AMUSEMENTS

Camp News, Volume 1, Issue 15, 21 March 1940, Page 8

AMUSEMENTS

PLAZA THEATRE. It takes a lot of courage for a star to change charactrizations at the peak of a successful careerparticularly if the change is from “sweet” to worldly roles. But lovely Myrna Loy found the courage to play the amorous Lady Esketh in Darryl F. Zanuck’s production of “The Rains Came,” the Louis Bromfield best-seller which • co-stars her with Tyrone Power and George Brent, at the Plaza. After four years of playing the perfect wife and sweetheart —it.all began with “The Thin Man” —Myrna made no secret of the fact that she was pretty tired of smiling sweetly and would welcome an opportunity to delineate a bit of celluloid wickedness for a change. But she admits that she was completely bowled over when Zanuck, production chief at 20th Century-Fox, called her up one day and asked her how she’d like to play Bromfield’s lady of many loves. She hadn’t expected to be quite that wicked! “I thought the matter over for almost a week,” Myrna said. “1 had felt for months that I was being typed and thought that movie-goers must be as satiated with my exemplary cinema conduct as I was.”

So she took the role and, according to advance reports, her portrayal of the woman who was regenerated by her love for the fascinating Major Safti, played by Tyrone Power, will win Myrna a host of new fans.

STATE THEATRE. Riotous romance, exciting adventure and tuneful melodies against a rich tropical background of Latin America are brought to the screen in Bobby Breen’s latest starring film, “Escape To Paradise” at the State Theatre. The eighth picture in which the clever young singer has been headlined, “Escape To Paradise,” is said to top all his previous efforts both in his individual performance and in the vehicle and support given him, Heading the list of featured players is Kent Taylor, who, as an American playboy who loves to loaf, gives a standout portrayal. Romantic interest is furnished by Marla Shelton, as a South American senorita; comedy and villainy are provided by Joyce Compton and Robert 0. Davis.

It’s really a new Bobby Breen who makes his appearance in “Escape To Paradise.” In a real boy role —that of Roberto, a happy-go-lucky South American lad whose penchant for exaggeration is always getting him and his friends into trouble—Bobby gives a rollicking portrayal. The half-dozen numbers he sings are all of LatinAmerican flavour.

The picture, an 8.K.0. Radio release, was produced by Sol Lesser. Erie C. Kenton directed from a screen play by Weldon Melick.

Plenty of action and excitement for western fans is crowded into George O’Brien’s new vehicle, “Legion of the Lawless” at the State Theatre. The plot of the story deals with

the sinister activities of a band of masked ruffians who pose as Vigilantes, and with the efforts of a younglawyer to break up the gang and restore law and order to the community.

The original founder of the Vigilante group and many of its members are sincere in their ideas, and the young lawyer finds it hard to convince them that other members are scoundrels. Ihe opportunity comes when a railroad is projected through a district, and the crooks prepare to drive out honest settlers, seize their property, and sell to the railroad at inflated prices.

The lawyer sets about organising the settlers to resist the attack, and this brings matters to a head. The first raid is stopped, but the second time plans are better laid on both sides, and the result is an unusually exciting gun-battle that gives the O’Brien film one of the most thrilling climaxes to date.

Virginia Vale proves to be a lovely leading lady, and O’Brien has surrounded himself with a well-chosen cast headed by Herbert Heywood, Norman Willis, Billy Benedict, Hugh Sothern and Edwin Waller.

TUDOR THEATRE Hal Roach’s “A Chump at Oxford,” which commences at Tudor Theatre on Easter Saturday, is rated as the funniest and most hilarious fourreeler yet to co-star Laurel and Hardy, the screen’s leading pair of funsters. With heaps of rollicking, good oldfashioned complications in the plot, “A Chump at Oxford” tells the story of two street cleaners who inadvertently capture a bank robber. When the bank president offers them a reward, they ask instead that they be sent to the lofty spires of Oxford for an education, which during their misspent lives they happened to miss. From thereon, the story moves with walloping humour. The comics become wonderful targets for the rest of the boys at college, and what happens to the austere dean when he gets mixed up in the frolic provides one of the most side-splitting episodes in the story. ' “The Rebel Son” is the supporting picture. A fast exciting drama of Czarist Russia, starring Harry Baur, the great Continental star, supported by Roger Livesey, Patricia Roc, Joan Gardner and Anthony Bushell.

