The Theatres

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 175, 3 November 1941, Page 8

The Theatres

REGENT

MELODY AND COMEDY

Africa's jungle is filled with jive when Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour go safaring in Paramount's new melodic comedy, "Road to Zanzibar." Bing and Bob arc a couple of carnival men barnstorming through Africa, trying to raise enough money to get back home. Bing thinks up the sideshow stunts and Bob performs them —at risk of life and limb, for he's shot out of a cannon, frozen alive and electrocuted. They become prank-playing rivals when Dorothy Lamour comes into their lives, clad in a dress made of fern leaves. Captured by cannibals, Bing and Bob almost find themselves on the blue plate special. Romance and melody mingle with comedy and adventure when Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour travel through Africa, in their new starring picture "Road to Zanzibar."

OUSTANDING ATTRACTION Charlie Chaplin is back. After two years of now you see him now you don't and an incredible confusion of rumours as to whether he -would make "The Great Dictator" or not make' it, and then, having made it, whether it had to be remade, and then, whether it would ever be publicly shown, the news is that "The Great Dictator," the first Charlie Chaplin comedy since "Modern Times," will open at the Regent Theatre on Tuesday. Not only that, there are the following foot-notes; that it was completed ilk 171 days: of shooting time, which is reasonable enough when it is considered that Chaplin wrote the story and the dialogue, directs the story, plays a dual role in the picture. edits it and scores the music. It cost in the neighbourhood of more than 2.000,000 dollars. That it is the most ambitious and the most expensive production that Chaplin has ever attempted j.s» less important than the fact that it involves the little clown in artistic responsibilities and caricature that he has never before attempted. For, in "The Great Dictator," Chaplin is seen not only as the little tramp with the derby, the cane and the awkwardly fitting shoes, but in another role as well —that of a mighty dictator of a war-mad power. There are two stories that converge—the story of the little barber from the ghetto, and the story of ■ the palace.