AMUSEMENTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20013, 11 August 1939, Page 3

AMUSEMENTS

REGENT THEATRE ‘ HONOLULU”; UNUSUAL COMEDY. Refreshingly unusual and containing an ingenious plot, the Metro-Goldwvn-Mayer comedy "Honululu,” with Eleanor Powell, Robert Young, George Burns and Gracie Allen in Ihe principal parts, will begin its Gisborne season to-dav at the Regent Theatre. Eleanor Powell has possibly '.never before been seen to better advantage as a dancer. There is a variety anti ingenuity in her dances in this film which has been missing in some of her earlier efforts. In addition to several brilliant tap routines, Including an impersonation oif a famous negro dancer. Bill Robinson, Miss Powell performs three Hawaiian numbers. These support her claim to be one of the world's most accomplished dancers. A sensational native drum dance shows her emotional abilities as a dancer,while a hula, a clever blending of the exotic Hawaiian dance with Western tap dancing, illustrates her grace of arm movements. The comedy opportunities of a double role have been exploited to the full. Robert Young appears as a popular film actor. Brooks Mason, and a pineapple plantation owner, George Smith. They change places with uproarious results. In New York, Smith, mistaken for Brooks, is manhandled, by a crowd of the actor's admirers and sent lo hospital, while back in Honolulu Smith's fiancee (Rita Johnson) is perplexed and pleasurably surprised at the apparently new ardour of her lover. Much of the witty dialogue of the film is' provided by Gracie Allen and George Burns as two of the actor's admirers. An outstanding associate ("programme will accompany the main film. At the 8 o’clock sessions each evening a prologue of Hawaiian songs and dances will precede “Honolulu."

MAJESTIC THEATRE lIOI* A LONG CASSIDY IN ‘RENEGADE TRAIL” AND MARTHA KAYE IN "NEVER SAY DIE.” Some of California's most startling scenery appears as 'background in Paramount's latest “Hopalong Cassidy' range .romance, “Renegade Trail," which will have its first local showing to-day at the Majestic Theatre. This story of ranchers’ efforts to prevent a woman from being blackmailed by her own convicthusband was filmed at Lone Pine, California, at the loot of Mt. Whitney, flic highest point in the United States. William Boyd, George Hayes and Russell Hayden head the cast, playing 1 lie daredevil "Cassidy” and his two saddlemates, "Windy Holliday” and "Lucky Jenkins," respectively. An added attraction is offered in "The King's Men," popular male quartet of stage, screen and radio, whose members arc now cast as Arizona cowboys. Good-natured humour paces the action throughout the picture. with Hayes and Boyd’s other pal, Russell Hayden, almost as much afraid of the woman’s charms as they are of the rustlers’ guns! The lady in the case is played by attractive Charlotte Wynlers. The _ associate comedy feature, "Never Say Die, stars Martha Rayc and Bob Hope in a talc of a hypochondriac who, thinking he has only a month to live, marries a flighty girl lo do her a favour and then finds put that he is not doomed after all. SeL against the colourful background ot "some European Alps," "Never Say Die" follows the amazing marriage of, Hope and Miss Raye from the moment when both decide on a wedding as their only means of escape: he, from a much-married fortunehunter who is much too expert with a gun, and*she from a Russian prince who is out to marry American wealth. The affair is further complicated by the arrival of the hometown sweetheart of Miss Raye, played Ay Andy Devine, who accompanies 'the couple on their honeymoon in order to keep a watchful eye on the bride! The programme opens with the final chapter of "Scouts lo ihe Rescue."

KING'S THEATRE

"STAGECOACII.” EXCITIN’G DRAMA OF TIIE WEST. Across a vast panorama of primitive splendour, several thousand fee! above sea level under a burning sun. a solitary stagecoach careens and rocks behind six galloping horses Every mile brings the coach and its odd assortment of passengers closer to a waiting band of murderous Apaches, led by Gcronimo. fiercest o£ them all. This is the tense and thrilling background of Walter Wanger’s “Stagecoach,” a United States frontier drama of the 1880's when Indians still roamed the sagebrush, which opens at the King's Theatre today. With Claire Trevor ancl John Wayne playing top roles. "Stagecoach,” unfolds a gripping story of pioneer courage. Louise Platt, George Bancroft, John Carrad ine, Andy Devine, Thomas Mitchell, Tim Holt, Donald Meek, and Berton Churchill, featured in support of the stars, portray the strange group of passengers thrown together in the coach as it proceeds from Tonto, Arizona, to Lordsburg, Now Mexico John Wayne portrays the role of Kid Ringo, who has been driven to outlawry by perjurers and i.s determined' to kill them. Claire Trevor impersonates Dallas, a woman of easy virtue who has been forced out of town by the self-righteous citizenry. Among the others are a Virginia-born expecanl mother, a mysterious gambler, a dipsomaniaedoctor, a blustering bank absconder, a timid whisky drummer. While the pounding hoofs carry them closer and closer to shrieking war cries and blood-hungry tomahawks, these incongruous individuals arc absorbed with the purposes and hates that, have propelled them into the .hazardous journey. As the .stage i.s crossing a plateau, it is attacked by a ferocious band of savage Apaches. Tliis srcnc of the Indian attack, which furnishes the climax of the him. ' c one of the most thrilling sequences to be seen on the screen for many seasons.