“The Rebel Son” provides gripping entertainment from start to finish, packed with action and thrills. Harry Baur gives a splendid, boisterous performance as old Tarass Boulba, and receives splendid support from a wellbalanced cast. KING’S THEATRE. A brilliant screen transmutation of Victor Hugo’s renowned novel, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” at the King’s Theatre during Easter, with Charles Laughton in the title role, with a star-studded featured cast, with a record roster of atmosphere players, and with a vivid pageant of medieval Parisian life staged against

dazzling sets of monumental proportions. Treating of that significant period of European history just before Columbus discovered America, when thinkers everywhere were throwing off the shackles of superstition and ignorance and were awakening to a new world of progress, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” has long been a classic of literature. Written in 1823-30, the book created a worldwide sensation and established the name of Victor Hugo. Its immortal tale deals with Quasimodo, the deformed but loyal orphan who rings the great bells of Notre Dame. A beauteous dancing gypsy, Esmeralda, comes to Paris for the annual Feast of Fools in the winter of 1482. She arouses the sinister interest of the King’s High Justice, Frollo, who pursues her to the cathedral where thanks to the right of sanctuary, she receives shelter and safety. Later, Esmeralda flees, Quasimodo endevouring to bring her back. He is caught and flogged for abduction, while Esmeralda finds refuge with the powerful Beggars’ Guild. While entertaining at the birthday party of Fleur de Lys, Esmaralda attracts a soldier, Phoebus, who is slain by the jealous Frollo, Esmeralda is accused, tried and sentenced to the gallows. The Archbishop of Notre Dame learns that his brother, Frollo, is really guilty of the crime, but before he can secure her freedom, Quasimodo rescues the condemned girl by swinging out of the bell-tower on a rope.

OPERA HOUSE, WILL MAHONEY’S SHOW. WILLIAMSON’S EASTER ATTRACTION. If anyone knows how to catch the mood of an audience at the psychological moment, it is Will Mahoney. Blessed with an abundance of rich entertainment gifts in the realm of comedy, he exploits them with a sure aim, and the man who made the King and Queen laugh can make the whole world laugh also. His genius is on a plane of its own, so incomparably does he express it. Sensitive fe atmosphere, Will Mahoney has all the goods at his disposal when confronting an audience, and whether in song, story, characterisation, or novelty dance, he can make the crowds forget world worrie for the nonce. Speed is the keynote of the programme which J. C. Williamson, in conjunction with Tivoli, will present at the Opera House on Easter Saturday afternoon, March 23. Singers, dancers, acrobats, athletes, light comedians and broad comedians, instrumentalists, and ballerinas—not forgetting an animal circus are comprised in this captivating show, which revives all the pristine glory of vaudeville in its highest and most satisfying traditions. Briefly enumerating the diversity of items, there are the fascinating Evie Hayes, who vitalises audiences with her radiant charm; the Melodians, who reveal fresh musical delights; the Lampinis, in a thrilling escapologist act; one enthralled with their novel acrothe Four Florays, who will hold every batic exhibition; Johny Hyman, in sophisticated humour that strikes a new I note; Bob Geraghty, of whom New

Zealanders will retain ni o ones of his work at th Sa M and Mavis Ritchie, i n e „ e S routines; John Bobbie hilaration; ' Margaret ' balladsand operatic numb’remarkably clever a t i reik ,’'| course, an entrancing ballgt |

Evie Hayes, the fascinating' I bird” of the Will: Mahoney Ct which commences its Centeni son at the Grand Opera Hou; lington, on Saturday,!