AMUSEMENTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21324, 19 April 1939, Page 9

AMUSEMENTS

MAJESTIC THEATRE “AMBUSH” •‘Ambush” will be screened for the first time in the South Island at the Majestic Theatre to-day, and those who appreciate real thrills spiced with glowing romance will enjoy every minute of it. Four ultra-modern bandits swoop down on a California bank, surprise spectators and guards with a smoke screen and flee with 98,000 dollars, leaving a truck as the only clue to their identity. To Gladys Swarthout, secretary in the bank, recognition of the truck as one on which her younger brother, William Henry, worked, implicates him as a member of the gang. Fleeing to her brother, she is trapped by the gang which is composed of Ernest Truex, master-mind, Harley Tufts, gunman, Broderick Crawford, blackballed expilot. Under the threat of bodily harm to her brother, she lures Lloyd Nolan, a truck-driver to the bandits’ hide-out. Nolan is forced to help them. With the bandits hiding in a hastily-improvised compartment in are truck, Miss Swarthout, posing as an injured person, they set out for the county line. Police trace clues to the cabin and set out in pursuit of the truck. A note dropped by Nolan leads them to a roadhouse where the gang pauses. Tufts is killed in a fight with the law, the others escape with Nolan who is determined to protect Miss Swarthout. The bandits reach a barn where they have cached an aeroplane. They plan to shoot Miss Swarthout and Nolan before escaping in the ’plane, but he persuades them to use his cabin as a hideout, convinces them that the aeroplane will be overtaken. At the end of a week they are short of food and Nolan and Truex drive to town. Nolan steals obstrusively at one of the stores to draw pursuit. His theft is reported to two detectives who start on their trail. Returning to the cabin Nolan and Truex discover that Miss Swarthout’s brother has forced Crawford to take up the ’plane and crash it, thus sacrificing himself for his sister’s sake. Nolan is knocked unconscious in an attempt to disarm Truex. Police have closed in, and when Truex, last survivor of the gang, attempts to escape with Miss Swarthout as a shield, Nolan regains consciousness just in time to foil his plan. All start back to town in custody of the police, Mis Swarthout and Nolan expecting to clear themselves before the judge. The supporting , subjects are in great variety. “The Count of Monte Cristo” The story made famous by Alexandre Dumas in his great novel, “The Count of Monte Cristo,” is well and faithfully dealt with in the talking picture of the same name which will commence a season on Saturday. The story of a sailor thrown into a fortress prison without trial on the eve of his betrothal, of his years of solitary confinement, broken at last by the companionship of a fellow-prison-er who has with infinite patience tunnelled through the walls of the fortress, and of the extraordinary manner of his escape, equipped with great learning and the secret of hidden treasure, both the gifts of his fellowprisoner, is well known.

STATE THEATRE “PRISON WITHOUT BARS” “Prison Without Bars” which features Edna Best, Barry K. Barnes and a new and startling French actress, Corinne Luchaire, is showing at the State Theatre. Poised and assured, but with a Bergner-like impishness, Miss Luchaire is one of the most striking personalities presented on the screen in recent years. As Suzanne, innocent inmate of a girls’ reformatory, Miss Luchaire has many dramatic opportunities. Embittered by the harsh regulations, Suzanne makes many attempts to escape, but each time she is captured and brought back. Her last escapade coincides with the arrival of Yvonne, the new superintendent, placed charmingly by Edna Best. Despite opposition from her staff, Yvonne introduces sweeping reforms. She wins the love and gratitude of Suzanne, for whom she is trying to get a pardon. Happy for the first time, the girl is given more congenial work assisting the institution’s doctor, George Marechai (Barry K. Barnes). She speedily falls in love with him, unaware, as is everybody else, that he is engaged to marry Yvonne. In spite of himself, Marechai reciprocates. A brilliant climax marked by magnificent acting by the principals, brings to a close a film that is one of the most moving dramas of the year. REGENT THEATRE SABU IN “ELEPHANT BOY” Rudyard Kipling’s famous story, “Toomai of the Elephants” comes to the screen as the thrilling picture of Indian jungle life "Elephant Boy,” which is showing at the Regent Theatre. The picture, which was screened at the Regent on its previous Timaru season, is undoubtedly one of the greatest films which have ever reached New Zealand. It is rare entertainment right off the beaten track. The story tells of a young Indian boy, son of a Mahout, who dreams of the day he will become a great hunter like his grandfather, “Toomai of the Elephants.” Little Toomai’s father is killed and the boy mourns with Kala Nag, his favourite elephant, a giant tusker. Kala Nag attacks his new driver and runs riot, and to save him from being shot by a white hunter, Toomai runs away with him into the jungle. While in hiding he discovers the meeting place of the herds of wild elephants and when found exhausted by the white hunter, reveals his knowledge. The result is a great round up of more elephants than had ever before been seen together at one time, and this makes the thrilling climax to a picture which has more pleasant excitement in it than any you can remember.

Another excellent series of "shorts” precedes the big picture. These include the Paramount British News containing pictures of the European ice skating championship, London bomb explosions, and a remarkable de-

nunciation of present-day medical practice by an Irish doctor, who demonstrates modern electric equipment now in use in England. There is a most interesting travelogue showing strange customs of the natives of the Dutch East Indies, a breath-taking climb up 9000 feet of sheer rock faces, and a musical comedy entitled “College Capers.” There is sufficient variety to please the most fastidious.

“I Am the Law”

Friday’s change brings two good pictures —one a slashing drama, and the other a daring comedy of three on a honeymoon. “I Am the Law” is the drama, starring that forceful actor Edward G. Robinson as a fighting prosecutor, whom gangsters’ threats cannot deter from his self-appointed task of smashing the rackets, even by the use of the gangsters’ own methods. Otto Kruger, recently seen at the Regent in the name part of “Housemaster,” has a big part in the story, as has also lovely Wendy Barrie. “A Bride For Henry” is the title of the comedy, which obviously deals with a marital mix-up, but from a new angle. The stars are Anne Nagel and Warren' Hull.

THEATRE ROYAL MYSTERY DRAMA Another of Erie Stanley Gardner’s baffling murder mystery thrillers, “The Case of the Velvet Claws,” is showing at the Theatre Royal, with Warren William again in the role of Perry Mason, the lawyer-detective made famous by the noted writer. Ciaire Dodd has the role of William’s wise-cracking secretary, and Winifred Shaw Is the murdered man’s wife who forces William, at the point of the gun, to investigate the crime. Eight persons are suspected of the killing of a rich and eccentric blackmailer, who secretly publishes a scandal sheet. These include his wife, his nephew, the detective working on the case, and members of the wealthy man’s household. Several motives are brought to light as the possible cause of the crime, including a plot to cover up a love scandal, greed for the man’s riches and vengeance. The second feature at the Royal, “Man of the Moment,” is a comedy in which there is scarcely :• moment free from hilarity as ten men seek one girl. The cast includes such favourites as Douglas Fairbanks, junio r , Claude Hulbert and Laura La Plante.

PAUL SCHRAMM RECITALS Paul Schamm, the Viennese pianist, will give two recita in Timaru on April 24 and 26. Mr Schramm was a pupil of Leschetizky, teacher of Paderewski, and has achieved fame as a master of technique. Besides being a virtuoso pianist, Paul Schramm is acknowledged as a teacher of world repute, his musical and technical advice being based on very great expert nee with world famous artists. Besides this he had his own chamber music ensemble, the Austrian Trio, for many years, and conducted the Symphonic Orchestra of Batavia for three seasons. Box plans now open at Begg’s.