ENTERTAINMENTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 148, 25 June 1931, Page 11

ENTERTAINMENTS

REGENT THEATRE

“THE MAN FROM BLANKLEY’S” “In spite of the Bard’s famous question, there is a great deal in a name/-’ says John Barrymore, starring in the Warner Bros, and Vitaphone comedy, “The Man From Blankley’s, ” now at the Regent Theatre. 11 Until a character is properly named,” says Mr Barrymore, “it is almost impossible to develop the plot. No one ha*j been so clever at making names fit characters as Charles Dickens, but F. Anstey, editor of ‘ ‘ London Punch,” who wrote ‘The Man from Blank ley’s, ’ is a dose second.” Mwh of the character and the comedy that this picture possesses in such unusual degree is based primarily upon the characteristic and comic names that the people of the story possess. John Barrymore for the first time since tnc advent of the talkies has returned to the type of acting which first gave him fame. 4 ‘The Man from Blankley’s” is a slapstick, gloriously slapstick, adventure in mistaken identity. Young, swanky, and a bit tipsy, Lord Strathpeffer starts out through a fog to visit an Egyptologist, carrying with him a case of the instruments used by entomologists. He misses doors by one, and stumbles in on the party wh’ch the Tidmarshes are giving for their rich unc c, Gabriel Gilwattle. On account of many regrets received from invited acquaintances, and fearing that there will be thirteen at table, they have gone to the Blankley Employ me nt Agency to hire a guest, who will take the curse off the party, and at the same time impress Unde Gabriel. The Tidmarshes believe Lord Strathpeffer to be the man they have rented, and he takes them for the antiquarians he seeks. Indeed, they look it, for the guests are more like Cruickshank characters for a Dickens novel than anything else in the world. When the hilarious pandemonium breaks — you’ll get the laugh of a lifetime. Barrymore never more the artist.

GRAND THEATRE

“TIGER ROSE” Magnificent against natural backgrounds of the wilds that have seldom been equalley, “Tiger Rose,” now at the Grand Theatre, is the last word in Vitaphone entertainment. There is a splendid sweep to this story of the Hudson Bay country and the North Woods, and life, movement, and speed have been combined with some of the finest dialogue that has yet been heard. It is a tale of primitive sections in a province far removed from the dust and roar of cities—a, province which does not wish modern activities to enter. Lupe Velez, the little Mexican actress, who plays the co-starring part with Monte Blue, wing new screen laurels in the title role of “Tiger Rose.” Iler work is dynamic and filled with violent passion, pathos and humour. It is a most colourful characterisation. Monte Blue, as Devlin, the blarneying Irish sergeant of the Northwest Mounted, who loves Rose, and eventually helps her escape because she loves another,

is at his very best in this picture. It is by far the finest thing he has done.

MAJESTIC

“MEN CALL IT LOVE” Of all the pictures the screen has presented on the pitfalls of modern marriage, none can rank higher than “Men Call It Love,” the Metro-Gold-wyn-Mayer production co-starring Adolphe Menjou and Leila Hyams, now showing at the Majestic. Based on the stage play “Among the Married,” by Vincent Lawrence, the sound story and logical development of the situations of “Men Can It Love” form a solid basis for an absorbing drama of marital insecurity, braced by «eleverly written dialogue, ultra-fashionable settings, real human people and a'strong ]ove theme which, despite the proverbial difficulties, wins through in the *»nd. The performance of Adolphe Menjou as the wrecker of homes is very well done. Doubtless there are thousands like him in real life —not a wicked man in the accepted sense of the word, but one who has a weakness for pretty and not-too-scru-pulous women. It Is this absence of ordinary conventional “villainy” of the characterisation which makes the story so logical and gripping. Leila Hyams also does very well ns the young disillusioned wife who tries her contrite but erring husband’s ways in a vain effort to re-discover her happiness. Her grief is sincerely evident in the disillusionment sequence, where she wins and retains the sympathy of the audience till the end. Mary Duncan is also deserving of praise. Her the scene where she discovers that Leila Hyams’ husband ‘‘means something” to her, together with the subsequent adventures of these two. As the husband. Norman Foster is quite good and convincing, as likewise is Robert Emmett Keane, who has a weakness for apologising to a shrewish wife every time the latter adopts an indignant attitude to confront his misgivings. The dialogue is smartly written all through, but withal there is a peculiar ring of real life and real people pervading each and every scene. Everybody will like “Men Call It I Love,” both as entertainment, which it certainly is, and as a 'cross-section of modern fashionable life.

THE DUCHESS.

“HAPPY DAYS” FOR' WELCOME WEEK. A full one hundred stars of stage and screen doing their stuff in as sparkling an all-talking musical romance as was ever conceived for stage and screen. Here are a few of the stars: Will Rogers, Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell. Ed. Lowe, J. Harold Murray, Warner Baxter, and ninety others, and how these stars shine. There is a host of beautiful girls who can sing and dance most charmingly; also a fine dramatic story, teeming with heart interest, winding swiftly through the colourful musical settings. The story grips in every sequence. This programme will be oq to-night (Thursday ).