AMUSEMENTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20930, 8 January 1938, Page 5

AMUSEMENTS

MAJESTIC THEATRE LOVE ON THE RUN Plenty of fun and romantic excitement is in store for Timaru filmgoers this week with the opening of "Love on the Run,” a new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer smash hit co-starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable with Franchot Tone featured at the head of a top-notch cast. The spirited, ultramodern, comedy melodrama presents Miss Crawford as an American heiress who leaves a pompous nobleman at the altar and runs into Gable as she flees from the church right into trouble. Gable plays the foreign correspondent of a New York newspaper who bumps into the biggest scoop in headline history. Tone is cast as Gable’s rival who chases the two lovers in a mad dash over the map of Europe. Also prominent in the cast are Reginald Owen and Mona Barrie as deep-dyed villains who head a spy ring. The story moves with the speed of a runaway locomotive from the moment the reporter convinces the distraught heiress that he is a friend, no reporter, and spirits her away from London to France in a stolen plane. The plane is the property of a fake Baron and Baroness, really spies, who are planning a stratosphere flight to take pilfered war plans out of England. This brings the police into the picture. The reporter’s rival puts his finger into a budding romance, but “love wins on the run.” From the production angle there is much of interest; a thrilling plane sequence with a crack-up in a French farmhouse; settings of lavish splendour in England and France, a reproduction of Louis IV’s palace, Fontainbleau, and Madame de Maintanon’s suite. The season of “Love on the Run” opens at the Majestic to-day.

“SLAVE SHIP” AT STATE THRILLING STORY OF SEA A honeymoon couple sailing the closely-patrolled seas of the North Atlantic in the last of the slavers, the crew in revolt, the master of the ship fighting single-handed to rescue himself and his young wife from the hands of his one-time partners: this is the theme of “Slave Ship,” which, with Warner Baxter, Wallace Beery, Elizabeth Allan, and Mickey Rooney at the head of the cast, is to be seen at the State Theatre. Romance, brutality, the fair shapes of white-canvassed vessels on the blue sea bearing a freight of human misery and death, from the background of the picture. And against this background there is a larger struggle, the fight of one man with his environment, his determination to mould his own destiny, and the remarkable adventure which finally opens to him the way of life of which he has dreamed. The captain has always been a slaver, from boyhood days when he embarked on this career he has known nothing else. His crew is more than a crew, it is a band of partners in his business, and a risky business it is with the fleets of Britain and the United States linking hands to sweep the last of the slavers from the seas. The climax, with its horror, blood, and fire, its treachery and bravery, is tremendous. And the film, in its whole full-blooded fashion, is acted out in a fine way. Those who remember Wallace Beery as the famous Long John Silver in “Treasure Island” have probably felt it inevitable that he should play another such role one day. And here he is, Long John again to the life, with his whining, his apparent nervousness, his bland treachery and courage. Warner Baxter plays the forthright hero in his usual downright fashion, and the part of the clinging, pale, courageous wife is well handled by Elizabeth Allan. In the supporting cast there is excellent work done by Mickey Rooney, in the role of the cabin-boy, whose conflicting loyalties influence the course of events, and by George Sanders. “FOR VALOUR” AT REGENT LATEST BEN TRAVERS FARCE

Tom Walls, Ralph Lynn and Ben Travers have together been responsible for many amusing farces, but they have rarely been in such good form as in “For Valour,” a Capitol Films production which will open at the Regent to-day. Excellent and diverting features of the comedy apart from the fact that it is consistently funny, are the camera’s ingenious exploitation of double exposure and the brilliantly clever character acting in double roles by Walls and Lynn, who represent two generations on the screen simultaneously. “For Valour” is the first film in which they have appeared together for over two years and it is fitting that the reunion of the most popular comedy team in British films should take place in a picture that is notable for its originality and wit. The most remarkable feature of the film is the number of parts played at the same time by the two leading Walls