AMUSEMENTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20039, 11 September 1939, Page 3

AMUSEMENTS

KING’S THEATRE “CAPTAIN FURY.” With a cast headed by such outstanding players as Brian Aherne, Victor McLaglen and June Lang, arid a story of stirring adventure and rich romance, Hal Roach's “Captain Fury” will conclude at the King’s Theatre ’ to-night. The story dramatises early Australia, when the frontier country was overrun by greedy land barons who fought honest colonisation by incoming settlers. Captain Fury, a political prisoner, arrives in Australia just when the worst offender. Arnold Trist, is carrying on underground warfare against unprotected citizens, grabbing their land by foul means and setting up an empire within an empire. Fury becomes an Australian Robin Hood who provides the story with many blood-curdling episodes as he drags the fight out into the open. Victor McLaglen and John Carradine also are in the cast. —“They Made Her a Spy”: ToMorrow. — With most of its action transpiring in Washington, D.C., and its unusual climax atop the Washington Mounment, “They Made Her a Spy,” featuring Sally Eiiers and Allan Lane, which comes to the King’s Theatre to-morrow, is said to be a timely picturisation of to-day’s spy-ring problem. The dramatic story revolves around the ridding of American political life of foreign spies. Miss Eiiers is an army intelligence operative assigned to the dangerous task of exposing the insidious activities of a gigantic espionage ring. Fritz Leiber, Frank M. Thomas, Theodore Von Eltz and Addison Richards are seen in supporting roles.

REGENT THEATRE

“CONFESSIONS OF A NAZI SPY” Warner Bros, expect their production, “Confessions of a Nazi Spy,” to prove a number of things, among them that the motion picture studios, contrary to the claims of many, do have their share of courage and that Hollywood is willing to film a picture that carries a message. But another thing the picture already has proved is that a motion picture studio is, in effect, a self-contained little city.

“Confessions of a Nazi Spy,” the sensational Warner Bros, picture which is now showing at the Regent Theatre, has proven, for once and all, that it is. Before the picture went into production a group of more than a dozen persons, for a variety of reasons, most of them obvious, decided to live at the studio during the filming of the picture. The studio assigned dressing rooms to anyone desiring them, and throughout the time they worked in the picture not one of this group ventured outside the studio. Their temporary homes were their dressing-rooms. Their dining-room was the studio commissary. And the studio entertained them each evening by screening a picture in one of the many projection rooms. For those who would prefer other forms of entertainment the property department provided radios, pingpong and pool tables, and the research department maintained a library of several thousand volumes which was open until midnight. Edward G. Robinson heads the cast oi “Confessions of a Nazi Soy,” witli able support from such players as Paul Lukas, Francis Lederer, and the exotic Lva Lys, European film star making her American debut.

MAJESTIC THEATRE “STAND UP AND FIGHT”—SEASON EXTENDED UNTIL THURSDAY Crowded houses over the week-end J greeted the bright, fast-moving and entertaining programme at the Majestic Theatre. "Stand Up and Fight" is such an enjoyable show that its season has been extended until Thursday. Bringing Wallace Berry and Robert. Taylor together for the first time, “Stand Up and Fight comes to the screen as one of the fastest action stories ever to be filmed. Taylor's role oi the bankrupt young .Maryland, aristocrat shanghaied into going to work for the stage coach line is a happy choice, foi it gives him an opportunity to combine romantic appeal with the he-man type of characterisation which won him laurels in “A Yank at Oxford and “The Crowd Roars.” Beery’s role of the hard-boiled, often unscrupulous manager of the Bullet Lino is another good choice, a typical Beery part comparable with any of ins finest work. For Florence Rice the feminine lead is a sure augury of great success, to come for she handles this, her first major assignment, with a sure touch and appealing charm. Comedienne Helen Broderick is at her best, Charles Bickford and Barton MacLane are as villainous as could be wished of a “heavy,” and Clinton Rosemond embodies all the pathos oi the negro slave. Besides -keeping a fast-moving story always straight in its objective, the director, W. S. Van Dyke, Il„ has combined a warmth of atmosphere with the roughness of his backgrounds lo a remarkable degree. An outstanding programme of of JVLG.M. featurettes includes "Angel* of Mercy,” one of the famous “Passing Parade" series, “Hollywood Hobbies,” tile latest news, and a further chapter of “Buck Rogers.”