AMUSEMENTS REGENT THEATRE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21507, 21 November 1939, Page 2

AMUSEMENTS REGENT THEATRE

“GOOD GIRLS GO TO PARIS” With a provocative title only a shadowy promise of Its hilarious, sparkling plot, Columbia’s “Good Girls Go To Paris” is screening at the Regent Theatre. Melvyn Douglas and Joan Blondell, sensational co-stars of “There’s Always a Woman,” again are teamed in the new film. "Good Girls Go To Paris” presents Douglas in a new and distinctive characterisation, that of an English exchange professor slightly bewildered by the feverish, hectic activity at an American university, and completely dazed by his suddenly acquired role of confidential adviser to a young waitress whose sole ambition is to go to Paris. Laughprovoking adventures involving the two stars take them from the college town to New York and eventually to a millionaire’s mansion where the tangled threads of half-a-dozen lives provides the suspense which builds to the surprising climax. “The Gracie Allen Murder Case” The motivating forces of “The Gracie Allen Murder Case,” which is opening at the Regent to-morrow, are the harmless detective work of Gracie Allen, the shrewd, suave deductions of Philo Vance, the efforts of a girl to free the man she loves from prison when he is accused of murder, and the cunning plotting of a girl who loved the murdered man. Gracie Allen pins a murder on Kent Taylor when his cigarette case is found on a murdered man. Ellen Drew, in love with Taylor, is sure that he is innocent and gets Warren William to prove his innocence. William does his best to straighten out matters, even though Grade Allen is continually obstructing things with her hair-brained deductions. MAJESTIC THEATRE "CALLING DR KILDARE” Not long ago audiences were thrilled when a brilliant new type of screen play came out of Hollywood. This was “Young Dr Kildare,” drama of life in a great hospital and a story with a mightly theme behind it. It brought a young actor, Lew Ayres, back to major importance on the screen. So successful was the picture that Metro-Gold-wyn-Mayer decided to continue it as a series, and so Lew Ayres, as young Dr Jimmie Kildare, and Lionel Barrymore, as the veteran Dr Gillespie struggling to teach his protege all he has learned of medicine before he dies, will be seen again in “Calling Dr Kildare” at the Majestic Theatre. In it the young doctor will be seen to turn detective, capture a murderer, and clear an innocent man. Audiences will be taken behind the scenes of the doctor’s profession to learn of the “hidden wounds” that science cannot touch but that only human understanding can; one of the great secrets of medicine. “Out West With The Hardys” Andy Hardy is coming back to town. AU done up in a cowboy suit he romps through one of the most hilarious of the Hardy Family series to date, “Out West With the Hardys,” opening at the Majestic Theatre 'on Friday. For this latest adventure the entire family is in top form. With the locale moved to a ranch some of the fun that transpires when the incorrigible Andy meets a ten-year-old youngster who can out-shoot him, outride and out-rope him may well be imagined. Mickey Rooney’s “Andy Hardy” gains with each portrayal The newest addition to the troupe is Virginia Weidler who gives Mickey many a bad moment. Lewis Stone, as Judge Hardy, has new and baffling legal problems to solve. Fay Hodlen, as Mrs Hardy, shoulders her share of the burden and Cecilia Parker finds a new love interest in Gordon Jones.

STATE THEATRE “THE STORY OF VERNON AND IRENE CASTLE” A romance that blossomed into the greatest dancing team the world has ever known underlies “The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle,” in which Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are co-starred as the two principals. The film, which is showing at the State Theatre, deals with the real life career of Vernon and Irene Castle, who danced their way from obscurity to fame in a few brief years, and who created many of our finest ballroom dances. Going to Paris when Lew Fields scornfully told Vernon and Irene that “nobody would pay money to see a man dance with his wife,” the then unknown pair nearly starved in the French capital before they got thenstart dancing in a Paris cafe. Within a few months they were the sensation of Europe, and their triumphs abroad were topped by their success in America, as the film vividly discloses. "Crackerjack” No screen appearance is watched with more interest than that of popular English comedian Tom Walls. This versatile actor comes to the State Theatre to-morrow in the role of that Raffles-cum-Robin Hood character of fiction, “Crackerjack." England is thrilled by the exploits of a modern Robin Hood, a “man with a hundred laces,” who robs the rich and gives to the poor—“ Crackerjack.” Flying to England on a cross-channel plane is millionaire Morelia, Jack Drake and Inspector Benting. The rest of the passengers turn out to be crooks and force the pilot to land, aftex- relieving Morelia of most of his valuables. Once in London, Drake (who is really “Crackerjack”) disguises himself as Fenwick Price, and gains entrance to a big society party given by the wealthy Humbolds, and by cleverly substituting a fake necklace steals the famous Humbold pesrls. After he has left, the party is held up by a gang led by Sculpie, and in the ensuing melee a man is killed. It is obvious to Drake that a dangerous gang are using his name to cover their own exploits. From this the plot develops at a merry pace, thrill follows thrill tempered with the sparkling humour that only Tom Walls is the master. Also In the cast are beautiful Austrian Lilli Palmer and Noel Madison. THEATRE ROYAL "BLONDE TROUBLE" AND “THE RETURN OF SOPHIE LANG” When the world's nerviest jewel thief returns to stop a rival from getting away with the world's largest diamond, the stage is set for fastmoving adventure drama that is packed with exciting situations and comedy twists. “The Return of Sophie Lang” due at the Theatre Royal to-night, is the second of Frederick Irving ’ nderson stories The first, “The Notorious C—hie (Continued in Previous Column)