CITY THEATRES

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21416, 7 March 1935, Page 11

CITY THEATRES

♦- MAYFAIR "THE GAY DIVORCEE 1 ' Many motion picture casts have boarted peers—even a duke or so—but RKO-Radio beats them all two better by co-starring a king and queen in the current musical comedy, "The Gay Divorcee," which is now being shown at tlxe Mayfair Theatre. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the stars, were recently crowned, by public acclaim, as the "King and Queen of Carioca" because of their interpretation of the fiery, exciting dance in "Flying Down to Rio." In "The Gay Divorcee" the great dancing pair present two new dances, one called "Day and Night," originated by Astaire and called "the dance of moods"; another the hit of the shbw, called "The Continental." Music and lyrics for "The Continental" are the work of Con Conrad and Herb Magidson. authors of the current novelty song. "Yes, Sir, I Love Your Daughter." Conrad wrote "Champagne Waltz." The play, a brisk and a rollicking comedy built around a fast-moving romance involving Astaire, Miss Rogers, Alice Brady, and Edward Everett Horton, was adapted for the screen from the stage play which ran a full season in New York and another tix months in London, starring Astaire. REGENT "CLEOPATRA" "What Every Woman Knows" will be screened finally to-morrow night at the Regent Theatre. "Cleopatra," the li!m which has received such praise from Australian newspapers, will head the new programme at. the Regent Theatre on Saturday. According to a leading critic. "Cleopatra" is easily the best talking picture Do Milie has created. The critic adds: "Anybody who admits to a normal ejection for pomp and pageantry will fmd them richly provided in his production. Some of the spectacles are truly amazing. Caesar's triumphal procession through the streets of Rome, with lictors, trumpets, captives, and chariots; the lofty splendour of the Roman baths; Cleopatra's barge, with its burnished poop and beaten gold, its harps, and feathers, and toiling oars, moving like a flight of birds to drum-beat; the banquets and the dances; the scenes of war on land and sea, with catapults and battering-rams and galleys showering fireballs—all these have been photographed in astonishing detail, and with what seems, to an unacaclemic eye, astonishing accuracy. Against this vast background, the human figures ot' the actors are oC diminished importance. Yet the undying story of Caesar, Antony, and Cleopatra is told with dignity and intense power, and two of the players. Warren William and Henry WiJcoxon, have probably never acted more intelligently. Warren William is a splendid Caesar, and Henry Wilcoxon makes Antony a man. Cleopatra is Dlayed by Claudettc Colbert, and she, too. gives one of her best performances. With her long, dark hair and silver-winged head, she has never looked more physically beautiful — which is as a De Mille Cleopatra should be." The famous love story of 2000 years ago is told against a sweeping background of magnificent grandeur. All the might that was Rome, all the clamour that was Egypt. is spread upon the screen—a superb piece of theatrical magnificence, and loaded with that type of glitter and sense appeal which lifts the picture to great heights. Box plans are now open at the D.I.C.

CIVIC "\rf: you a mason?" Now in its soconcl week of an except ion;i 11v successful season at (ho Civic All-British Theatre, "Are You a Mason?" continues to attract and delight large audiences. Supported by a splendid mystery drama, "Passing Shadows," in which Edmund Gwenn is the star, this programme is one oi the best to be screened in Christchurch for years. In "Arc You a Mason?" one of the happiest teams of stars ever seen have been gathered together. Two established favourites, Sonnie Hale and Robertson Hare, head the cast, which also includes the cheery Dave Burnaby, Lewis Shaw, and a charming newcomer Gwyneth Lloyd. It is impossible to write of all the hilarious situations in this now famous comedy, but it is safe to say that any audience, whether young or old. will be kept in fits of laughter. Box plans are open at the theatre from 10 a.m. daily.

