REGENT THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 December 1939, Page 2

REGENT THEATRE

A SUPERB PICTURE. -THE WIZARD OF OZ.” “The Wizard of Oz” was presented to a large attendance at the late session at the Regent Theatre last night. The Him was voted by the audience one of the most beautiful and entrancing ever seen by them. The amount of work entailed in producing this outstanding picture must have been little short of stupendous. Parents should not fail to let their children see this picture which is a story that will hold their deep interest throughout. Mere words cannot adequately describe this wonderful offering which is a triumph for the director as well as all concerned. A city of great green bubbles which serve as houses, a forest of flexible trees which reach out with their branches as though they were human arms, and fantastic fields with giant flowers which move like humans, are among the fantastic scenes which taxed the ingenuity of, skilled Hollywood technicians and are among the settings in “The Wizard of Oz,” fllmisation of the L. Frank Baum fantasy, which will again be shown at the Regent Theatre tonight. One of the most elaborate sets represents the Emerald»City, home of the fabled wizard in the picture. It represents great hollow emeralds amid tall emerald spires. A glass-like compound was worked out by studio chemists, coloured emerald green, and under the play of lighting effects presented dazzling and iridescent surfaces for the technicolour in which the picture was made. The almost-human trees which grasp at Judy Garland, Ray ’ Bolger, Jack Haley and Bert Lahr are marvels of ingenuity. Constructed of rubber, each of fifty trees in the central group was governed by twelve separate wire controls operated by technicians offstage. One of the baffling mechanical problems was, that of the . “flying monkeys,” large enough to pick . up principals and fly with them. Men in fantastically coloured monkey suits < played the monkeys. The giant flowers appear in the Land of the Munch- , kins, played by midgets in colourful i make-up. The midgets emerge from 11 the flowers in opening sequences. Toj j take full advantage of colour photo-1 < graphy, all costumes were in brilliant \ 1 and contrasting hues in fantastic de- t sign. The settings are also fantastic in ( their tints. In the cast are Judy Gar- r

land, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton, Charley Grapewin, Pat Walshe, Clara Blandick, a little dog named Toto and ten thousand of the amazing people of Oz. The famous story of little Dorothy, the farm girl who is blown away by a cyclone and finds fantastic adventure in the Land of Oz, remains intact in the screen version. A brilliant musical score with six lilting songs by E. Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen accompanies the action of the picture, with colourful dance ensembles and chorus numbers. Superb featurettes complete the presentation which in all respects is the greatest in the history of the Regent Theatre. It is essential to reserve.