ENTERTAINMENTS.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18169, 6 November 1930, Page 9

ENTERTAINMENTS.

TO-NIGHT’S PROGRAMMES. STRAND THEATRE. ) An all-colour production, “ On With The Show,” was screened at the Strand Theatre last night, and greatly impressed a large audience. “ On , With The Show,” beside the glamour of back stage life—it is a play within a play—combines a .tender story, with the fantasy that,is in the extravaganza which the stranded company of players is determined to put on, despite the fact that the ‘ ‘ghost ” refuses to walk. Gorgeous costumes and settings are seen in their own brilliant colouring, and the tinting make the players all but living. Beside the great cast, “ On With The Show ” has a chorus of dazzling beauties. The splendid cast includes Betty Compson, Arthur Lake, Sally O’Neill, Joe E. Brown, Louise Fazenda, Ethel Waters, William Bakewell, Fairbanks Twins, Sam Hardy, Wheeler Oakmanp Lee Moran and others. Stage settings equalling anything done by the girl-glorifying Ziegfeld furnish the background for the dramatic action of the story. The palace scene which forms the third act of this musical extravaganza is as fine as anything ever presented on the stage. The dances and ensembles, directed by Larry Ceballos, are especially colourful and carry out the enchanting spirit of the piece.

CIVIC THEATRE

“Anna Christie,” now showing nightly at the Civic, features Greta Garbo in her first talking role, “Anna Christie," daughter of a wastrel barge captain, goes to New York to join her father after spending her girlhood on a farm in Minnesota. Determined to make up for his misdeeds as a father, the old oaptain decides to take her aboard his barge, warning her particularly against followers of the sea who make poor husbands and fathers “like I was.” Anna is a morose, despondent young woman, embittered against her fate, and so accepts her life on the barge without enthusiasm. In a storm her father rescues some sailors, among them the big Irishman- Matt, who promptly falls in love with Anna. Intensely dramatic complications ensue before Anna finds happiness. Marie Dressier and Charles Bickford play the principal supporting roles.

THEATRE ROYAL. Loretta Young and Douglas Fairbanks, Junr., the youngest screen team are ideally' cast in “Forward Pass, and really look and act like college youngsters, even in the midst of a cast that' is composed largely of real college boys and girls. - The story deals with a campus flirt, played by Miss Young, and a football player, portrayed by Fairbanks. This gridiron hero has moments, when he doesn’t feel heroic. The resulting complications make an interesting story, in which a pretty romance 1 ;, is '..wpyen. Director ‘ Eddie' Cline has ”glVeh us a college .picture with real_ college atmosphere. Clino used & big university in Southern California for bis backgrounds, and many of the students for his actors and actresses. Included in the cast is the entire football team of the University of Southern California. A clever cast is seen in support of the featured players. “ Big Boy ’ Williams, has a comedy role. Peanuts Byron, the little, show girl who graduated into pictures is the lisping baby doll of the campus, and sings a song or two with abandon.

ROXY THEATRE.

“ Seven Days’ Leaved, will head the new programme at the Roxy Theatre to-night. This Is one of the finest pictures yet screened in New Zealand. It is a talkie version of J. M. Barrie’s delightful play, “The Old Lady Shows Her Medals,” and all Barrie’s charm, pathos, whimsicality and humour have been retained. Striking performances are given by Beryl Mercer (well remembered from “Three Live Ghosts") as the old lady, and Gary Cooper as the Canadian soldier.

TALKIES AT CAMBRIDGE.

“ The Adventures of Submarine Sl3 ” is interesting large audiences at Cambridge. It tells an exciting story of disaster and heroism in a steel prison 16 fathoms down. Kenneth MacKenna and Farrell MacDonald head the strong cast. The scene in which the submarine crashes and sinks holds the breathless attention of the audience, and the tense moments which follow are full of dramatic power. The true nature or each of the 14 men is revealed in such a crisis, makrng an intensely interesting romance