AMUSEMENTS STATE THEATRE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21555, 18 January 1940, Page 4

AMUSEMENTS STATE THEATRE

“SOUTH RIDING” “South Riding,” the superbly played film version of Winifred Holtby’s best seller, will be screened finally at the State Theatre to-day. The leading roles are played by Ralph Richardson, Edna Best, Ann Todd and Edmund Gwenn. “Sherlock Holmes’’ "Sherlock Holmes," the most famous detective of fiction, gives his name to the film opening to-morrow at the State with Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Ida Luplno, and Alan Marshal in the leading roles. The strange case of the chinchilla fetish; the Traitor’s Gate; the fiendish instrument that strangles, crushes, and vanishes; the Star of Delhi; the albatross of doom; with a woman in love the victim and the 15,000,000-dollar British Crown Jewels the loot—this is the thrilling story of “Sherlock Holmes,” in which I the master-detective is pitted against his arch-enemy, the master-criminal Moriarty, in the most horrible crime of the century! Fresh from his triumph in the recent “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” Rathbone, the perfect Holmes, meets the notorious Moriarty for the first time in this new film. The contest between these two men, a battle of courage and wits, is one not to be forgotten easily. George Zucco, veteran character actor, portrays the master-criminal. The leading roles in the powerful love story that runs through the screen play by Edwin Blum and William Drake are portrayed by Ida Lupino and Alan Marshal. They head a cast including Terry Kilburn, zucco, Henry Stephenson and E. E. Clive. Alfred Werker directed, with Gene Markey associate producer. Three fantastic clues confront the detective in this film. They are; an omen, an ancient Inca funeral dirge, like the cry of a puma; a threat against the fabulous Star of Delhi emerald; a murder, by an unknown weapon that strangles, crushes, then disappears! There will be enough action and excitement in this film to satisfy the most avid appetites. REGENT THEATRE “MAGNIFICENT FRAUD” The programme now showing at the Regent Theatre is a good one. For those who prefer drama, “The Magnificent Fraud” with Akim Tamirotf, Lloyd Nolan and Patricia Morison in the stellar roles is just the type of picture to please them, while “Million Dollar Legs,” starring Betty Grable, Jackie Coogan and Larry Crabbe provides fun and excitement for those who prefer their entertainment on the lighter side. “Lucky Night” “Lucky Night," in which Myrna Loy and Robert Taylor make their first appearance together before the cameras, will be presented to-morrow. Taylor demonstrates a flair for comedy as authentic and virile as he has displayed in drama. Miss Loy is even more beautiful and stunning than we have seen her in previous pictures, for the producers have been lavish with their budget in gowning her. Interweaving moving heart throbs with uproarious laughter, the story unfolds the accidental meeting and later marital careers of Cora Jordan and Bill Overton. Cora, the spoiled daughter of a millionaire steel magnate, walks out on her fourth engagement to hunt for a job. Bill is a playboy down on his luck. Following an accidental meeting on a park bench, they gamble, frolic and fight their way to fortune, get married, quarrel over the family budget, separate and come together again after a series of mad-as-march-hare complications as hilarious as they are novel.

MAJESTIC THEATRE “A CHRISTMAS CAROL’ Scrooge, Tiny Tim, the Cratchits and the rest of the beloved characters in the Charles Dickens story come to life in “A Christmas Carol,’’ which is delighting Majestic Theatre audiences. With Reginald Owen in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge, the miser, and Terry Kilburn as Tiny Tim, the crippled child who touches the man's hard heart, the picture follows the original story with absolute fidelity. The cast includes Gene and Kathleen Lockhart as Bob Cratchit, the clerk, and his wife, parents of Tiny Tim. Lynne Carver and Barry Mackay are the romantic leads. “Broadway Serenade” Jeanette MacDonald, who started her career as a dancer, returned to dancing for her role in “Broadway Serenade,” coming to the Majestic

Theatre on Saturday. Strangely enough, Miss MacDonald went through her first years of pictures with never an opportunity to display her terpsichorean ability. It was not until “The Firefly” that she danced before the cameras. “Broadway Serenade” marks her second dancing role since that time. In “Sweethearts” she appeared in an eccentric Dutch number with Ray Bolger. In the current musical the star is seen as a musical comedy favourite of the present day, and does an intricate solo number. Miss MacDonald’s dancing does not interfere with her famed vocal talents, the new picture offering a wide variety of songs, among them “For Every Lonely Heart,” “High Flyin’,” "Rhapsody,” “One Look at You,” "Time Changes Everything," "No Time to Argue,” "Ridin’ on a Rainbow” and a medley of old-fashioned songs, sung by Miss MacDonald and a chorus with Lew Ayres at the piano. Ayres is seen as Miss MacDonald’s composer husband in the story, which is laid against the background of the theatre. Frank Morgan plays a theatrical producer, and other important roles are filled by lan Hunter, Al Shean, Virginia Grey, Rita Johnson, William Gargan and Franklin Pangborn. THEATRE ROYAL VIGOROUS ACTION FARCE Paramount’s "Outcast” a dramatic story of mob fury with Warren William and Karen Morley, provides good fare at the Theatre Royal. Taken from the novel "Happiness Preferred,”

by Frank R. Adams, "Outcast" is the story of a physician, who is ruined by Miss Morley who believes him gmlty of murder. “O’Riley’s Luck invo.ves three men and two lovely ladies - Eleanore Whitney and Priscilla Lawson. Brown and Baker play on one football team competing in the annual East-West classic in the Pasadena Rose Bowl, with Crabbe on the opposin’ team. Crabbe and Baker are rivals for the hand of Miss Lawson, and Brown is in love with Miss Whitney. The big game straightens everything out to everyone’s satisfaction.