THE THEATRES

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 373, 15 March 1932, Page 3

THE THEATRES

GEORGE ARLISS TRIUMPH.

“ The Millionaire,” George Arliss’s latest talking picture, is now in its third triumphant week at the Plaza Theatre. The production is as admirable as one would expect from this famous actor, and shows Arliss in his first modern role in talking pictures. The supporting cast is strong, although it serves mainly as a background for the English actor. The love interest is handled by David Manners and Evelyn Knapp, whilst Noah Beery, James Cagney and Tully Marshall also have parts. " The Millionaire ” shows George Arliss at his best in a whimsical story of an old man cut off by his doctor from everything interests him. He appears in the character of a man who has built a great motor manufacturing business out of a small engineering shop, and, apart from being a great engineer, is an enthusiast at his job. When his health forces him to give up his work in the factory he becomes a thoroughly bored old man, pampered by his family and treated as something very fragile. Six months of this sort of treatment gets on the nerves of the active old manufacturer, and, without the knowledge of his family, he joins a yc-ung man in running a petrol station. His interest in the new business is intense, and the sharp competition from an unscrupulous opponent gives back to the millionaire all his old zest for business. His health also improves. The story itself is very light, and ends in the expected manner. The j’oung partner marries the daughter, and the ruillioriaire, completely restored to health, is able to take up his work in the factory again. As the millionaire, George Arliss has a part which allows him full scope for his great talents. He handles the role with that light, natural touch which has made his screen work outstanding.

EXCELLENT DRAMA.

There have been few better talking pictures made than "My Sin,” which opened last evening at Everybody’s Theatre with Tallulah Bankhead in the lead. The great English actress gives a polished performance in a part which is admirably suited to her talents. There are, indeed, very few actresses at present on the screen who could have carried the difficult part without strain and with the deftness of Miss Bankhead. The story is clever, with a good deal more to it than there is to most picture stories, and in this respect it is most satisfying. "My Sin " is purely and simply a drama, with no attempt to play up the lighter side of life. It is the story of the hostess of a dance hall in Panama, who has fled from her country when she finds that the man who married her as a girl has deceived her and that her marriage is invalid. The husband returns, demanding money, and in the struggle over her savings the man is shot. None of the reputable lawyers will have anything to do with her case, but eventually Grady, a drinksodden young man who once gave promise of exceptional brilliance, undertakes her defence. She is acquitted. Grady’s performance attracts the notice of an oil magnate, who offers him a responsible position in the company. Grady goes to the girl, advising her to go right away and begin again. The two agree to make good in their separate spheres. Grady progresses in the company. and the girl makes a name as an interior decorator in .New York. She falls in love with another young man and determines to marry him without telling him of her past. Grady turns up and advises her against it. She is determined, but when the oil magnate recognises her as the hostess of the Panama dive she confesses. She is bitterly miserable for a year, till Grady comes back and they decide to marry. With Tallulah Bankhead is Frederick March, a talented actor.

BRIGHT COMEDY.

Whenever Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey get together in a picture it no longer is a staid conventional one which glides smoothly to the usual finish. The very opposite happens, for these two comical maniacs split the picture fore and aft with shots of mirth, and leave it wallowing in a sea of laughter. "Caught Plastered,” which opened at the Majestic Theatre last night, follows the fashion and by the time Wheeler and Woolsey have finished with it, the audience are only fit to gasp out one more laugh before everything ends. In the past’ the two comedians have chased wine, women and song in Paris in “ Half-Shot at Sunrise,” staged a gang war in " Hook, Line and Sinker," started a Central American revolution in " Cracked Nuts,” and now they are dispensing ice-cream sundaes and milk shakes in a drug’ store. But it would not be a Wheeler and Woolsey picture unless something went wrong with the drug store. With their usual delightful stupidity, the pair allow something stronger than vanilla flavouring to drift into their milk shakes. With their habitual chivalry they attempt to boost business in a drug store which belongs to an aged old lady. Whether it is Woolsey’s patter and his cigar, or Wheeler’s whimsical humour which attracts custom, or in spite of them, the store goes ahead until the villain who was going to seize it for debt steps in. Though the old lady does not know it, he is a crook and a bootlegger, facts of which both Wheeler and Woolsey are aware. Through his machinations the liquor drifts into the milk shakes, and the customers get gay, and things look black for the drug store and its managers, for they have infringed the holy laws of Prohibition. But the comedians drift out of trouble, and, together with the girl who usually manages to stray into their pictures, embark on a rosy future. The incomparable comic artistry of Wheeler and Woolsey still triumphs in their eighth picture together, a picture which depends for its laughs not on puns, but the high humour of ludicrous, or thrilling situations. Woolsey still makes magnificent gestures with his cigar, talks at an incredible speed and delights in contradicting the wistful determination of his partner, Wheeler. It is impossible to tire of these laughable comedians and their charming little partner, Dorothy Lee, who is as much a part of their pictures as they them-

GOOD FARE AT LIBERTY

One of the thrilling scenes in " Lasca of the Rio Grande,” which is being shown at the Liberty Theatre, is the stampeding of a herd of cattle. Lightning is the cause of the trouble, and when the stampede began, the maddened creatures trampled everything in their path. The picture stars Dorothy Burgess, and concerns the sacrifice of a girl for her lover. The second .picture, "This Modern Age,” is centred in Paris.

CONSTANCE BENNETT FILM.

Constance Bennett, one c-f the greatest film actresses of the present day, has the starring role in " The Common Law,” a realistic drama of society life, which is being screened at the Crystal Palace. Adapted from the book by Robert W. Chambers, " The Common Law,” which has been modernised for the film version, is a vivid story, calling for the best in acting ability, and Miss Bennett is given full scope for the exercise of her wonderful histrionic talents.

A SPLENDID PICTURE

A splendid cast in a splendid picture describes " The Squaw Man." which heads the programme at the Regent Theatre. The story brings in the wellworn theme of the love of a white man for a coloured woman, but introduces it in a new way, making a story of intense dramatic power, which retains its appeal from first to last.