REGENT THEATRE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 125, 28 May 1936, Page 9

REGENT THEATRE

"THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL" I “Tiip Scarlet. Pimpernel” leaves a critic vainly groping for ] longing to find one that lias not been I lessened in valuv by its misuse in ad- ■ vertisements. I'or this Alexander Korda : production, now vnjoying a Wan- ' ganui season at the Jiegent ’ Theatre, is unquestionably the finest ■ British picture of this or any other 1 year, and probably deserves the prize ‘ lor the best film produced anywlieie I during .1931. It merits superlatives * of the highest value. Leslie Howard ‘ is Sir Percy Blakeney to the life. The ’ rest of the cast is extremely competent - —Merle Oberon is a delightful Lady ! Blakeney, Nigel Bruce a realistic ' Prince Urgent, and Haymond Massey. ’ sinister but real, ideally ( -a<t as the : villain Chauvelin. “When Knights Were Bold’’ ' i Jack Buchanan's latest success, t “When Knights Were Bohl,” will be | ] presented at the Bogent Theatre on ] Saturday. Two of the numbers which | enhance the entertainment value of the t film, “I’m Still (Dreaming” and “ Let’s > Put Some People to Work,” sung in i -Jack's own inimitable breezy style, are n destined to be instant favourites. Both | songs are logically introduced into lhe story, Jack, as Sir Guy de Vere, the | new Lord of Beechworth Castle, using ( the latter in his love making with his < beautiful cousin, Lady Bowena. Some- 3 what embarrassed by the lady’s <ool- ] ness towards him, the new Guy finds ; it a difficulty in expressing his ardour s in mere words : so he puts his feelings r to music and sings to her, “Let's Put } Some People to Work.” lhe words of which aptly plead his cause, but even- f tually earn for him—a, slapped face, r Of course, no Buchanan picture would , be complete without 'an interlude of | tap-dancing, and it is therefore no sur- . prise when Sir Guy, after a pariicu- j larly “heavy” night and an equally f> heavy blow on the head from a falling j suit of armour, goes back in his dro.rns through the centuries, and finds .he ; sandy floors of his ancestors’ castle distinctly to the liking of his tapping feet. «