GAIETY IN CITY’S CINEMAS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 260, 1 August 1942, Page 10

GAIETY IN CITY’S CINEMAS

Uncle Sam’s Navy, The Marines Too!

Uncle Sam’s Navy is well represented on the Wellington screen this week - "The Fleet’s In" continues at the St. James and "Call Out the Marines has opened at the King’s. Other new programmes in town this week mclud, ‘•lnbnnv F-mer" at the Majestic, "The Doctor and the Debutante at. the the State, and "Unseen Eneniv" with “Butch and the Baby” at the De Luxe. The city’s long-run record must go to "The C “I r ßlca ” I* .7 e nnins stavs at the Tudor for a fifth week. "How Green has Mj A allc? r “" a l ’ at ‘the Plaza and is fully deserving of an even longer season, while 11 k ami Prejudice" comes back to the Opera House. "Blood and Sand’ and "Freckles Comes Home" are at the Paramount.

MAJESTIC THEATRE

KING’S THEATRE

It lias been optimistically suggested that the toughenlng-up process through .which Robert Taylor Ims been passing in his recent films was complete. How hopelessly wrong everyone was! It had not until audiences see former prettybor Taylor in “Johnny Eager," which has opened at the Majestic. ■ lie is so hardboiled that he makes “Billy the Kid 101 like Little Lord Fauntleroy, there is not one redeeming feature in the character ot John Eager, ex-jail-bird, though the diieitor tries to whitewash him toward the finish of the film. This was not necessary So skilfully bad the director. drawn the picture that the audience found the portrait of this relentless, unlovable, character fascinating and entertaining. Johnny Eager had been brought up tn the gutter, tie had known no home, no love, none of the tilings that shape thcharacter and destiny of ordinary boys. He had been indicted on 37 charges ot

United again as a screen team, Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe, the originator? of “Sez You; »» Me,’’ once again get into all sorts of trouble at the Ki nt,, s Theatre in their latest story of m l gin r side of life in he marines, •' Lail Out tiio Marines.” Though not quite so noisy as their older films, this new effort is jus as cock-eyed as their previous ones, and In practically very scene they manage to get themselves into any form of trouble that happens to be lurking in the vianlty and, it goes without saying, a b'G ■» usually at the bottom of the alorementioned trouble. . , This time, the 'main lady in question IS none other than that very popu ar blonde —yes, she has gone blonde again alter a couple of seasons as a brunette—Binnie Barns, who is .as provocative as ever, and who contrives to look and act as hard as an over-boiled egg. Binnie Victor and Edmund, thanks to the efforts of I a til Kellv and one or two odd members of tlio east, get all moxed up in a spy ring w th the most amazing results. Hon ever. nliat is the world without the marines.' . There is not one dull moment in the show from the opening scene till the final and somewhat unexpected fade-out. Anu are there some hilarious moments? 1 erhaps it is just as well that there is more action than dialogue in many of the scenes, for the shrieks of laughter from the audience successfully muzzle any words that may be uttered by the plajers Two real highlights, reminiscent of the old Mack Sennett days, are provided when Victor takes three staid spinsters on a Wild chase in a jeep and when there is a cafe riot in which the blonde Binnie s garter is the central object.

TWO SHOWS TOMORROW Two Wellington theatres are providing entertainment for servicemen and their friends on Sunday at 2 p.m* and 8.15 p.m. At the Majestic Robert Tavlor and Lana Turner are starred in “Johnny Eager”; at the King’s ‘Call Out the Marines’’ is screening.

law-breaking when the picture starts. But he has sunk thousands of dollars in a dog-racing track which the District Attorney will not allow him to open. He blackmails the Attorneys daughter the track opens and pays handsomely. Johnny Eager dies as he deserves to: shot down in a street by fellow gangstere. “Johnny Eager” is to be remembered for four things: the completely atavistic performance of Robert Taylor as the unlotable, inhuman Eager—a performance to rank beside one or two of Robert Montgomery's; the understandable fascination that Eager exercised over women, most ot whom he treated like dirt; the David and Jonathan friendship between Taylor and Van Hetlin, a friendship which sprang from the most unpromising guttersnipe beginnings; the acting of the same van Heflin. If his studio does not make a star of him soon some other studio will.