TIVOU "MAN OF ARAN" AND "THE BATTLE" "The Notorious Sophie bans'-' will finish its season at the Tivoli Theatre 10-morrow night. "Man of Aran." the production which won the Mussolini Cup for all-round excellence, will be featured at the Tivoli Theatre on Saturday, together with the gripping drama "The Battle." "Man of Aran" is one of the most extraordinary real-life films yet presented. There is no cast m the picture; it is the record of the life and work of a small community on an inhospitable island in the Atlantic. The director has succeeded in making something better than a plot out of the pattern of events. A man. his wife, and son, and their friends going about their everyday work— fishing, sharkhunting, gardening, and similar occupations. Such is the main theme of the film: but the fishing is in seas unbelievably wild, and the gardening is in soil "made" from seaweed, sand, and wind-borne dust laboriously collected from rock crevices into which it has fallen. Courage and endurance are the two main factors which keep body and soul together on this island. The sea in many moods plays a large part in the film. It is shown as tranquil, as a mill-pond, now restless under a freshening breeze, and, again, lashing into fury by a shrieking gale. It is through a maelstrom of such a storm that the islanders are shown making their way to the shore to land safely in a boiling surf among jagged rocks, but with the loss of their little craft. Shark-harpooning episodes are among the most thrilling in the picture. The photography is magnificent, and the scenes are as romantic and wildly beautiful as anyone could wish. The powerful psychological drama, "The Battle," is claimed to be one of the outstanding productions of the year. The theme is unusual and stimulating, and has as its basis the accepted inscrutability of the Oriental character and the rigid moral code of a Japanese gentleman. The presentation of the story is that of a true artist, and the climax o 1 the film is of tremendous dramatic force. Merle Oberon and Charles Boyer take the leading roles. Box plans are now open nt the D.I.C.

PLAZA "THANS-ATLANTIC I\JEl f • ROUND" All the ingredients necessary for good entertainment are present J.n "Trans-Atlantic Merry-Go-Round, which is now being shown at; the Plaza Theatre, and so skilfully arc they mixed that the production is full of interest from the first scene until the last. Tuneful songs with good voices to sing them, comedy, and diama alternating throughout, clever dancing, and spectacular scenes are some of the many attractions of "Trans-Atlantic Merry-Go-Round." Gene Raymond and Nancy Carroll share the acting honours, and provide mu of the love interest, relieved with some sparkling comedy moments. Sydney Howard, as a perpetually drunk passenger, and Mitzi Green, with some brilliant impersonations ana some good songs, arc screamingly funny, and 'lie others in the cast are almost equally as good.

"MAD A MIC nr lIAKKY" "Madame Du Harry." a masterly .screen production, depirling the intimate life and loves of the lanious beauty who ruled the court of King Louis XV., with Dolores Del Rio giving a suberb performance in the title role, will commence at the Plaza Theatre on Saturday. No pains have been spared in producing the picture, which is lavishly costumed, capably acted, and directed with real feeling and historical accuracy. Although the intrigues of the court, as in any story of Da Barry, will be apparent, the author oi' the current screen play has concerned himself more with the lighter side of the life of the kings favourite. Some of the reproductions are marvellous in their iavishness--the court, the palace at Versailles, and the famous Cnlonade Gardens, where the grand ladies and resplendent courtiers disported themselves ill gaiety and luxury, while llic people starved. N>>r is the picture \vitlinuf its dramatic moments when I>u Harry lights intrigue wiili intrigue, and usually outwits her enemies. Yet even in these more intense sequences, I lie irrepressible Du Barry usually manages to end them with a Jruigh—at the expense of the enemy. There is also a gorgeous and novel dance staged by the famous Albertina Rasch dancers. "Madame Du Barry" has an unusually large cast of talented players in the principal roles and hundreds of others in minor parts. Dolores Del Rio has the part of Du Barry, with Reginald Owen playing opposite her as King Louis XV. Others include Victor Jory, Osgood Perkins, Verree Teasdale, Ferdinand Gootschalk, Dorothy Tree, Anita Louise, and Maynard Holmes. CRYSTAL PALACE "LONDON SPICKS" The London in "London Speaks." the tilm which is now being shown at Ihe Crystal Palace, is the real London, the great metropolis throbbing with life and bright with a million lights. Greater Australasian Films have offered it on the screen, not as the setting for an entertainment, but as an entertainment itself; and it is almost certain to be popular. For London is always before us—in history, in literature, in the news of the day—and New Zealanders attach a certain sentiment to it. While it is a traveller's story, "London Speaks" is not a travelogue, it; takes the audience into London, unfolds all the scenes of romantic interest —the Tower, St. Paul's, Madame Tussaud's, Rotten Row, the Old Curiosity Shop—and leads on into exciting discoveries and adventures. _ Indeed, everything that, one has imagined one would do arid see if a trip to London became n possibility is in the tilm. The adventure starts with the arrival of the ship in the famous ducks, giving an opportunity of studying from the deck of the ship the perspective of London. Then it passes into the heart of the city and the audience realises the humour that London contains and sits back and laughs heartily at one of Britain's best salesmen in Petticoat Lane as he tries to sell a most intimate portion of ladies' apparel. Many famous people, from the King downwards, appear in "London Speaks." London's life, historic interest, and fascination, all are cleverly blended. In addition, Mr Dave McGill appears on the stage and sings a bracket of songs of old London.

