ENTERTAINMENTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 189, 12 August 1931, Page 11

ENTERTAINMENTS

MAJESTIC THEATRE “SIT TIGHT” SHOWING If any doubts have existed as to whether Winnie Lightner and Joe L. Brown are the funniest people in the talkies, it is dispelled by “Sit Tight/’ the Warner Bros, and Vitaphone production opening at the Majestic Theatre to-day. Winnie appears as hard-boiled Dr O’Neil, owner of a health institute where the patients, male and female, are pounded, stretched, steamed, psychoanalysed, and otherwise maltreated, in an effort to become the V enuses and Adonises that nature evidently didn’t intend them to be. Dr O’Neil is also interested in the fight game, and hopes to discover and develop champion material in the course of her work. Joe E. Brown is her doubtful assistant who calls himself Jojo the Tiger, and brags without end of the pugs he has knocked out and the medals hr- has won. Jojo has an eye for feminine charms, and causes screaming roughhouse among the lady patients. Winnie is compelled to resort to her most hard-swatting tactics to keep him in proper submission. In the same building with the “health institute” is the office of millionaire Dunlap (played by Hobart Bosworth) who has a pretty daughter. Sally, captivating! y portrayed by Claudia Dell. Sally secures a better job for her lover, Tom Weston (Paul Gregory) and quarrels with him when he refuses to take what he has not earned. As Tom leaves, Winnie corrals him. recognises in his husky build the white hope for which she has been looking and emplovs him on the spot. Sally, in a rage, tries to dissuade Tom from his decision b. ‘ fails. She hires a thug to beat 1. -< ' and cure him of his ambition. The il. :g happens to be a former giant husband of Dr Winnie. He, by mistake, mixes up with Jojo the Tiger instead of the youth aud then the fun starts. GRAND THEATRE. “THE VIRTUOUS SIN.” Finesse of characterisation, dramatic moods and an introspective treatment of human impulses collectively constituting the passion called love, make Paramount’s “The \ irtuous Sin, which opens at the Grand Theatre today. an entertainment barrage of exceptional power. It is the dramatic love narration of intimacies in the lives of three leading characters, constituting an unusual treatment of the eternal triangle theme. Action spins in a steady maelstrom of kaleidoscopic human frailties, generated by the rather unique situation of a pretty Russian girl pleading with a stern general for the life of her husband, and achieving her plea after the amazing discovery | that she really loves the “man-ma-chine.” Walter Huston, who did memorable work in “The Virginian,’ as Trampas, moves a step nearer the distinctive purple canopy of impressive character study so adroitly managed by stars of the Chaney and Jannings type As the iron man of action who becomes a putty puppet under the emotional >neil of Miss Francis, he contrives to be consistent and convincing without even a mawkish moment. Miss Francis chalks up another victory for the kind of sex appeal that fascinates like a calm and deep stream; and for another thing, she makes an unusual departure from her customary coiffure. Kenneth Mac Kenna is good as the third angle of the triangle, and other prominent parts are enacted by Jobyna Howland, Paul Cavanagh. Oscar Apfel and Victor Hotel. I

REGENT THEATRE "WHAT A WIDOW” Gloria Swanson—the emotional act ress—has become again Gloria Swan son, comedienne. From her highly dra mafic mother role in 4 ‘The Trespasser,’ she has turned to the field of comedy to achieve another triumph as th> dashing madcap referred to in the title of “What a Widow!” her new Unite< Artists picture which opens at th< Regent Theatre to-day. “What « Widow!” is nothing like the tomfool ery in the picture at the start of hei screen career. It is perhaps the mos pretentious picture she has ever pro duced. In the matter of clothes, sh< has surpassed all her previous records There are clothes for morning, after noon and evening wear in profusion—clothes suitable for everything fron riotous comedy in street scenes, to tht well ordered magnificence of a forma reception in her Paris town house. Pau Nelson, American graduate of Beau? Arts, Paris, was brought on from Pari: to design the modernistic sets whicl are the last word in stagecraft. Misi Swanson again gives evidence of he marvellous singing talent with her in terpretation of three numbers writter especially for her by Vincent You mans, the famous composer. Misi ; Swanson’s supporting cast is headed bj ; Owen Moore, Margaret Livingston anc Lew Codv. DUCHESS THEATRE "THE CUCKOOS” i Filled with delirious fund and hilari- , ous nonsense, “The Cuckoos,” Radio i Pictures’ wild riot of waggery, opens I to-night at the Duchess Theatre. The show brings the talking screen something entirelv new in entertainment. “The Cuckoos” is not a revue. It’s not a musical comerdy, although comedy and music hold full sway through the production. The show is a distinct departure from the conventional, offering a well-knit story which serves as a background for the antics of the maddest pair of comics ever to grave the screen—Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, who won picture fame in “Rio Rita.” Romance has not been neglected and a tender love strain is carried by June Clyde and Hugh Trevor. TALKIES FOR GONVILLE “THE LIGHT GF THE WESTERN STARS.” The Gonville Picture Theatre will open on Thursday with the first of its talking programmes. The theatre is 1 under entirely new management, and will show weekly. There will be both a matinee and an evening session. Tomorrow night’s picture is one of the most, successful Western pictures yet to reach the talking screen—“ The Light of the Western Stars.” Richard Arlen sings in “The Light of the : Western Stars,” and his voice, like Gary Cooper’s, has that masculine hus kiness which goes with the adventuresome bravado of the plainsmen. Arlen, in the opening sequence of the picture, heard in a cowboy chantie. Mary Brian plays opposite Arlen in this sec ond Paramount outdoor action romance. She and Arlen wore seen together in “The Virginian,’’ the first of the groat Westerns filmed with dialogue. The supporting cast includes Harry Grc^n - funny man of “The Kibitzer,” Fred Kohler and Regis Toomey.