“RUSTLERS’ VALLEY”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 280, 25 November 1937, Page 3

“RUSTLERS’ VALLEY”

HOPALONG CASSIDY RIDES. THRILLS AT THE REGENT. “Rustlers’ Valley,” latest of Paramount's popular “Hopalong Cassidy,” outdoor romances, commencing on Saturday al tne Regent Th -atre, is the twelfth of the action-packed stories from the pen of Clarence E. Mulford to reach the screen. All have featured William Boyd as “Hoppy.” Columbia, California, among the most famous of the “ghost towns” in the Mother Lode country, was used as the local< in filming Paramount’s "Rustlers’ Valley." Hopalong Cassidy plans an undercover game in the most thrilling of all his famous adventures. Once the Mecca of old prospectors and the motley crew of adventurers, bad men and other cnaracters who fol low, the irresistible lure of the yellow dust, the town is now deserted and remains a typical Western frontier town which no art director could reproduce. "Blonde Trouble” shows as an associate feature, and tells how, en route to New York City, where he hopes to succeed as a song-writer, Fred Stevens meets and falls in love with beautiful Edna Baker, who is employed in a dentist’s office i the big city. In New York Fred meets Paul Sears, a broken-down song-writer, his sophisticated wife, and her gold-digging sister. All three treat him with indifference until they discover that he has his life’s savings w'th him, but then everything changes. Eileen, the sister, plans to marry Stevens and ignores her boy-friend, Jo Hart, song publisher, who has been cooling toward her. Fred, flattered by Eileen’s attentions, completely forgets about Edna. He works with Paul on a song, which flops, but then meets Edna, who inspires him with the Idea for a new romantic tune. Fred and Paul work out the song together, and after many disappointments, persuade Joe Hart to hear it. Hart, in the meantime, learning that Eileen has been flirting w.£h Fred, sees a way to get her off lus hands. He takes Fred’s song and pays him a liberal advance, figuring that when Eileen sees that Fred is a success she'll marry him right away. Fred, whose head is completely turned by Eileen, quarrels with Edna, who walks out on him. For a while Hart continues his advances to Fred, but when Eileen and Fred go to see him, to learn why the song has never been published, they learn the thing is a washout. Immediately, Eileen drops Fred. Fred realises that Edna Is his only true love, but feels that he cannot go to her while he is a failure. He reaches bottom, but just at that time a popular radio singer runs across his song in Hart’s office and sings it over the air. The song is an instant, hit—and Fred, deluged with fat contracts, leaves for Hollywood and the movies, accompanied by Edna, his radiant, blushing bride.

| POWER LINE HERO ! "SLIM” HAS NEW THEME. | II I The hazardous mode of living 1 adopted by the men who erect and care for the amazing system of power lines in the United States is convincingly depicted in "Slim,” the feature next Wednesday at the Regent Theatre. A fall from a steel tower, injury from tools dropped from above, or agonising burns trom high-tension wires are the risks that must be faced by the men who choose the linesI man’s job, but the film shows how the I work gets into the blood of the men | engaged upon it, so tht even the prosIpect of a steady, well-paid job with | one foot on the good earth will not induce them to leave the high wires. Henry Fonda has the title role as a rather gawky farm youth who is fascinated by the linesman’s job, and finally applies for a position and makes good as a linesman himself. His tutor and greatest pal is “Red,” played by Pat O’Brien, a shiftless, happy-go-lucky linesman, who teaches the ■ youngster the tricks of the trade. FAMOUS VAMP’S PART "MR. DODDS TAKES THE AIR.” Gertrude Michael, one of the i screen’s foremost feminine exponents r of “other woman” roles, has another ; siren part in “Mr. Dodd Takes the ; Air,” in which Kenny Baker, of radio • renown, is the star, and which comes ■ to the Regent Theatre on Saturday • of next week. In “Mr. Dodd Takes I the Air” she appears as one of the two ! romantic interests of tenor-singing ; Kenny Baker. Jane Wyman is cast • as the romantic lead. Other players t in Mervyn Le Roy’s production of r “Mr. Dodd Takes the Air” are Frank i McHugh, Henry O’Neill, Harry i Davenport and Ferris Taylor, 49-year ’ old bit player who gets his first break ‘ as a featured player in the Baker starring vehicle. “Artists and Models.” A novely sequence for the new Jack Benny musical. “Artists and Models,” has just gone before the cameras at Paramount with more big names in its cast than any specialty ever before made in Hollywood. Included in the super all-star cast are Burns and Allen, W. C. Fields, Bob Burns, Carole Lombard, Claudette Colbert, Martha Raye, George Raft, Edward Everett Horton, and the Yacht Club Boys. Contrary to misgivings of studio attaches, the'mixing of such a highpowerd array of talent and temperament has given rise to no explosions on the set, although several scenes have been filmed with all the stars working at once. The stars are not flesh-and-blood actors, but Russell Patterson “personettes,” manipulated with strings like marionettes. They are fashioned in miniature after the celebrities whom they arc supposed to represent. Arnold Pressburger is due to start “The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel” at Denham. An exciting script has been prepared by Arthur Wimperis and Adrian Brunel and the film will be directed by Schwarz. An interesting cast is now being assigned to this important production.