PICTURE THEATRES

Evening Star, Issue 23679, 12 September 1940, Page 6

PICTURE THEATRES

ST. JAMES

Clive Brook is starred in ‘ Return to Yesterday,’ which is to finish to-night at the St James. Humour and drama are well combined in this production. The supporting feature is ‘ Blondie Brings Up Baby.’ TWO BRILLIANT COMEDIES. Just what this country needs to-day is a good, hearty laugh, and that is just what Sandy Powell brings in his latest screen comedy, ‘ Homo From Home.’ which is now at the St. James. Like Grade Fields and George Form by, Sandy Powell was first introduced in this country over the radio. ‘ Home From Home’ is Sandy’s third screen comedy. In his latest film Sandy is seen as a convict, hale, hearty, and happy with his lot, because “ home was never like this.” The peace of the cell, with its regular meals, warm bed, and happy companionship, helps Sandy to forget the nagging of his wife at home. Nevertheless, Sandy is hard put to keep in, and when he is released in spite of his protestations and sent out into the hard, cruel world, lie sets to work to get back into his “ home from homo.” Armida, the raven-haired Spanish dancer and singer who made ‘ The Peanut Vendor ’ a national song rage a few years ago, sings and dances ‘ La Cucaracha ’ in Universal’s musical farce ‘ La Conga Nights.’

OCTAGON

Against a background of mystery and eerinoss, David 0. Sclznick’s production of ‘ Rebecca.’ best-selling novel by Daphne du Mmirier, heads the programme at the Octagon this week. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, ‘ Rebecca ’ has Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine in the starring roles, while the feature supporting cast includes Judith Anderson, George Sanders, Nigel Bruce, C. Aubrey Smith, Reginald Douny, and Florence Bates. The story of ’Rebecca ’ concerns a young and unsophisticated girl who becomes the bride of the wealthy and socially prominent Maxim de Winter. When they return to live on bis vast Tudor estate, Manderloy, the second wife, learns, to her horror, that her life is being dominated by the past of Rebecca.

STRAND

The exciting drama of the motor racing track, ‘ Devil on Wheels,’ is to finish to-night at the Strand, and features Pat O’Brien and Ann Sheridan. The second film is ‘ Stagecoach War,’ another of the Hopalong Cassidy stories, which again features William Boyd. GANGSTERS AND ESPIONAGE. Upholding the honour and prestige of the famed G-men is the task assigned to Robert Armstrong in Universal’s timely drama of spy activity in United States aircraft factories, ‘ Enemy Agent,’ which will open to-morrow at the Strand. During the swift action of ‘ Enemy Agent ’ it is Armstrong who leads bis colleagues in a relentless war to wipe out foreign spies around airplane plants. He tries to bring an end to their acts of sabotage and prevent them from securing secret warplane designs and blue prints of the famed airplane “ bombsight,” one of the world's most closely-guarded military secrets. He is aided by Helen Vinson as a pretty girl who lures spies into the Gmau’s tra:p, and by Richard Cromwell, who portrays a young aircraft draughtsman, unjustly charged with being a traitor. Others in the cast include Jack la Rue, Jack Arnold, Jack Carson, Marjorie Reynolds, and Philip Dorn, the spy chief. The associate feature, ‘ Gangs of Chicago,’ is a first-rate gangster drama, packed with thrills.

REGENT

William Powell and Myrna Loy link up in ‘ Another Thin Man,’ which is to finish to-night at tho Regent, The fact that either one of these figures is acting in a picture is a good enough indication of the performance.

GRIPPING DRAMA. With so much in its associations to commend it, the film to open at tho Regent to-morrow, ‘ Disputed Passage,’ is said to rank high in merit in its own right. From the pen that inspired ‘ Magnificent Obsession ’ and ‘ Green Light,’ Lloyd C. Douglas’s ‘Disputed Passage ’ has, like its predecessors, enjoyed best-selling popularity as a novel. Again following the line of its successful companions, it now appears on the screen under the sponsorship of Paramount’s studios in a version that preserves the justification for its creation —a delineation of deep human motives and emotions. Based on the dramatic conflicts concealed behind the stern and sterile features of men of medicine. ‘ Disputed Passage ’ is a picture in the tradition of such hits as 1 Pasteur,’ ‘ Men in White,’ and 1 The Citadel,’ dealing more with a doctor’s attitude towards bis practice than the practice itself. Akim Tamiroff, Dorothy Lamour, and John Howard are the cast leaders in this splendid story.

