“HIS AFFAIR”

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

“HIS AFFAIR”

A MISLEADING TITLE. FINE DR/, MA AT PLAZY. Now and then an excellent picture conics along which, by reason of its title, is apt to attract the wrong kind of audience. The latest example of this is "His Affair,” commencing to-morrow at tile Plaza Theatre. The impression of many people in seeing this title, and in noting that the principal players are Robert Taylor, Barbara Stanwyck and Victor McLaglan, isjhat the film will be a sex romance Avith' a minimum of rapid action. Instead of this, the audience is treated to a convincing adventure drama in which the villains in the case are a well-trained gang of bank robbers. The settings are admirably done, particularly the interior sets, which so vividly convey the atmosphere of the turn of the century. Much of the action takes place in a music hall and gambling den, which is run by the gang as a blind to their real activities. Robert Taylor is first seen in full naval regalia as Lieutenant Perry, a young officer who has distinguished himself under the command of Admiral Dewey at the battle of Manila Bay. He is selected by President McKinley for a very secret and difficult mission. Bank bandits have been terrorising the Middle West, and have so far proved too clever for the detectives and even the secret service. Obviously they are directed by someone in a very high position, close to >he President himself. This being so, the President cannot confide In anyone or take any precautions for the lieutenant’s safety. He directs Perry to disgrace himself in the navy, receive his discharge, go to the Middle West, and mingle with the gang. Once there he is to try and discover the presiding genius of the gang. A secret mark is to be used in correspondence between the President and his agent. Events mount to a dramatic climax, which fl-ds Taylor apparently doomed to hanging when, captured with the gang during a bank robbery, in which a secret service man is killed, he learns that the one man who could clear him, President McKinley, has just been assassinated.

AVIATION THRILLS “FLIGHT FROM GLORY.” One of the most thrilling aviation films to be seen in Wanganui for some time, “Flight from Glory,” an R.K.O Radio producion, is to screen next Tuesday at the Plaza Theatre... The film depicts the adventures of ■ the pilots of an Andean air line who are forced to fly old and unreliable machines over extremely dangerous country. The story abounds in thrilling interludes when Van Heflin, who is cast as an American pilot prone to intoxication, undertakes some particularly dangerous flights. Chester Morris, Onslow Stevens and Whitney Bourne have the prominent roles. GREATEST VOICE PALL ROBESON’S BASS. Paul Robeson possesses_what may be recognised as the greatest bass voice ever heard in talking pictures. Robeson has more than a voice though. He has personality that is compltely disarming, and an acting ability that stands out in any show he appears in. Consequently, his appearance in “Big Fella,” which is showing next Friday at the Plaza Theatre, bears more than usual interest. “Big Fella” presents Paul Robeson as Joe. a dockside worker in Marseilles, who is called in to help trace a young ooy who has mysteriously vanished from a vessel in port. It is suspected that the youth has been kidnapped. Joe eventually discoveis the lad, who threatens to say that Joe kidnapped him if he is taken back to the ship. With the help o £ Manda, a cafe singer, he looks after him, only to have the child really kidnapped by a wharf loiterer who wants the reward. Irene Dunne. To Hollywood, Irene Dunne will always be recalled as the brown-eyed prima donna who, shortly after her arrival in the film city, won the most coveted screen role of the year—the part of Sabra Cravat in “Simarron” in which she established herself as one of the outstanding personalities in pictures. On the stage Miss Dunne starred for a period of seventy weeks in Ziegfeld’s “Show Boat,” and attracted the attention of William Le Baron, managing director of production at the Paramount Studios, who signed her to a contract. Then followed her appearance in “Cimarron,” opposite Richard Dix, which won the acclaim of fans and critics throughout the world. Her other pictures include “Thirteen Womin,” “The Silver Cord,” “Back Street,” “No Other Woman,” and “Ann Vickers,” in which she starred. More recent pictures were “Sweet Adeline,” “Roberta,” “Magnificent Obsession,” and “Show Boat.” She was signed by Paramount in April, 1936. Miss Dunne considers her role in “High, Wide and Handsome” her finest and most exacting. She was called upon, as singing star of “High, Wide and Handsome,” to render five songs.

“Midnight Madonna,” Described as “the most sensational film find of the year,” four-year-old Kitty Clancy, a dimpled, curly-haired blonde beauty vill be seen for the first time when Paramount releases “Midnight Madonna,” a story of a mother’s battle for the custody of her child. Little Kitty has never received any stage or acting training, but regards the business of appearing before the cameras as a game, and has succeeded in making it just that for the most seasoned actors who appear with her in the drama. These include Warren William, Mady Correll, a New York stage beauty, who makes her film debut in “Midnight Madonna,” Robert Baldwin, and Johnathan Hale.