ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 178, 29 June 1937, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

MAYFAIR THEATRE. ‘MAID OF SALEM.” Handsome Fred Mac Murray, who has played roles as a newspaperman, Texas Ranger, band leader, society boy, engineer, and whatnot, comes to the screen as a dashing Virginia cavalier in Paramount’s “Maid of Salem,” a tender romance of isevcnteenth-century America, in which he is co-starred with Claudette Colbert, and which will screen tonight at the Mayfair Theatre. With the exception of “The Texas Rangers,” it is his first appearance in an historical film, and he was selected for the part by Frank Lloyd, three-time z\eademy Award winner, because be is regarded as the ideal male romantic lead for Miss Colbert, with whom lie appear ed in “The Gilded Lily,” his first motion picture, and “A Bride Comes Home ” Mac Murray plays the role of Roger Coverman, a fugitive from Virginia, where he had dared question the king’s prerogative. He takes refuge in old Salem, in the Massachusetts colony. Fear of arrest makes it necessary for him to hide in his uncle’s home, and it is there he meets tho lovely Puritan maiden and the ro malice begins. There are secret meetings in the forest, where he leaches her the graceful measure of the gavotte, and tells her of his love. Unknpwn to either, they arc observed, and, after be leaves, when the famous witch scare of 1692 breaks out, she is accused of having dealings with tho devil. When she tells her inquisitors that it was not the devil but a handsome young man with whom she danced in the woods, they insist upon her naming him. This she refuses to do. and silo is condemned to die. She is saved from tho scaffold when Mac Murray returns and awakens tho fear-stricken populace to the folly of tho hysteria which seized them. Many characters of old Salem are redrawn in “Maid of Salem,” and the entire village, as it existed in 1692, was built from old maps for authenticity. Miss Colbert and Mac Murray are supported by a brilliant east which includes Louiso Dresser, Bennie Bartlett, Gale Sondergaard. E. E. Clive, Harvey Stephens, Donita Granville, Virgiliia Wcidler, Rosita Butler, Beulah Bondi, Edward Ellis, Donald Meek, and many others.

KOSY THEATRE. “CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS.” This picture, which is screening at l.ii Kosy Theatre to-night, is tho most novel of all tho productions made from the famous series of novels by Eric Stanley Gardner, whose attorney-detective, Perry Mason, is known to every lover of fiction. And, for once, Perry Mason has a genuine romance, for ho is married to his wise-cracking secretary in tho very first scene. But it is a strange honeymoon, one that nearly drives the bride to the divorce courts, tho bridegroom being kidnapped at the point of a gun and forced to take over a criminal case by a woman who has had a secret love affair and fears I hat her name is abtut to be dragged through the columns of a scandal sheet. It is this woman’s husband who is mysteriously slain that very night, and strangely enough the wife believes herself guilty of the murder, although she accuses her attorney of doing it. There are eight 'persona who conic under the suspicion of the police, all having various motives for the crime. Just what this motive may be, is a complex mystery until the detectives working on various theories, that of revenge, for the man was a blackmailer; an attempt to cover up a scandal, for the wife was having a clandestine love affVr with a big shot politician; and greed, the dead man having left a vast inheritance. This is tho fourth time that Warren William lias played the part of the cool, analytical and debonaire Perry Mason. “DODGE CITY TRAIL.” Flaming action, . glorious romance and swinging melody fill the screen of tho Kosy Theatre to-night whej-e “Dodge City Trail,” Columbia’s new outdoor musical drama is the current attraction. Featured in tho cast are Charles Starrctt, Marion Weldon and that new singing sensation, Donald Grayson. The film unfolds a musical saga of the old .west, when the railroad ended at Dodge City and only the stage coaches pcnlratod into the wilderness beyond. The musical background is provided by Donald Grayson’s pleasant voice singing four new songs of the range, written especially for tho picture by New Washington and Sammy Stcpt. Charles Starrett is seen as a young ranch foreman, entrusted with tho safely of a valuable hol'd of cattle. On the'trail north a band of outlaws hold up a stage coach and kidarip a beautiful young girl, played by Miss. Weldon. Starrett rescues tho girl only to karn that her father, unknown to her, is the real leader of the outlaws who cover up his criminal activities by running a gambling hall. In bis attempt to aid Marion’s father, Starrett becomes involved with the gang. The final scenes arc replete with hard-riding, gunshooting action that brings the story an an oxciting finish. Others in the excellent supporting cast include Russell Hicks, Si Jenks, A 1 Bridges, and Art Mix. C. C. Coleman directed frain Harold Shumate’s screen play. '