PLAZA THEATRE

There is nothing consciously “arty’’ about "HOW Green Was My Valley. Camera tricks are avoided —the screen fulfills its prime function •in presenting a story as nearly as possible as the author wrote it. Richard Llewelyn must have been well satisfied with the excellent job that Twentieth Century-Fox have, made of his great book. The world critics are well satisfied, too—the film has won several Academy awards. The world s audiences are also happy about it— HowGreen Was My Valley h is still packing the Plaza, and “the same tale can be told of Melbourne and Milwaukee, Birmingham and Brisbane. Few of the essentials have, been lost In transferring the story of a Welsh family s triumphs and troubles from paper to celluloid. There is -still the fine old head of the family, a God-fearing man who asks nothing more of life than the chance to earn a living, the right to raise a. family in -simple honesty, and to walk in the ways of righteousness. A changing world breaks above bis head in all its turbulence: his family acquires new ideas of expression and freedom; impersonal moneyed interests ‘turn Welsh valleys into festering sores of iblack slag and sullen miners: strikes and death complete the picture. But “How Green Was My Valiev" is not a morbid film—it has the richness of good character,- deeply rooted. Hoddy McDuwall gives a splendid perfc nuance as the 12-year-old son of the house, the boy through whose eyes the st-ory unfolds. ’ Sara Allgood is the mother --a great piece of acting. How many people will remember this same actress as the original “Peg o’ My Heart” on the Wellington stage many years ago?

OPERA HOUSE

A little slab, across which thousands of worshippers' feet have travelled, is set in the lloor of famous Winchester Cathedral. Beneath it rest the earthly remains of Jane Austen—a writer whose eyes would have popped in amazement could she but ha-ve seen the crowds flocking to a film version of her book as crowds have flocked and are again rallying to the Opera House this week where "Pride and Prejudice” is enjoying a well-deserved return season. There are several bouquets due; first, to the author —so often unrecognized—for providing so delicate and delightful a store; secondly, to Messrs. Metro-Goldwyn-Maver for their faithful picture of Engiisli middle-class life of a century ago; to Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier, Edna Mav Oliver Marv Boland, and the whole great cast for so skilfully interpreting the characters as Jane Austen —and _ millions of readers since—must have imagined them: ' ... This - story of the designing mother with a house full <»f marriageable daughters, is not new—but when it i*s told as deftly as in “Pride and Prejudice” even the most cynical will willingly acknowledge civilization's debt to the cinema.

PARAMOUNT THEATRE

Cole Porter once wrote a song about "The purple light of a Kummer's night in Spain,” but. showman and all as Mr. Porter is. he could never have picturea that purple light as anything quite so magical and beautiful ins the Technicolor light that is shed in ’’Blood and Sand, •which returns to the Paramount Theatre for an extension of what has already proved a lengthy Beason. Spain—the good old .Spain when all they fought were bulls—is the home of a gallant and romantic toreador, imely portraved on the screen by Tyrone Power. (The first toreador, rnoet people will remember, was the long-dead Rudolph Valentino.!. First he is a little boy (not play ed by Power but >by a splendid young actor wliose name ha<? slipped the memory) who waves a cloak at a big bull under the afore-mentioned purple light. Then he goes to the. ihig city, becomes a famous buli-lighter, makes love to women in the wild, unmindful Spanish manner, and huallv dies in the ring. But there is more to “Blood and band than that. The colour must take pride or plaee. There had been none -better since ’’Gone With the Wind.” It is magnificent ‘—from the white and hhie halls ol a luxurious villa to the red blood on the yellow sand in the final shot. Next, there h? Rita Hayworth, introducing such an air ot sultry passion that many w’ives must have felt like whisking their husbands out of the theatre. Her lines are such as to inspire other lines from a writer like de Bergerac. The audience is also treated to the sight of Tyrone Power sitting up in bed with his torso hare But the nights are warm in Spam. Blood and Sand” is good round entertainment—a happy reminder of less subtle and more robust days. „ . ~ recklod Comes Home is the other film on the Paramount’s programme. It is from Gene Stratton Porter’s story.

