REGENT TALKIES

Waipawa Mail, Volume LXVIII, Issue 45, 3 January 1940, Page 2

REGENT TALKIES

“STELLA DALLAS’’ TO-NIGHT. Movie fans who are drawn to the Regent Theatre this evening by the announcement of Samuel Goldwyn’s “Stella Dallas” as tho premiere attraction, will come away thoroughly satisfied that they have seen the most compelling- motion picture production since the silent version of the same picture took the country by storm some 12 years ago. For sheer dramatic intensity “Stella Dallas” has rarely been approached. And the artistry of Barbara Stanwyck’s performance in the title role definitely places her in the top brackets of the screen’s greatest actresses. From ths opening sequence the audience will be enthralled as the poignant drama of the mother who sacrificed her own right to happiness for the sake of her daughter is unfolded on the screen. Cheeks will be alternately wreathed with smiles and streaked with tears as Barbara Stanwyck brings to vivid reality the heart story of the vulgar, tawdry woman who rose to glorious, magnificent heights through her sublime love for her daughter. John Boles is splendid as Stephen Dallas, the husband whose sensitive and cultured personality is out of key with the gaudy flamboyance of his wife. FRIDAY AND SATURDAY. “THE MAD MISS MANTON.” A sparkling and novel form of film entertainment is offered in RKORadio’s “The Mad Miss Manton,” with Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda co-starred and Sam Levene heading the featured east, which is showing at the Regent Theatre on Friday and Saturday. With a mysterious double killing as its basis, the picture combines the thrills of a detective story, the laughs of a highspeed comedy and the complications of a stormy romance to make up what is said to be one of the year’s most interesting offerings. Miss Stanwyck has the title role as the spoiled and wilful society girl, who, with the assistance of a group of debutante followers, manages to keep in continual hot water by her escapades. Fonda is a young newspaperman who castigates the lady in a scorching ediI tonal, and is promptly sued for libel. Because of her reputation, Miss Stanwyck is disbelieved by the police when she reports finding a dead body —which vanishes before the officers can arrive. Irritated at this attitude, she gathers her faithful cohorts and'decides to solve the mystery herself, just to prove she isn’t as useless as Fonda’s editorial makes her out to be. The first body leads to a second, which arouses the interest of Sam Levene, a world-weary detective lieutenant, who suspects Miss Stanwyck knows more about the two killings than she will reveal. His efforts to solve the case, Fonda’s hectic con- , flict with Miss Stanwyck which develops into an impetuous romance, and her dogged search for clues to the . identity of the murderer, all lead to . an exciting climax in which Levene persuades Miss Stanwyck to act as “bait” in an elaborate trap that has j unexpected consequences. | A Walt Disney color cartoon adds , since to this great programme.