AMUSEMENTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21280, 25 February 1939, Page 7

AMUSEMENTS

MAJESTIC THEATRE “LOVE FINDS ANDY HARDY” Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer have produced a wiruier in “Love Finds Andy Hardy,” whch opens at the Majestic Theatre this afternoon. Throughout the New Zealand centres crowded theatres have testified to its outstanding merit and full houses are sure to greet the rise of the curtain during the Timaru season. The story, a simple relation of domestic entanglements, tells of the young man of the family who not only braves his father’s wrath by buying a second-hand car without permission, but also becomes entangled with three girls at the same time. Lewis Stone again is the kindly, discerning Judge, head of a typical family of five. This marks his third appearance in the role of Judge .Hardy. Mickey Rooney is given the biggest role he has played so far in the series, providing the maelstrom around which the plot revolves. His rapidly increasing popularity makes him an ideal representative of the typical American boy. Judy Garland has been added to the “family group.” Playing a girl of twelve, she is allowed by her mother, a musical comedy star, to dress up for one night and pretend to be grown up. During this interval she steals the spotlight at the big dance given by the younger set of a small mid-western city. Judy sings three songs in the picture. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer also introduces a new screen find, Lana Turner, as the spoiled, wilful charmer of the small town. Supporting players include Cecilia Parker, daughter of the family, Fay Holden, the mother, Ann Rutherford, Betty Ross Clarke, Marie Blake, Don Castle, Gene Reynolds, Mary Howard, George Breakston and Raymond Hatton. “MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKENS" HUMAN DRAMA AT STATE The contrasting romances of two beautiful sisters during a family’s struggle for happiness form the basis of “Mother Carey’s Chicken’s,” RKO Radio picture, which opens at the State to-day. Marking . a definite deviation from the current screen melange of thrillers, madcap comedies and heavy dramas, “Mother Carey’s Chickens” is a rousing and entertaining picturisation of the immortal family portrait by Kate Douglas Wiggin. The down-to-earth sentiment and rich American lore which endeared “Little Women” to millions of screen-goers are prominent in “Mother Carey’s Chickens.” The trenchant story revolves around the efforts of a New England mother and her four children to rehabilitate themselves in the face of near-poverty caused by the father’s death. Added conflict ensues when the two sisters fall in love with the same man, and when an unscrupulous couple seek to obtain their hard-won “dream house.” A cast conspicuous for talent and past achievements appears in “Mother Carey’s Chickens.” Featured are Anne Shirley, Ruby Keeler, James Ellison, Fay Bainter, Walter Brerman and Frank Albertson. Rowland V. Lee directed, with Pandro S. Berman in charge of production. REGENT THEATRE MEXICAN MUSICAL AND DRAMA Beautiful Mexican girls in their colourful fiesta costumes, dancing their native dances to the stirring strains of real marimba bands, playing glorious Mexican music, lend a new and enchanting fascination to the new picture of Latin America, “A Tropic Holiday,” which is the main feature on the double bill starting to-day at the Regent. The story deals with a young Hollywood script writer (Ray Milland) who goes to a rural Mexican village to “get away from everything.” and to find material for a new story. Material in plenty is provided by the colourful native fiestas, and as is only to ‘be expected in such surroundings romance is inevitable. Dorothy Lamour plays the irresistible Mexican beauty who upsets the heartbeats of Ray, and there are few men who will blame him for that. But not so his sophisticated fiancee (Binnie Barnes), who arrives to terminate the love-mak-ing. The complications arising from the involved love affairs of a number of people concerned provide a good deal of humour in which Martha Raye, Bob Burns and Tito Guizar all participate. The other film is an amazing expose of the conditions which prevail in one of America’s most dreaded penal institutions—“ Prison Farm.” The cast is one of the strongest yet seen in this type of film, including Shirley Ross, Lloyd Nolan, John Howard, J. Carrol Naish, Porter Hall and Anna Q. Nilsson.

ROYAL’S DOUBLE BILL COLLEGE ROMANCE AND WESTERN A fine Western and a college romance comprise the double programme at the Royal. A bitter clash between modern gangsters in high-powered limousines and sheriffs of the West on horseback provides a new story twist in “The Old Corral,” starring the world’s most popular star. Gene Autry. A sterling supporting cast appears with Autry, including Lon Chaney, jun., Hope Manning, new singing discovery, and Smiley Burnette. Betty Grable, who scored so sensationally in “Thrill of a Lifetime,” is seen in one of her biggest and most important roles to date in Paramount’s gay comedy of college life, “Campus Confessions.” Featured with Miss Grable in the cast of "Campus Confessions” are beautiful Eleanore Whitney, Hank Luisetti, American University basketball star who makes his film debut in this film, William Henry, Thurston Hall and Fritz Field, the popular comedian.