TUDOR THEATRE

There Is nothing wrong with a film which •stavs in Wellington for a fifth w€*ek which is the length of season that The Corsican Brothers” is enjoying. It is now at the Tudor Theatre. Here is a line, strapping rale of a savage vendetta the Colonnas and the Frnnebis unleashing their dark hatred in an orgy of killing which leaves only two members of the latter family alive—the Corsican brothers, born Siamese twins and separated by the surgeon’s knife in a thousand-to-onc gamble with death. One of them is taken to Paris, educated expensively and endowed with all the virtues of a well-behaved young man. The other brother. Lnuien, is a Strange fellow. Brought up in the forests of Corsica, he i* endowed, not with education and the manners of a Parisian, but. with a sense that warns him of his brother’s deeds In the night the hushed forest rings with his cries ot’ unaccountable pain. At that moment his brother lm« been Vr,,’kpit in a Paris dind. Finally rhe brother* meet and b-gin their relentless pursuit of the rascally Colonnas. The other film on the programme is “The Great Swindle,” with Jack Holt and Marjorie Weavers.

DE LUXE THEATRE The German and Rusian courts at the Paris Exhibition of 1937 were, separated ■by a sheet of water euphemistically described as the Fountain of. I eace. -the same two countries are separated by cold steel and a deadly hatred of each other. Russia has her back to the wan - Stalin in his inspiring message said so yesterday—but she will fight on. Just how vast is the Russian front and how lanaticallv determined our great ally, ls ,llb ' played in the excellent Russian films screening on the De Luxe programme. These films are no Hollywood concoction. Thev are scenes of actual battle, scenes behind the line showing women and men bending their every muscle to the will tor victory. See them—and ponder. . But’ there is a great deal more in the theatre’s Jack Horner pie. Enemy" is the type ot film for which the Be Luxe is acquiring quite a rejiutatlon. It deals with spies in the Pacific—quite near home, in fact. In it are many unpleasant creatures who crawl by night ana draw Nazi pay for so doing. Leo Carillo, Andy Devine, Irene Hervey, and Don Terry are the stars. Damon Runyon finds a place on tne 01*1, too. His contribution is * Butch and tne Baby,” in which the sound track. reveals that peculiar “Runyonese’ which has swept the world like a prairie fire. Butch is a worthy citizen with a large heart, and then there is Harry the .Horse, Blinky Sweeney and Muscles Mike, Susie the Doll and Wyoming, a. “bum steer from Brooklyn.” Wellington might not catch all the Runyon wisecracks, but it will get enough laughs out of “Butch and the Baby" to gather that Damon Runyon is a “pretty smart guy.” The Jungle Girl’s place on the programme has been taken by a Human Torpedo, featured in the new serial. It will thrill the children of 1942 a« much as “The Iron Claw” did their parents.

REGENT THEATRE

Anne Ayars is the girl who has the glass, but not the “oomph,” taken from her heart, and Lew Ayres is 'the man who performs the miracle, in the film .'The Doctor and the Debutante." which is at the Regent Theatre. Those who like Dr. Kildare .pictures are certain to enjoy this one. the ninth in the cycle. • , „ Technical ‘‘do’s” and “don ts for dazzled (and dazzling) debs, are provided freely by Anne Ayars as "Cookie Charters, the brunette sophisticate who falls for the doctor who saved her life. How to resist, tn three easy lessons, is demonstrated bv Lew Ayres, who is successful to the end in spite of a number of sultry episodes. Some of the. dialogue is specially bright and a number of good verbal 'cracks are exchanged by Lionel Barrvmore and Alma Kruger in their respective roles as interne lecturer and matron. A most amusing scene Involves a delirium tremens patient, pink elephants, a nurse, and three orderlies. Outstanding features of the supporting programme are two “shorts,” one a shattering drama based on an Edgar Allan Poe story, and the other a beautifully coloured Jimmy Fitzpatrick travelogue about Yosemite National Park. Metaphysics are involved in the Edgar Allan Poe tale. The drama of the story is heightened by brilliant production, specially on the technical side; there is the clever use of restraint, and of rhythm.

