ACADEMY THEATRE

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXI, Issue 8831, 9 October 1942, Page 2

ACADEMY THEATRE

CURRENT PROGRAMMES “Sergeant York,” the Warner Bros. production starring Gary Cooper in the title role, will be repeated at the Academy Theatre tonight. - Joan Leslie, who is sure-fire star material, has the feminine lead opposite Cooper, as a simple mountain girl with a keen wit and a lovable personality. Walter Brennan, Academy Award winner, is cast as Pastor Pile, life-long friend of York, whose homely philosophy became part of York’s creed. George Tobias, Stanley Ridges, Margaret Wycherly, and a host of other popular screen players, make the cast one of the most impressive of recent years.

The story is at once both simple and exciting, because it shows both sides of the lives of the Tennessee, U.S.A., mountain folk—their slow, easy-going manner—and the force of power they can bring out when their tempers are aroused.

York, a sharp-shooting farmer who “gets religion” in his own manner, is a fellow who hates no one and registers as a conscientious objector when he is drafted during the World War. An understanding officer in his company, played by Stanley Ridges, shows him that sometimes violence is necessary to ensure freedom. York turns out to be not only a good sol-, dier, but one of the bravest of heroes.

Nights of adventure, days of thrills and moments of daring intrigue furnish the dramatic background for Columbia’s exciting melodrama, ‘‘The Blonde Prom Singapore.” Set in the mysterious midst of the terrorteeming East, the new film which will be shown at the Academy Theatre to-morrow, tells the breathtaking story of an R.A.F, daredevil in Singapore and a beautiful blonde fortune-hunter out to get a man. Leif Erikson, as the flyer, and Florence Rice are reported to give the best performances of their careers. Musical, action entertainment that is really different will be found in the second picture, “Ridin’ On a Rainbow,” Gene Autry’s latest production. Autry, always entertaining, excels all past performances in his role of a showboat entertainer who undertakes -to straighten out the ! tangled affairs of the itinerant showpeople and the more or less stationary cowboys.

MINERS’ THEATRE PROGRAMME FOR TO-MORROW In “We Go Fast,” the chief offering at the Miners’ Theatre to-mor-row night, we have a merry mix-up over traffic signs, motor-cycle police, moneyed girls and speeding- cars. Lynn 'Bari holds sway behind a drinking bar and Alan Curtis plays the motor-cycle policeman, and the old trick of the bride with the police is tried by the traffic offenders. Altogether the picture will make for an hour of fast-moving entertainment.