EMPIRE

Thrills and excitement, leavened with humour, are provider! in ‘ Nick Carter,’ played by Walter Pidgeon. It is concerned in the leakage to foreign countries of information about a new revolutionary aeroplane. GEORGE RAFT STARRED. Starring George .Haft, Jane Bryan, and Willjam Holden, ‘ Invisible Stripes,' will open at the Empire tomorrow. The story is of a man just released from Sing Sing who is determined to lead an honest life, but the obstacles ho encounters as a parolee make it next to impossible. George Baft, who reneged on his announcement that he woidd never play a gangster again, plays the title role, but explained his action by saying, “ The unusual aspects of such a role convinced me that this was just not another gangster part, but one in which there is justification.” The suave actor, who won fame years ago in ‘ Scarface.’ has come a long way since that auspicious film debut. Born in New York’s famed Hell’s Kitchen, Raft stepped rapidly through such careers as electrician’s helper, boxer, professional baseball player, and dancer. It was as a dancer that Baft found fame. When the Charleston gave him the reputation as “ the kill with the fastest feet in New York,” ho was off on his career, which soon brought him to the attention of Hollywood.

CHARLIE CHAN AGAIN

JONES FAMILY COMEDY SUPPORTS Heading the new bill at the Grand this ween is ‘ Charlie Chan in Panama,’ which is equal to tlie best effort seen here recently of Sydney Toler, playing the title role. -thrills abound as tills matchless Lari Herr Diggers hero saves the Panama Canal Irum a vicious plot to destroy it, while pretty Jean lingers is seen to advantage as the heroine, in support is anotner of tfiose riotous comeoy features presenting the adventures of the popular Jones Family. Tins time the title is 1 Un Their Own,’ and the film is ” out on its own.” It has remained lor the screen’s most famous sleuth, Charlie Chan, to give movie-goers a real and dramatic insight into the forces of destruction that constantly menace the Panama Canal, America's so-called “ life line.” No understanding of the vital problems facing Canal defence officials can be so complete or vivid as the picture one gets alter seeing the Twentieth Cen-tury-Fox film, ‘ Charlie Chan in Panama.' Authentic it may be, but the film is primarily one of the best mystery entertainments the Furl Herr Diggers sleuth has yet turned out. Sydney Toler is perfect once again as the wily Oriental detective and with an excellent supporting cast the story is powerfully done. The east includes Jean. Rogers, Lionel Atwill, Mary Nash, Sen Yung (as Chan’s “ No. 2 son ”), Kane Richmond, Chris-Pin Martin, Lionel Royce, Helen Ericson, and Jack La Rne.

The story opens on a note of suspense in the Canal zone on the eve of the U.S. fleet’s passage througli the cut. Rumours of sabotage are rife—so well is the canal’s defence system prepared that attack from land, sea, or air is almost impossible, but sabotage is still a dire possibility. Incognito in tho sus-pense-filled zone is Charlie Chan on an assignment to prevent a suspected plot to mine the canal and bottle up the fleet, thus preventing passage of the navy from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The Jones Family are down on their luck in ‘ On Their Own,’ the Twentieth Century-Fox picture which supports. They take over a ramshackle bungalow court in California, and then the hilarity begins. Ma forgets her worries when she finds her tenants include eight little bambinos, a troupe of trained dogs and a professor who invents things. Among the Joneses present are Spring Byington, Ken Howell, George Ernest. June Carlson, Florence Roberts, and Billy Mahan. They make the bungalow court a real home for their tenants —and how well they succeed in spite of a law suit makes a highly entertaining picture. Also featured in the cast are Marguerite Chapman, John Qualen. Charles Judels, Chick Chandler, Forrester Harvey, and Tsobol Randolph.

STATE

Michael Redgrave ami Sally Gray have the leading roles in ‘ A Window in London,’ the exciting comedy-drama to finish to-nigbt at the State. The former is cast in the role of a young crane driver who, thinking he has seen a murder, meets a broken-down magician (Paul Lukas) and his charming wife (Miss Gray). Although married, he falls under, the spell of. the other ’woman,. COMEDY OF RICHES. Said to bo even funnier than her recent ‘ Bachelor Mother,’ Ginger Rogers’s now RKO Radio starring vehicle. 1 Fifth Avenue Girl,’ comes to the State to-morrow with the famous comedienne in the role of an unemployed girl who takes the job of bringing a rich and careless family to its collective senses. The job is forced on her by the nominal head of the family, a millionaire manufacturer who is getting fed up with tho selfishness and indifference of his wife and children. He brings the sidewalk Cinderella to stay ns a guest in his palatial but morguelike Fifth Avenue mansion, lettiim his horrified relatives believe he intends to .marry the girl as soon as his wife has secured the divorce she 15 secretly planning. The mother does her best to drive the intruder away.

MAYFAIR

Something remarkable in the realm of the talking screen is at the Mayfair, in Warner Brothers’ 1 Four Daughters,’ a picture destined to fulfil every promise the motion picture has ever made to the public. ‘ Four Daughters ’ sprang from the brain of Fannie Hurst. It brings to the.screen, in addition to a cast of seasoned excellence, three young players—Priscilla Lane, John Garfield, and Jeffrey Lynn—-for each of \vhc.,i it marks the beginning of a career. Boasting a daring, timely, provocative story, and a great cast headed by four of the most sensational performers—Akim Tamiroff, Lloyd Nolan, Mary Boland, and Patricia Morrison—Paramount’s explosive new drama, ‘ The Magnificent Fraud,’ is tbe associate feature.