AMUSEMENTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 21064, 16 June 1938, Page 10

AMUSEMENTS

STATE THEATRE DOUBLE PROGRAMME "Wings of the Morning” and “City Girl” will conclude at the State to-day. The first mentioned film, which concerns a racehorse, features Annabella, the most sensational star of the day, who is supported by John McCormick. "City Girl,” which is the story of a girl who gambled with her life for the sake of excitement, features Ricardo Cortez and Phyllis Brooks. “Charlie Chan on Broadway” After a long career of screen adventures involving daring skirmishes with the most dangerous and desperate of international criminals, Charlie Chan, famous Oriental sleuth created for the screen by Warner Oland from the original character by Earl Derr Biggers, finds his greatest match of wits and test of courage in New York City, stalking murder through Manhattan’s Great White Way. In his latest film, "Charlie Chan on Broadway,” which opens at the State to-morrow, Oland makes a neat and interesting combination of the Chinese detective’s characteristic "Chan-o-grams,” bits of laconic philosophical observation, and the newest of the new American fads, the craze of candid-photography. Customarily a shrewd and intense observer who finds facts where less keen minds perceive nothing. Chan is baffled by the double murder which has Broadway aghast, until the first glimmerings of a clue are furnished by the accidental “shots” snapped on the “candidcamera night” run by the night club which is the scene of the crime. This is an entirely new angle in his detective method, Oland admits. adding that he likes to keep himself completely modem, one of the reasons for the immense popularity of the likeable screen detective. REGENT THEATRE "THE BLACK LEGION” The designation “All Broadway Cast,” once so proudly announced for stage plays, was the boast of Director Archie Mayo when he was making “Black Legion” for Warner Bros.—the exciting melodrama now showing at the Regent Theatre. Humphrey Bogart, famous killer of “Petrified Forest,” headed the list. Charles Halton, remembered as Glogauer, the film magnate, in “Once In a Lifetime,” has an important role. Erin O’Brien-Moore, who plays Bogart’s wife, won acclaim in New York and London for her success in “Street Scene,” as well as in “The Music Master,” "My Country,” “Lally,” “Men Must Fight,” “Riddle Me This” and “Merrily We Roll Along.” Patsy Flick. Joseph Crehan, Henry O’Neill, Joseph Sawyer and Alonzo Price all won fame on the Great White Way. Dick Foran and Ann Sheridan, as the young lovers in the story, are the only players in the cast developed entirely by screen experience. "Black Legion” is a daring and thrilling melodrama based upon the actual operations of the secret, hooded, night-riding order which terrorised Michigan recently. The cast includes besides Humphrey Bogart, Dick Foran, Ann Sheridan, Erin O’Brien-Moore, Helen Flint and others.

MAJESTIC THEATRE “THE WESTLAND CASE” First of the famous Crime Club mystery dramas to reach the screen. Universal’s thrilling production “The Westland Case,” concludes its season at the Majestic to-day. Heading the trtented cast is Preston Foster, as Detective Crane, the super-sleuth who makes a desperate last minute effort to secure evidence that will free an innocent man from the chair. Other weli known players in the large cast include Carol Hughes, Barbara Pepper, Astrid Allwyn, Frank Jenks, George Meeker and Theodore von Eltz. “I’ll Take Romance” Grace Moore shows her versatility as a singer in her new Columbia comedy, “I’ll Take Romance,” coming to-morrow to the Majestic Theatre, in which she selects her numbers from grand opera, swing music, and novelty times. Melvyn Douglas appears opposite the star with Stuart Erwin and Helen Westley in support. “I’ll Take Romance” is a rollicking story in the humorous vein of Grace Moore’s recent "When You’re in Love.” A delightful tale, it tells of an opera singer, completely dominated by her aunt, who plans to break a contract to sing in Buenos Aires so that she may accept one to appear in Paris. Jim Guthrie, American, comes from the Argentine with Senor Pancho Brownelles, a formei taxi-driver, and things begin to happen. Melvyn Douglas plays Guthrie and as usual, proves himself ,he master of light comedy. Stuart Erwin was never funnier than as Pancho Brownelles. Helen Westley is the impetuous former opera singing aunt and Margaret Hamilton does a fine comedy job with the role of Margot, Grace Moore’s maid. Others in the excellent cast are Richard Carle, Esther Muir, Ferdinand Gottschalk, and Walter Kingsford. Among the operatic numbers Grace Moore sings in "I’ll Take Romance” are the "Drinking Song” from “Traviata,” the finale of the third act from “Martha,” the Gavotte from “Manon,” and the duet from “Madame Butterfly,” in which Frank Forest also sings well. THEATRE ROYAL CONCESSION PROGRAMME The concession programme at the Theatre Royal features “Big Brown Eyes,” and “Timothy’s Quest.” The first mentioned film features Joan Bennett who plays the role of a manicurist who captures a band of jewel thieves. “Timothy’s Quest” deals with a lad and his younger sister who escape from a couple trading in homeless children. The youngsters find a home with a grim spinster in a small village. Timothy, wise beyond his years, proves instrumental in furthering a shaky romance between the spinster’s niece and her sweetheart. Beside Dickie Moore, Virginia Weidler, Sally Martin and Bennie Bartlett, aged seven, four and nine respectively, have featured roles.