AMUSEMENTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20032, 2 September 1939, Page 3

AMUSEMENTS

MAJESTIC THEATRE

“HOTEL IMPERIAL” AND “WHILE NEW YORK SLEEPS"

The beautiful and charming Continental actress Isa Miranda makes her initial appearance in American films in the stirring drama of love and intrigue. "Hotel Imperial,” which was accorded an enthusiastic reception by large audiences at the Majestic Theatre yesterday. The attractive personality of the glamorous new artist instils a vivid realism into her part of a fiery European girl who mingles with the troops behind the lines during the fateful days of the Great War. This she does in a determined endeavour to find the man who betrayed her sister. Playing opposite Isa Miranda is the dashing young actor Ray Milland, who appears as a handsome and gallant hussar in the Austrian Army, which is engaged in a sanguinary struggle with the Russians on the stricken fields of Central Europe. The plot rapidly develops as the girl mistakes the officer for the betrayer of her sister, and under the intense stimulus of waV and destruction events move fast in the little frontier village on the very edge of “no-man’s-land.” On realising her mistake, the girl falls in love with Milland, and in a series of thrilling adventures typical ot the stirring times she aids him in escaping from the Russians. Important members of the supporting cast are Reginald Owen, as a typically bombastic general of Russia’s Imperial regime, and J. Carrol Naish, as a Russian spy. The Don Cossack choir, which is heard in this film, lends a picturesque and authentic touch to the background of grim strife between two ancient empires. The associate picture, “While New York Sleeps,” is a thrilling comedy-mystery story enacted by Michael Whalen and Chic Chandler. The programme opens with the third chapter of Buck Rogers.

KING’S THEATRE

“WUTHEUING HEIGHTS”

The grey moors of Yorkshire, an ancient house rendered spectral by a love tragedy, a glimpse in the eerie darkness of the ghostlike form of a woman —and out into the night, nevei to return, rushes the gaunt lover, in pursuit of the wraith of the woman for whom he has waited. Divided between loyalty to her husband and the weird fascination of the other man, she had died years before in the latter's arms, whereupon he himseil had proclaimed that he was the cause of her death, and he had invited her to come back from the after-life ana to haunt him. Much more than that is found in the story oi “Wuther mg Heights,” but enough has been said to indicate a complex of mysticism, of personal magnetism on its sex side, or perhaps of pre-ordained .fate. The heroine of “Wuthering Heights is two women .alternately, and .sometimes almost at once. She (Merle Obcron) is the dutiful wile ol hei husband in home and in drawingroom, but out on the Yorkshire moors the witchcraft of wild, grey places lays hold of her and she is the passionate adorer of her baseborn lover (Laurence Olivier).

REGENT THEATRE

“MIDNIGHT” The smart, modern comedy makes a welcome return in “Midnight, the attraotion at the Regent Theatre, starvin'* Claudette Colibevt and pea Amcehe. Cast as a penniless American entertainer, Miss Colbert is shown arriving at Paris at night in the pouring rain without a penny to her name. A handsome but poor taxi-driver (Con Amcchc) takes her under his wing, only to lose her again when she crashes into a society music party and is taken for a Hungnrir.a countess. Caught in a romantic intrigue, she continues to be a countess for a while, revelling in fur coats and motor cars supplied by a gentleman who enlists her' help in smoothing out his own matrimonial difficulties. From then on romance and comedy hold sway. The supporting programme includes scenes in. colour of the visit of the King and Queen to Ottawa, and a beautiful presentation by a leading American symphony orchestr’i of Schuberts “Unfinished Symphony.

Tuesday: Clarke Gable and Norma Shearer in “Idiot’s Delight”—

The reactions of a host of widely diverse characters to the,grim, hove. - ing threat of impending war are brilliantly elucidated in the course of the dramatic film. "Idiot’s Delight, which will begin a three-day season at the Regent Theatre on Tuesday. Adapted from Robert Sherwood’s play which won the coveted Pulitzer Prize, the picture reveals two basic themes. Chiefly through the medium of provocative dialogue and brilliant character studies, the intrinsic brutality of war and the demoralising effect it has on normally steadfast men and women is trenchantly .condemned. Then, in the midst of a world unbalanced by frayed nerves, alternately resigned in glum submission cad passionate in emotional rebellion, a fascinating romance grows between the manager of a vaudeville troupe and a former show-girl, who masquerades as a Russian aristocrat to secure the affections of a fabulously wealthy munitions manufacturer. In this latter role Norma Shearer is convincing, consistently maintaining the high standard of acting necessary to satisfy the exacting demands of a difficult part. Clark Gable and Edward Arnold head the supporting cast, the members of which all give polished interpretations.