AMUSEMENTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 20932, 11 January 1938, Page 8

AMUSEMENTS

* “FOR VALOUR” FINAL SCREENING AT REGENT Ralph Lynn and Tom Walls, the popular English comedians, make a welcome reappearance in “For Valour,” the lighthearted comedy which will be screened finally r.t the Regent to-night. The sceen play fc the work of Ben Travers, author of many of the previous successes of the two, and in the latest production the standard of humour has not been lowered. Comedy and Mystery Drama Every so often along comes a movie so amusing that no one can help laughing at it from beginning to end. And into such a category falls “Marry the Girl,” the Warner Bros, farce-comedy which will have its first local showing to-morrow at the Regent Theatre. The carelessly-used word “howling” fi'.;s its exactly. Or, at least, it describes the condition of the audiences which see this uproarious presentation. The story has a novel setting—the offices of a great newspaper syndicate. This is presided over by Hugh Herbert, who is obviously a nut, and his sister, Miss Boland, who is the brains of the outfit Their combined efforts lead to a series of complications, which are funny in the extreme.

On the same programme is an excel lent mystery thriller. “Fly Away Paby” is based upon the recent race around the world in which two men reporters and one girl were the contestants. Miss Dorothy Kilgallen of the King Feature Service was the girl, and it was she who wrote the story that now comes to us in movie form. But it isn’t simply the story of the world-looping race. It begins with a murder mystery, and continues with the solution of the puzzle while crooks and cops and Torchy herself fly oceans and mountains and deserts. Besides the two stars, the cast includes such notables as Marcia Ralston. Tom Kennedy, Raymond Hatton, Gordon Oliver, Joseph King, Harry Davenport and others. While the first of the Torchy Blane stories in which Glenda Farrell was featured —"Smart Blonde”—was fast moving and funny—it fell far short c." the combined appeal of "Fly Away Baby”—which combines mirth, romance, mystery and scenes in faraway lands.

“LOVE ON THE RUN” CONTINUED SUCCESS AT MAJESTIC Joan Crawford and Clark Gable have the time of their lives in their new co-starring picture, “Love on the Run,” which is at the Majestic, and it is safe to say that filmgoers are having the time of their lives as well. Not for a long time has there been a picture which has the freshness, gaiety and spontaneity of “Love on the Run.” Acted to perfection by its ace team of stars with the support of Franchot Tone, Reginald Owen, Mona Barrie, and others, the new offering has that combination of wit, charm, and pulsating action which marked such earlier hits as “The Thin Man” and “It Happened One Night.” Joan Crawford has never been more vibrant than in her role of the American heiress who, on the verge of marrying a nobleman, finds out just in time that it is her money rather than herself that he is after. In an attempt to escape from interviewers she rushes pell-mell into the arms of Gable, play' ing an American correspondent, ind consequently finds herself immersed in a series of hairbreadth escapades involving Franchot Tone as a rival reporter, and a clever gair of Continental swindlers. In the tangled events that ensue Gable captures not only a first-rate story for his paper, but also a charming bride. “John Meade’s Lady” Drought and its man-made causes are dramatically portrayed in “John Meade’s Lady,” a romance with Edward Arnold and Francine Larrimore, which begins a season to-morrow. Arnold, as a financial tycoon, ruthlessly despoils the Northwest timberlands in his drive to become lumber master of the region. He fails to reforest the denuded land, which dries up the many streams using the region as a watershed, and this brings about a severe drought hundreds of miles away. The drought, and the fury of Miss Larrimore, whom he had married to humiliate Gail Patrick, his former fiancee, conspire to bring him into a position where he discovers that not only can he not toy with Nature without paying the penalty, but that he cannot play with a woman’s heart as freely as with finance and industry.

“THE TOAST OF NEW YORK” LIFE OF JIM FISK AT STATE A film based on the life of one of the great early personalities of American finance, “The Toast of New York,” is to open at the State to-day. “The Toast of New York,” which is an RKO-Radio production, has a story of considerable dramatic merit and the part of the dominating character of the story, Jim Fisk, is outstandingly portrayed by Edward Arnold. The other main players in the cast are Cary Grant, as Nick Boyd, Fisk’s partner and later his unwilling rival in love, Jack Oakie as another supporter of Fish, and Frances Farmer, as Josie Mansfield. Fish was an actual character, and his sensational rise to fame as one of the financial leaders of Wail Street and his equally dramatic downfall form the substance of the film. When the American Civil War broke out Fisk was a pedlar in a Southern town who realised the fortune that cculd be made out of “cornering” the cotton supplies for the factories in the North. By a shrewd move and without capital, Fisk later purchased a steamship line and in celebrating his profit he meets Josie Mansfield, who is to have such an influence on his life. His love for this woman, who is in every way worthy of him, provides the emotional appeal of the story, which goes on to deal with the financier’s rise through his gaining control of the Erie Railroad from the shifty but pow?rful financier played by Donald Drew. Miss Farmer, as the actress on whom the financier lavishes much of his rtune,

gives a performance as sterling and sincere as she gave in her screen debut in “Come and Get It.” THEATRE ROYAL TO-NIGHT’S PROGRAMME The "Werewolf of London,” which is coming to the Theatre Royal to-night is a picture based on the fabled creatures called “werewolves”; creatures who are men most of the time but who become transformed into wolves each month during the full of the moon. It is then that they prowl the darkened streets tearing the life-blood from hu mans to satiate their wolfish blood lust. Henry Hull, one of the greatest character actors of modern times, plays the title role in this film. Warner Gland is another who is seen as half man and half wolf. Valerie Hobson is t i wife of Hull, and the high spot of the picture is the scene in which she sees the man she loves turning into a x olf and attempting to kill her. Feature number two is the farcical comedy, "Lady Tubbs.” This is undoubtedly one of the mast hilarious comedies ever screened. The cast is headed by Alice Brady, Anita Louise, Alan Mowbray and Douglas Montgomery,