beautiful Sondra, the three make their getaway; but as they cross the mountains, fired on by their own porters, the little girl Maria loses the Shrangri-La youth secret, and looks her full age. Romance dies. The remorseful Robert Conway struggles to return to ShranglLa, whose ideality still beckons him from beyond the treacherous snows. LONDON COMEDY HIT “CALL IT A DAY” AT REGENT What the balmy breath of the first day of spring does to slumbering hearts is the theme of the delightful comedydrama entitled “Call It a Day,” a Warner Bros, production at present at the Regent. The subject is appealing. As a play it ran for two years in London and for more than a year in New York. With the broader sweep of the camera it is much better as a picture than it was behind the footlights. Big, goodlooking lan Hunter plays the part of a well-to-do Britisher, and his wife is Frieda Inescort, a noted London and Broadway actress. They have been married for twenty years, according to the story, and are hi a rut. Then there Is the daughter of eighteen, lovely Olivia de Havilland, and another of fifteen Bonita Granville, the nasty little girl of “These Three.” Peter Wiles plays the son. It is a wellsettled and unemotional household. But spring works its magic. The husband falls in love—or thinks he does—with an actress, Marcia Ralston. The wife has a proposal from Roland Young, whom she meets through her best friend. Alice Brady. Olivia conceives an infatuation for an artist, who has been working on her portrait, and her brother discovers charms in the girl next door, Anita Louise. All in one day they fall In love, then out again. Bedtime finds them the same old family, a little more experienced and a lot wiser. This with the aid of smart sophisticated dialogue and entrancing sets.