DE LUXE THEATRE.

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 72, 26 March 1934, Page 3

DE LUXE THEATRE.

Xuel Coward's "Ucsign for Living" is tlic basis for the Paramount attraction which stars Frcdrlc March, Gary Cooper, and Miriam Hopkins at the De I.uxc. Theatre . tills week. A strict version of "Desijin for Living." It is probable, would not have been passed by any' film censor in the world, so oddly different are the standards or stage and film, so Paramount have made a new story within the old outlines and containing all the essentials of the play. Miriam HopKins ula.vs very competently as Gilda,. and $red■ric March and Gary Cooper are excellent foils as the playwright and painter respectively who compete for her love. They succeed, fail, and succeed again. Edward Everett Horton has the fourth character study in the film, that of..Max Plunkett, who has been metamorphosed from ,art dealer into advertising agent, and he is as good as ever. There is a long and excellent supporting bill including the latest newsreels; "Water Lure," which shows unusual swimming pictures; "Rhumba Rhythm," by A incent Lopez and his orchestra (with Armida dancing the rhumba) : the "800, 800 Theme Song"; and an out-of-the-way cartoon. .Miss Mamie Iteid at the piano, and Mr. Paul T. Cullen at the organ, play and sing together in "Modern Melodies in Modern Khytlim," a series" of popular numbers. Paramount merits much more than passing commendation for its production of the haunttngly beautiful "Cradle Song," which will have its grand New Zealand premiere at the Da Luxe Theatre on Easter Saturday. It will introduce Dorothea WiecU, internationally famous star, tn New Zealand picture-lovers. . The entire production has about it a definite spiritual quality. Direction by Mitchell Leiscu captures and sustains the delicate moods and feelings of the play, and Miss wieck, who makes her debut on the New Zealand screen, lives up to the promises made for her. The story tells of frustrated mother-love behind convent walls. .When an infant is left at ■ the gate.of the ancient convent by an unwed mother, the village doctor adopts it and turns the child over to the nuns for their care, confident that in 'their love for the child they will capture the mother love which their vows have denied them. To Sister Joanna, played by Miss Wieck.. is given the responsibility of the child s upbringing. Drama and heartbreak arrive when the child, grown to girlhood meets a young engineer, falls in love, and leaves the convent and the sisters who have hut a lifetime of devotion and- memories before them. Miss Wieck presents a fragilo portrait as Sister Joanna, suffused with haunting beauty and promising much for the future. Sir Guy -Standing adds many heart-throbs in a splendid characterisation as the old village doctor. Evelyn Venable, who makes her first screen apnearance as Teresa, the girl, has freshness and charm. The picture is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful, most stlrVinproductions of the current season.