ENTERTAINMENTS

Waikato Times, Volume 117, Issue 19607, 20 June 1935, Page 2

ENTERTAINMENTS

TO-NIGHT’S PROGRAMMES. STATE THEATRE. How a bitter young man, the cynical product of the slums, was recreated by football and the college spirit, is the exciting theme of the comedy-drama “Gridiron Flash." Eddie Quillan has the title role, as “Cherub,” the baby-faced oriminal who thinks college football is soft because his tearn-mates play like men. Betty Furness is featured in a strong cast, including Grant Mitchell, Lucien Littlefield, Edgar Kennedy and Grady Sutton. Warriors from a western college enact the football skirmishes.

“Captain Hurricane" tells an amusing and romantic story, with the colourful background of Gape Cod. The delightfully quaint character of the explosive but good-natured Captain Zenas gives James Barton the greatest characterisation he ever portrayed. Co-featured with him as the prim spinster whom he wooes while she mothers and dominates him is Helen Westley; Helen Mack appears as a waif of the sea, and Gene Lockhart as one of the oaptain’s cronies.

“ROBERTA.” „ “Roberta,” which will head the new programme on Saturday, is one of tho gayest and most colourful romances ever seen. With Irene Dunne singing, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing, and a bevy of beautiful girls displaying the latest in feminine style creations, the film moves swiftly and tunefully through a most intriguing story. An American football player falls heir to a fashionable Paris gown salon. The hero and his band leader pal set the world of fashion agog, the hearts of the mademoiselles fluttering, and the feet of the Parisians aflame during the course of their hectic adventures.

REGENT THEATRE. The vivid oontrast of a sophisticated New York author and a naive and charming farm girl forms the basis of the romantio drama, "The .Wedding Night.” Gary Cooper and Anna Sten make an ideal pair, and their tragic romance, which ends in the death of the peasant girl Manya, is one of the best the screen has given to fllmgoers. The story Is an unpretentious one, but gains in power by Its very simplicity. It tells of the visit to a country home in Connecticut of the author and his wifo after the former has found that the strain of hectic New York society life lias interfered with his work. I-Ie is seeking a new Idea for a novel and unexpectedly finds the theme and colour for his manuscript in the lives and customs' of the neighbouring Polish tobacco farmers. His wife returns to New 'York, but he remains lo .complete the book which Is to recoup his fortunes. By chance he meets the daughter of a wealthy neighbour, and is attracted by her charming naturalness and novel outlook on life. However, she has been chosen by her parents to marry the son of another farmer. Here Is the most dramatio portion of the film, for under the influence of the young American she sees that the marriage would be futile, and with his encouragement she is enabled to defy her parents. This conflict between the old and the new, the constant struggle of the younger generation lo live in conformity with the more liberal order of America, is told with dramatic force. Almost insuperable ’difficulties arise when the girl is forced to •marry her betrothed, and the author’s wife will not willingly grant him a divorce- The story works up to a very dramatic climax. A Mickey Mouse cartoon, “Mickey’s Man Friday,” is one of the cleverest and funniest of the series.

“THE GILDED LILY.’’ Claudette Colbert, who won a host of admirers by her naturalness and charm In “It Happened One Night," gives an equally delightful performance in “The Gilded Lily," which will bo screened on Saturday. In the handling of minor incident the director, Wesley Buggies-, has followed the tradition of “It Happened One Night." There is tho same touch of fantasy applied to the encounters o' life as everybody knows it, the same casual conversation given delicious piquancy by the art of the players, and the same richness of sardonic humour in the treatment of details.

THEATRE ROYAL. “Sweet Adeline," to be screened to-morrow, will transport the audience hack to the gay days at the beginning of the present century, when beergardens were the prototypes of the modern cabarets in New York, when a stroll through the Bowery was even more exciting and reckless than it is to-day, and when ihe bloods waxed llielr -moustaches and the belles wore wasp waists and kept their hair up. The frills and fashions of 1900 form the background for the picture, and Hie atmosphere of the period lias been caught and retained by tho camera with amazing fidelity.

CIVIC THEATRE. Romance vies with action in "Headline Shooter," visualising the colourful life of a newsreel cameraman (played by William Gargan), and wilh Frances Dec as the - love interest. Gargan, the roving news-hawk, falls in love with Miss Dec while “shooting’’ an earlhquake. She leaves her adventure wllli him to marry Hie home-town nance. In a thrilling climax I lie trio face death by gang murder, and she makes a surprise decision. Flood, lire, disaster, world conferences, and personages s-neli as Roosevelt, Hitler and Mussolini are

“shot” [nr the adventurous ntmo- ■ sphere nf "Headline Shooter." i “The. Hit; Drain" is a powerful I slory of a lillle barber simp porter j wbn' lifled himself into a dominating i inlernalinnal sharper. licorge la. ! Slone is featured with Phillips Holmes 1 and Fay Wray. Kvery situalion is j eeulred upon Ihe personality of Slone j as an unscrupulous man whose pills j of will and mind load both In Ids rise j and fall. | TO-MnItMOW"S ATTHACTInNS. ! ‘-I'he Hocks of Vnlpro,” a Him verI sion of F.lhel M. Hell's widely-read 1 slory, will he screened to-morrow, ! also'ihe exoiliny drama, "It. Happened in New York," featuring' Heather l Angel and Lyle Talbot.

ROXY THEATRE. Diana Wynyard displays her beauly and talent to excellent advantage as the abused wife in “One More River," and fine performances are given by Frank Lawton and Colin Clive, who play leading roles. The entire cast, in fact, is excellent. The story is told against a background of English life, and constitutes a highly interesting ploture of life in London and its environs. “Bureau of Missing Persons” was inspired by the numerous kidnappings and mysterious disappearance from time to time of thousands of peopleIt is an authentic picture of the workings of various ‘Bureaus of Missing Persons maintained by the police of most cities. An entertaining vaudeville programme was provided by Jaolc Tapp, the clever tap dancer, and his versatile revue company.