AMUSEMENTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20926, 4 January 1938, Page 5

AMUSEMENTS

REGENT THEATRE -FEATHER YOUR NEST” “Feather Your Nest,” which has enjoyed a good run at the Regent Theatre, will conclude to-day. Throughout the film George Formby has ample scope for his undoubted ability. A quite clever group of actors and actresses, including Ethel Coleridge, Enid Stamp Taylor, and Jimmy Godden, help to make "Feather Your Nest” irresistibly silly, but Formby’s gawkishness and dialects are the principal ingredients. The first part of the programme is a most enjoyable one. ‘‘Midnight Madonna”

Described as “the most sensational film find of the year,” four-year-old Kitty Clancy, a dimpled, curlyhaired blonde beauty, will be seen for the first time to-morrow at the Regent Theatre, when Paramount’s “Midnight Madonna,” a story of a mother’s battle for the custody of her child begins its run. Little Miss Kitty is the daughter of a Bridgeport, Connecticut. couple. She has never received any stage or acting training, but regards the business of appearing before the cameras as a “game,” and has succeeded in making it just that for the more seasoned actors who appear with her in the drama. These include Warren William. Mady Correll. New York stage beauty who makes her film debut in "Midnight Madonna.” Robert Baldwin, Jonathan Hale, E-’.ward Ellis and many others.

MAJESTIC THEATRE 100 MEN AND A GIRL ” After her brilliant success in "Three Smart Girls.” the young singer Deanna Durbin was assured of an interested reception on her next appearance. This is in the film "100 Men and A Girl,” which is showing at the Majestic. The title of the film is derived from the story*, which treats of the fortunes of an orchestra of one hundred members thown out of employment by the world depression They are at their wits’ end to know how to save their families from starvation, when Deanna Durbin, who is cast as the daughter of their leader, has the brilliant idea of having the orchestra taken up by a society woman, played by Alice Brady. Her opportunity comes when she returns a bag which the lady has lost. Arriving in the middle of a reception she is invited to sing for the guests and has an immediate success. To her joy Alice Brady agrees to sponsor the orchestra in a trial performance However. she forgets her lightly-made promise and it is finally her husband. Eugene Pallette. who arranges the whole matter. The famous conductor Leopold Stokowski agrees to conduct and success is assured. The lovely music and singing in the film make it the best of its type yet to be screened.

STATE THEATRE “WEE WILLIE WINKIE ” Shirley Temple’s latest picture, “We Willie Winkie,” which is showing at the State, was filmed after careful preparation. At an isolated spot in the rocky Santa Susanna Mountains, where nature provided a geographical replica of India’s famed Khyber Pass, the largest and costliest location sets ever built by 2tho Century-Fox were erected. Rudyard Kipling’s frontier of 1898 was reproduced in faithful detail in a series of 34 permanent outdoor sets which spread over an area of one mile square in the mountains. Victor McLaglen heads the supporting cast, which includes June Lang, Michael Whalen, C. Aubrey Smith and Cesar Romero. Historians say that Kipling loved the story of “Wee Willie Winkie” above all his other great works because jt depicted some of his own childhood. It is this story that 2th Century-Fox has made into the cinema production. With scrupulous care, producers, film technicians, writers and research men laboured for over a year in order that the film story might reproduce in detail the stirring scenes which Kipling described. THEATRE ROYAL CONCESSION NIGHT PROGRAMME A new concession night programme will be screened for the pleasure of Theatre Royal patrons this evening. Randolph Scott, Hany Carey, Noah Beery, Verna Hillie and Buster Crabbe play the leading roles in Zane Grey’s Paramount picture, “Man of the Forest.” There is action from start to finish. Scott, the "Man of the Forest,”

is the central figure in the action. He learns that Beery, the menace, plans to kidnap Miss Hillie. In this way. Beery hopes to prevent her from assisting her uncle, played by Carey, in protecting his legal righ to his land. Scott, a friend of Carey, therefore, kidnaps her himself. Beery and his gang follow, and in the fight that ensues he kills Carey. Beery accuses Scott of the murder, however, and Scott is thrown into jail. Ultimately, through the assistance of his pet mountain lion, he succeeds in escaping, and again flees with Miss Hillie. The film reaches its climax in the exciting developments that follow. Cast in the leading role of “Stolen Harmony,” George Raft returns to the type of characterisation that shot him to stardom in ‘Scarface.” Starred with Ben Bernie and his lads, Raft plays an ex-convict who turns straight for a chance to join Bernie and his lads on a transcontinental amusement tour. He falls in love with Grace Bradley, the little dancer in Bernie’s troupe, and for her sake determines to make good. When the company’s funds are stolen, he is suspected of the theft. The entire troupe is kidnapped by a gang of desperate outlaws. Raft comes to their rescue and by pretending to be one of the outlaws saves the band at the risk of his own life.