ENTERTAINMENTS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 255, 9 August 1937, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

ST. JAMES THEATRE. “THAT GIRL FROM PARIS.” Headed by “That Girl From Paris,” the programme to be shown at the St. James Theatre finally this evening is full of entertainment. Lily Pons, Jack Oakie and Gene Raymond are the featured players in this film, and there will also be shown a film of the Rugby’ match Auckland v. the Springboks. Hare—the high priest of hilarity— Diray ton, the duke of delirious nonsense —what a- perfect combination for the screen’s riotous comedy, “Aren’t Men Beasts!” This picture will show at the St. James Theatre on Tuesday and Wednesday. Great as a play’, and even greater as a film, with Robertson Hare and Alfred Drayton fulfilling the roles they made famous in the West End stage for two y r ears, the film is the merriest riot of nonsense the screen has had in years. Honestly, there’s enough laughs for a laughtime. The story opens on Roger Holly’s wedding morn, and just before father, Herbert Holly (Robertson Hare) leaves his dentist rooms far the ceremony 7, a beautiful vamp rushes in, and declares she will never let him reach the registry, office. Tearing her clothes and disarranging her hair, she screams for the police and has Herbert arrested. But Herbert escapes from the clutches of the law and “escapes” to his son’s flat. MAJESTIC THEATRE. More than 50 persons—one of them a well-known star—lived a wintry halfyear in the giant redwood-forest of Sequoia National Park in order to give to the screen an authentic motion picture of wild animal life. Completed after 18 months of patient effort, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film, “Sequoia,” shows at the Majestic Theatre to-night and to-morrow night. It i 9 hailed is the. first feature length picture of its kind ever made. It really proves the story, it sets out to tell . ° the theory of one of the characters that animals are not naturally hostile toward one another but are forced into hostility through the law of survival. A puma and deer, considered arch enemies, were captured in infancy and carefully acquainted with one another. In a month they 7 were living in the same cage, cavorting like old pals. More astonishing still, incidental animal “characters”—raccoons, coy 7 otes, cub bears, and bobcats—soon became one happy family. “Tough Guy,” on the same programme, with Jackie Cooper and Joseph Calleia, has no heroine. There is no love interest. Still critics hail it as one of the most engrossing pieces of entertainment in months. The story deals with the comradeship that springs up between a notorious public enemy, a boy and a dog, and the work of the Secret Service in rounding up. a gang of racketeers. DANCE IN RADIANT HALL. The Saturday night weekly dance in the Radiant Hall was very well attended, the visiting football teams being guests of the management. The cash Monte Carlo was won by Mr and Mrs Willis, and the lucky spot by Miss. Melrose and Mr McKendry. Two exhibition tap dances were given by Miss Kerr and Miss Jackson. D'abourn’s band played music, and Mr Ned Chambers was master of ceremonies.