LIBERTY I "LAST OF THE DUANES" AND "HEAT LIGHTNING" Action and thrills a-plcnty arc combined in the new double-feature programme—"Last of the Duanes" and "Heat Lightning"—which is now being shown at the Liberty Theatre. The spirit of Zane Grey's popular story of the west has been completely recaptured in "Last of the Duanes." The part of Buck, the "last of the Duanes," is taken by George O'Brien. He gives a fine portrayal of the hunted but fearless rider. Lucile Browne takes the leading role opposite O'Brien, and the combination is a particularly happy one. "Heat Lightning" is a drama, enacted under the sweltering sun and the eerie, flickering heat lightning 01 a mid-American desert, but combining action, romance, and light, comedy The laurels for acting in this picture must go to Aline MaeMahon—her performance is really exceptional, bhe gives a fine, dramatic portrayal, and is ably supported by Ann Dvorak, as her pretty but wilful sister, and I'reston Foster, as her erstwhile lover, both of whom give polished performances. GRAND "MANHATTAN MELODRAMA" "Manhattan Melodrama," which provides first-class entertainment in its compelling love story studded with dramatic and intensely emotional scenes and a generous sprinkling of comedy incidents and characters, is now having a return season at the Grand Theatre. The galaxy of screen stars assembled in its action to support the powerfully-acted studies of American motive forces, presented by Clark Gable, William Powell, and Myrna Loy, is bound to delight regular picture patrons, but it goes further than that. In the alternations of thrill, amusement, and gripping emotion that go to the making of the story's fascination, and in the presentment ol typical high-lights of American gaiety and politics is ever present the national problem of keeping the balance between the power of the dollar and that of social probity. The supports include Chapter 11 of the serial, "Gordon of Ghost City," starring the popular Buck Jones.

MAJESTIC "THE CAPTAIN HATES THE SEA" "Menace"' will conclude its season at the Majestic Theatre to-morrow night. Intrigue, romance, tragedy, and comedy are features of "The Captain Hates the Sea," the brilliant picture which will commence at the Majestic Theatre on Saturday. Some of Hollywood's best-known actresses and actors are seen in the major roles, and the production is as thrilling as it is humorous. All the scenes are enacted on an ocean liner, and the happy-go-lucky manner in which the passengers enjoy themselves is an entertainment in itself. The story opens with the steamer pulling out on a pleasure cruise. Victor McLaglen is waiting patiently for the appearance of an international crook in Fred Keating, who tails to arrive up to time, and is brought aboard in the pilot's boat. Keating is thought to be in possession of a parcel of negotiable bonds, and McLaglen has been commissioned by the owners to procure their return. In doing so he meets Helen Vinson, a demure-look-ing i-oiiJ. who really is the partner of the crook. While the case is being unravelled. a half-dozen tensely human dramas oC Jil'e are being unfolded. There is the story of the Jcddocks, the wife a lady with a shady past, and the husband now a respectable business man, haunted by the memory of the way in which he used his wife's shame to start him on the road to success. Then again is the story of General Salazaro, who was once in charge of an unsuccessful revolution, and was returning to face the firing squad from abroad. The captain himself really hates the life he is forced to follow, and only carries on because he is forced to earn his living in this manner. Through all of them comedy, drama, and tragedy are screened in a succession of incidents and situations that are at the least delightful. Victor McLaglen. John Gilbert, J<'red Keating, Helen Vinson, Alison Skipworth, and Wynne Gibson have a great deal to tin with the success or the film, and all. giro characterisations in keeping with lboii: usual high standards, I'.ox plans fire now open at the D.I.C.