ST. JAMES THEATRE

There are no glorious naval traditions about “The Fleet's In”—no admirals (except as figures of fun), no .boyK standing on the burning decks, no sticking to the ship to the last. Instead there are lots of sailors, lots of girls, lots of singing and enough wisecracks to Ktock M inclielt for a fortnight. Which is just as it should be. Servicemen on leave are looking for fun: and that’s exactly what they’ll find at St. James where “the fleet is anchored for a second week." Dorothy Lamour is the girl who keeps the fleet in port, an adequate reason for keeping anv nation's navy al anchor. She is the singer in a nighiclub whose main clientele appears to be jailors who might have spent a long time at sea. Shyest of them all —and not very shy at that —Is William Holden, whose chief etnbarassment is that, lie was once photographed kissing a publicity-minded film star. He is regarded as something of a Casanova by the rest of the men who lay heavy odds on his chances of catching the singer. Of course, he does, and of course she finds out about the bet and refuses to speak to him through several thousand feet of film. But the audience—discerning old wiseacres—.gueKs that everything will be all right in the finish. And so it is. “The Fleet’s In” is in the best manner ot many successful .films—rather like a revue in celluloid, with clever stage acts and much cross patter. It is guaranteed pure entertainment.

State Theatre. —Audiences at Hie Ktate Theatre this week will find much to amuse them in the 'antics of the “Unexpected Uncle" in the film of that name. Charles Coburn is the uncle who sticks his nose into a hectic love affair and finds considerable trouble. He finds much more trouble than he bargained for in tile lively association of his “niece” and “nephew.” played bv Antic Shirley and James Craig. The second film is “Dude Cowboy." which gives voting Tim Holt a great chance—which he takes—of following the footsteps of his well-known father, Jack Holt. It is a full-blooded two-gun. story of the west, with all that it takes to make a good “western.”

New Time Theatre.—Two features and the first episode of a new serial fill the bill at the New Time today. The principal attraction is “North to the Klondike,” starring Broderick Crawford, Lon Chaney. Andy Devine, and Evelyn Ankers. The comedy “Henrv Aldrich For President.” is next on tin? bill, with Jimmy Lydon. June Preisser, and Mary Anderson in the chief parts. “The Human Torpedo” is the first episode of the 1912 serial, “Don Winslow of the Navy." There is a special "Donald Duck" matinee.

State Theatre (Petone). —Showing twice today at the State, Petone. i« the Metro-Gold'wyn-Mover "Babes on Broadway," witli Mickey' Rooney aud Judy'■ Garland, supported br Fay Balnler and Virginia Weidler. in the big parts. Tills i« an excellent comedy, and is a mutieale, too.

SUBURBAN THEATRES Kinenu (ICilbirnie)— “Pimpernel Smith.’’ Leslie Howard, Francis Sullivan: “March of Time.’’ Rivoli (Newtown).— “Mutiny on th* Bounty,’’ Clark Gable, Franchut Tone. Charles Laughton; “Her First Beau.” Jane Withers. Jaeki«- Cooper. Capitol (Miramar).—“Adam Had rout Sons.’’ Ingrid Bergman. Warner Baxter: “Keep ’Em Flying.” Bud Abbott. Lou Costello. . , ■» .... Vogue (Brooklyn).— ‘I M anted Wings. Rav Milland. Constance Moore; “The Light of the Western Stars.” Victor Jory, Ann Sayers. Regal (Karori).- —“You’ll Never Get Rich.” Fred Astaire. Rita Hayworth; ’The Feminine Touch,” Rosalind Russell. Don Ameche. „ Ascot (Newtown). —“Lone Star Ranger, John Kimbrough. Slvila Ryan; “Moon Over Miami.” Bel tv Grable. Don Aiuecbe. Tivoli i Thorndon (.--“Birth cf the Blues.” Bing Crosby. Mary Martin; “international Lady.” George Brent, Ilona icing George (Lower Hutt). —“Hellzanoppin.” Olsen and Johnson; “Target For /JUxaTrf iHuitL— Toux.”

Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne; “Torpedo Boat” Richard Arlen. Dick I urcell. Prince Bdward (Woburn).— ‘hurricane Smith." Ray Middleton. Jane \ jn, ••Hurry. Charlie. Hurry.” Loon Errol, Mlldrod <'»>les. ... Empire (Island Ba.ru- Kc.-p Em . bl - Ing," Bud Abbott. Lou Costello. InGreat Muti’b Lady.” Joel McCrea, Barbara (Lyall Bay) —"Frozen Limbs Tliu Crazy Gang; "Sailor’s Lady, Nancy Kelly, Jon Hall: ‘‘-March of Time.