AMUSEMENTS STATE THEATRE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21558, 22 January 1940, Page 2

AMUSEMENTS STATE THEATRE

“ ALEXANDER’S RAGTIME BAND ” “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” will replace “Sherlock Holmes” to-morrow. Periodically Hollywood produces a picture that stands out as a beacon along the highroad of motion picture progress—and such a picture is Irving Berlin’s great saga of three decades in the march of America. In the bewildering brilliance of “Alexander” one remembers that Tyrone Power starts with a small band in a honky-tonk. Don Ameche writes the tunes which Alice Faye sings. Love smoulders, flares, cools, blows up and is rekindled over the years for Tyrone and Alice. History moves before the eyes with the reminiscent melodies of Berlin as a gentle guide through the plot. Such a story framework—the career of a young musician and the girl who sang the nation’s love songs—two hotheads quarrelling and parting, forgiving and finding love again through the music that was their life —is novel and scintillating. The stars are supported by a brilliant cast —Ethel Merman, Jack Haley, Jean Hersholt, Helen Westley, John Carradine, Paul Hurst, Wally Vernon, Ruth Terry and a dozen others of like calibre. Also screening is Edgar Wallace’s “The Mind of Mr Reeder,” with Will Fyffe in the leading role. REGENT THEATRE “LUCKY NIGHT” In “Lucky Night.” now showing at the Regent at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Robert Taylor enters the comedy field as a happy-go-lucky playboy without a care in the world or a dime to his name. Myrna Loy is the spoiled and darling daughter of a millionaire steel magnate, who breaks her engagement for the fourth time and goes out into the cold world to find a job. Taylor and Loy meet on a park bench. From then on the fun mounts fast to furious heights. They panhandle a half dollar and pyramid it into a bankroll. They capture a bandit, share a reward, find themselves involved in dizzy fights and bewildering complications, discover they have been wedded after an hilarious round of night clubbing adventures, quarrel, separate and surrender to Cupid in the end. “Passing Parade Series,” “Pete Smith Oddity,” “Miniature,” and the latest air mail newsreels. Plans are open at Begg’s or the Regent, 486. MAJESTIC THEATRE “BROADWAY SERENADE” Jeanette MacDonald appears in her first solo starring role in “Broadway Serenade,” which is showing at the Majestic Theatre. Based upon the struggles of a young singer who progresses from cheap nightclubs to musical comedy stardom, the new

picture offers Miss MacDonald an opportunity to sing everything from grand opera to popular selections written especially for the production. Lew Ayers plays his most important role since his re-entry into films as the star’s composer husband who, while his wife is winning stage triumphs, hides in the obscurity of playing a piano in a five-and-ten-cent store. Frank Morgan, who is rapidly becoming famous for his interpretations of theatrical producers, essays this role once again. lan Hunter supplies the third point of the love triangle. Outstanding among the songs heard in the production are “For Every Lonely Heart,” “Flyin’ High,” “Rhapsody,” “One Look at You.” “Time Changes Everything.” “No Time To Argue,” and “Ridin’ on a Rainbow.” Also a highlight are a medley of old-fashioned songs sung by Miss MacDonald and a chorus, with Lev/ Ayres at the piano.