REGENT THEATRE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 177, 29 July 1932, Page 11

REGENT THEATRE

‘•CAUGHT PLASTERED” SHOWING With two of the greatest fun-makers of the screen, Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, “Caught Plastered,” is now showing at the Regent. However, for the benefit of those who haven't seen these incorrigible laugh kings, the picture not only is funny, but it is funny in an altogether refreshing way. It combines new laughs and dra- 1 matie tensity. In between these two extremes are little giggles, big smiles and heart aches. Action plunges into an absorbing story, strange ( as that may seem in » connection with comedy. Tommy Tan ner (Wheeler) and Egbert Higginbotham (Robert Woolsey) enter a midwestern town on their uppers. They meet Ma Talley (Lucy Beaumont), who is about to lose her drug store because of the machinations of a villain (Jason Robards). They take over the store to save her from the poorhouse, and are about ready to pay the “heavy” when he spikes their soda with liquor and tips off the police. When things are darkest, Dorothy Lee (daughter of the local police chief), outmaneouvres the crook. Douglas Mac Lean wrote the original story and also supervised production, his third straight success since joining Radio as an author-producer. William Sieter, who was MacLean’« director when Mac Lean was himself a comedy star and leading man, held the megaphone. “The Broken Lullaby.” It is stated that never before has mortal man compiled a human document so devastatingly poignant as Ernst Lubisch's “The Broken Lullaby,” which will make its Wanganui premiere at the Regent Theatre tomorrow. It is said to have the simplicity of a parable—the directness of. a lightning bolt. “The Broken Lullaby” tells of the post-war events in the life of a former soldier in the war-time army. The principal roles are played by Lionel Barrymore, Nancy Carroll, and Phillips Holmes. Holmes ig seen as the soldier of France —sensitive, roman-tic-minded, who, in the performance of his duty, kills a young German soldier during his big enemy drive. As soon as the deed is committed, he begins to suffer a profound remorse. From a letter on the person of his victim he learns the name of the dead soldier’s German sweetheart, Nancy Carroll, and the name of the town in which she lives with the dead man’s father, Lionel Barrymore, a stolid German nationalist who harbours a great hatred for all Frenchmen. After this brief war-scene prologue the picture is occupied with the events in the lives of these three after peace has been declared. Holmes driven by a sense of remorse and contrition, goes to Nancy’s home town, to confess to her and the father that he was the man who killed the yoiith she loved. She intercepts this errand when i she meets him at the grave of the de-

ceased lover, and persuades him to say nothing about the war to tho stern father. Barrymore meets Holmes, likes him, and soon forgets his old animosity for tho French. Holmes fails in love with Nancy, and they plan to get married. But the sensitive youth feels that it will bo dishonourable to wed iNancy until he has told Barrymore the [truth about his war-time deed. Tho re- | mainder of the picture is concerned with the dramatic events which take place before the lovers smooth out their • problems.