DRAMATIC STORY

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 53, Issue 32403, 6 March 1944, Page 5

DRAMATIC STORY

“BLUES IN THE NIGHT” PROGRAMME AT REGENT “KATHLEEN” TO SHOW ALSO A novel dramatic story, a highly talented cast and a musical score that is sweet, hot and lowdown, add up to a tasty dish of entertainment and that is just what the Regent Theatre is serving in their new picture, “Blues In The Night,” which will show on Tuesday and Wednesday. Far off the beaten track of musical film formula, the Warner Bros, production has something brand new to say and sing, and they’ve done it in a brand new way. “Blues In The Night” takes the premise that a group of sincere young jazz musicians will go through, well, high water, anyway, to play the kind! of music they believe in, the blues that they’ve heard in t he back streets, of Memphis or down on New Orleans waterfront. And the musicians, as portrayed* by Richard Whorf, Priscilla Lane, Elia Kazan, Billy Halop and others, make this a highly believable premise. They ride the freight cars, practising in empty .box cars, playing an engagement when they can get it, sharing their meagre gains. So far as the picture tells us, they never achieve fame, and when their story ends, they are still riding the freights, practicing and hoping for their big break. But the intensely f human drama that overtakes the little band*, its breaking up and eventual reunion, is the I'eal thing and* makes for entertainment as absorbing as any the screen has given us this season. After two years away from the screen, Shirley Temple returns to the cameras in M.'G.M’s. “Kathleen," which will also show Tuesday and Wednesday at the Regent Theatre. Those ‘ who have been waiting to see what time has done to little Shirley will not be disappointed. She isher same spirited self; the blonde curls have turned to chestnut brown, but the smile is still there, the unerring ability to project emotion is unchanged, and the sparkle and l vividness that made Shirley one of the most prominent figures in the entertainment world is, if anything, given added stature. As Kathleen, Shirley plays the daughter of a rich widower too involved with a superficially charming but scheming woman to give his child the companionship she needs. Because of the child’s frustration, a feminine psychologist is brought into the case, and it is she who, untimately drives the unwelcome “other woman” from the house and brings about an affectionate understanding between Kathleen and* her father.

FINALLY TO-NIGHT “ SHADOW. OF A DOUBT” “Shadow Of A ■ Doubt” will show finally to-night at the Regent Theatre.