AMUSEMENTS At the Opera House

Grey River Argus, 7 August 1948, Page 2

AMUSEMENTS At the Opera House

Now Showing: “Merton of the Movies,” starring Red Skelton and' Virginia O’Bnien. “MERTON OF THE MOVIES” Red Skelton is given an opportunity to display all of his comedy tricks in his latest starring picture, “Merton of the Movies,” now showing at the Opera House in which he is supported by Virginia O’Brien, Alan Morobray, Leon Ames and Gloria Grahame.

The film shows Merton as a country bumpkin who comes to Hollywood self-confident, full of illusions and determined to be another John Barrymore at the very least. Totally unconscious that he is a “ham” of the first water, he has a profound contempt for the comedians of the celluloid aind considers his career purely in terms of Art with a capital “A.” Befriended by Phyllis Montague, a thoroughbred trouper, he finds the going rough until he gets his break in an epic called "Souls on Fire.” When finally edited, the picture emerges as a slapstick burlesque retitled “Soles on Fire”. Despite the fact that he now is an over-night comedy star, Merton, heartsick and disillusioned, is about to renounce his film career until he is shown that the world needs its laughter fully as much as its Art. Regent Shows

Now Showing; “The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer,” starring Cary Grant, Myrna’ Loy, Shirley Temple. A high school girl’s infatuation for a famous artist keynotes the sparkling comedy of “The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer,” which stars Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple. Grant portrays the artist and Shirley the ’teen-ager in the gay offering, with Miss Loy as a woman Judge and Shirley’s older sister. His Bohemian ways have already got th? artist in the judge’s bad graces, and when the younger girl decides Grant is her dream man, the complications of the story go into high gear. The methods the judge uses' to break up the girl’s attachment fo’the artist backfire on her m surprising fashion, and the result is that “The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer” is hailed as the season’s funniest comedy-romance. Rudy Valee. Ray Collins, Harrv Davenport and Johnny Sands important roles in the supportin' cast of the film.