SPECTACULAR FILM.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20541, 16 February 1935, Page 25 (Supplement)

SPECTACULAR FILM.

Ruby Keeler and Powell in “ Dames.” “ Dames,” which is now in the second week of its successful season at the Crystal Palace Theatre, is an unusually entertaining picture. It is a bright comedy with a money-grubbing plot and half a dozen leading players in the foremost roles. Guy Kibbee and Zasu Pitts appear as husband and wife who have decided hopes from a wealthy and most eccentric uncle, Hugh Herbert. Ruby Keeler is their daughter, in love with Dick Powell, the “ bad fruit of the family tree.” When the uncle decides to start a moral uplift movement for the family “ hangers-on ” are compelled to see it through for the sake of the expected ten million. Meanwhile the daughter joins the black sheep in a stage production. There are so many twists in the plot which pile laugh on laugh that they cannot be enumerated here. The climax is reached when these too moral people attend a “ first night ” fortified with “ golden elixir ” 73 per cent, alcohol. There is not a dull moment and the production is further enhanced by the appearance of dozens of attractive “ dames ” in some astonishingly beautiful settings. Trick photography and ingenious camera work are responsible for an atmosphere of distinction. Good shorter films are also screened.