FOR ALL TASTES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 254, 27 October 1938, Page 3

FOR ALL TASTES

REGENT PROGRAMME ‘BULLDOG DRUMMOND'S PERIL AND “COLLEGE SWING." The programme which will be screened on Saturday at the Re gent Theatre is one that will please all tastes, comprising as it does a tuneful musical comedy, “College Swing,” and a really good mystery drama, “Bulldog Drummond’s Peril.”

The first picture is a somewhat satirical treatise on American college life, and, while the plot is quite outside the bounds of possibility, the adroit manner in which it has been handled and the generous sprinkling of song and dance numbers make it an amusing and entertaining production. The principals are all wellknown comedians, and in combination they start a series of hilarious episodes that carries the story along at a fast pace. Gracie Allen, although she has the best lines, does not monopolise the camera, but she succeeds in setting a standard which the others, good as they are, find hard to maintain. With her inimitable partner, George Burns, and with the co-operation oi Edward Everett Horton, Ben Blue and Martha Raye, she cavorts and giggles her way through the film in a delightful manner. She is cast as Gracie Alden, me class dunce, whose failure to pass her examinations prompts her father to leave his fortune to the custody of the school until such time as she or a descendant shall graduate. Gracie rather amusingly manages to pass her test and inherits the college, and her peculiar methods of running it cause all the trouble. John Payne ana Florence George handle the slight romantic leads admirably, and Betty Grable and Jackie Coogan are cast in minor roles. “Bulldog Drummond’s Peril” is adapted from “Sapper’s” “The Third Round,” and, while one of the central characters of the novel, Carl Peterson, is missing, the film is still full of all the necessary action mystery and thrills to satisfy the most ardent “Sapper” fan. It is a story of an old scientist whose discovery how to make synthetic diamonds leads to murder and sudden death as a diamond syndicate tries to prevent his formula being made public. John Howard is excellent as Drummond, and John Barrymore makes an outstanding Colonel Neilson, while Reginald Denny and Louise Campbell lend able support.

Dick Powell and Bette Davis will be together in “For Lovers Only.” Errol Flynn is also down on the cast, but Warners are still awaiting his return from his cruise.

Leslie Fenton, husband of Ann Dvorak, gave up acting to direct. Lately he returned, at the request of Norman Taurog, for a part in "Boystown,” with Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney.