MAJESTIC THEATRE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 83, 9 April 1934, Page 9

MAJESTIC THEATRE

“HER SWEETHEART.” Mario Dressier, the veteran favourite of the screen, is at the Majestic Theatre in a role that gives her every opportunity for the display of the histrionic talents that have made her famous. As Abby the maid in the Metro-Goldwyn play “Her Sweetheart” (adapted from the brilliant comedy “Preaez Garde a la Peinture,” by Rene Fauchois, and staged in London as “The Late Christopher Bean”), she enthrals, amuses, and delights. The story concerns the posthumous fame that comes to Chris. Bean, a painter, whose pictures arc sought by a ring of art critics; it is mainly a story of greed, dealt with in the form of satire. A bunch of canvases, worth untold thousands, are traced to the home of Dr. Haggct, an eccentric old village doctor, wlio was Bean’s friend. But the picture-faker and a shady dealer who swoop on the Hagget home reckon without Abby, voluble, generous, and truc-hcaitcd, whose love for the dead painter has lasted out the years. When the true value of the canvases comes to light, the Haggett family show their tme colours. When nearly driven frantic by the loss of potential thousands they unite to swindle Abby out of the pictures that she has, the story takes on a sinister turn, and there in an ingeniously-constructed last act in which Abby stages a sensational climax when she reveals tho exact relationship of herself to the dead artist. Greed is left unsatisfied at the last moment. Miss Dressier is, as always, faultless in characterisation, and Lionel Barrymore is no less successful as the doctor, eccentric but never caricatured. Beulah Bondi plays his unpleasant wife. Helen Shipman is Ada, the horrible elder daughter, and Helen Mack in Susan, the lovable young daughter, whose love affairs with Warren (played by Russell Hardie), a budding painter, provides the romance of the story and much of tho humour, particularly when Abby is helping their elopement. H. B. Warner plays a, kindly art critic, and Jean Hersholt and George G’ouloris are the two shady dealers. The supporting programme that greatly pleased the crowded Saturday night audience includes a funny Charlie Chase comedy, “Sherman Said It,” with a war flavour, a Metrotone News, and “Pigskin,” a sporting number that shows the strenuous training of American footballers.