MAJESTIC THEATRE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 155, 3 July 1934, Page 9

MAJESTIC THEATRE

"CATHERINE THE GREAT." “Catherine the Great,” showing finally to-day and to-night at the Majestic Theatre, is one of the great films, and apart from its historical interest there is the marked contrast between the two Catherines, the one quite unconcerned as to the means in which she uses men. and the other womanly, with all a woman’s fears and sentiment. Elizabeth Bergner gives a vivid character personification of the unscrupulous Catherine, forceful and successful in her dealings with the men who endeavour to get in her way. The film is much more than merely a great spectacle. The Grand Duke Peter of Douglas Fairbanks, jun., is a fine piece of work, conveying the character of the weak-kneed, mentally unstable, and morally unconscious husband, hating, yet forced to acknowledge, his wife’s mastery, while all the while his doubtful pleasures fail to yield him freedom from the realisation that he is after all a despicable fellow. .11 is one of those pictures which should please a very varied audience, as the spectacular and brilliant historical displays al ternate with incidents in a story which must give rise to the deepest thought. The supports arc excellent. “Lady for a Day.” “Lady for a (Day,” commencing nt the Majestic Theatre to-morrow, is a film noted for its excellent entertainment qualities. .Mother-love is the central theme, and May Robson, “ the grand old lady of the American stage,” achieves her greatest success as Apple Annie, who vends her wares in the streets of New York to support a daughter in Europe. For years she has practised the deception, in letters to the girl, that she is a society matron, going to all sorts of extremes to obtain high-class hotel stationery and describing her social activities in glowing terms. Disaster threatens when the girl writes 'to say that she is coming over to America with her fiance and his father, a Spanish nobleman, who wishes to meet her people. Annie is in despair, but she has many friends in the underworld, notably Dave and

Dude, an aristocratic-looking gambler, who regards her as his lucky charm. He installs the old woman in a wealthy friend’s apartment, and turns her out as a dignified society figure. Then th< fun starts in earnest.