ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 46, 22 January 1938, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

KOSY THEATRE. “LAUGHING IRISH EYES.” Singing is not only Phil Regan's artistic vocation, but his hobby as well. He, began it when ho was a child. He wad the leading tenor of his high school Glee Club. When hardly out of his ’teens his public singing in Now York City launched him on a national broadcasting career, which made his voice known and loved by millions. “Laughing Irish Eyes,” starring R*)gan with a new hit Irish comedian, Walter C. Kelly, vaudeville veteran, and Evelyn Knapp, will present golden-voiced Phil in the first of hie enlarged singing screen roles now at the Kosy Theatre. In the idyllic setting of Ireland’s green hills and lovely country lanes, Regan is presented as an athletic young blacksmith who vocalises us he pounds his anvil. Kelly, American prizelight promoter, and iiis daughter pick Regan for their choice —but both for different reasons. Such old Irish favourites, seldom heard on the screen as “Londonderry Air,” “Bless You, Darlin’, Mother” and “All My Life,” not forgetting the theme song, “Laughing Irish Eyes,” are sung by Regan, and poured into the heart of the spirited and adorable Irish lass. “THAT’S MY STORY.”

The romantic comedy drama, Universal’s “That’s My Story,” now at the Kosy Theatre, describes the adventures of a reporter who prides himself on his nose for nows until he sticks his beak into a hornet’s nest of trouble. The narrative brings to the screen the fierce rivalries of news reporters, as well as the humorous situations into which some of their assignments thrust them. The picture details the efforts of newspapermen to interview a beautiful torch singer, accused of killing a millionaire playboy. The sheriff, hating all newspapers and reporters, keeps them away from the bird in the gilded calaboose. Then an ambitious young cub reporter, William Lun digan, gets himself arrested. Once inside the gaol, hi* mistakes another woman for the fatal warbler. Instead, she is a girl reporter, after the same story. The lady scribe,. Claudia Morgan, tells him a faked story, which he sends his newspaper. The editor fires him and lets him stew in gaol. Then Bornadone Hayes, the torch singer, whose ideas are wilder than her music, but whose trigger finger is terribly accurate, compels the reporters to go with her when she escapes. The sheriff is hot on their trail. To keep In's goose from being cooked, or desiring some sauce tor the gander, and a stoiy for his paper, Lundigan disarms Ihe lady with a fatal aim Then comes the climax, which results in a startling “Stop Press’’ news beat.

METEOR THEATRE. “UNDER YOUR SPELL.” Lawrence Tibbett, gloriously singing three new songs headed for the nation’s hit list, brilliantly cast against, a background of riotous comedy provided by Gregory Ratoff and Arthur Treacher and a rough-house romance with Wendy Barrie, in his newest and greatest musicalcomedy romance, “Under Your Spell,” 20th Century-Pox triumph. The new songs, written by Broadway’s rhythm kings, Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz, give a lilt and a swing to the picture that is now to the screen. “Under Your Spell,” “My Little Mule Wagon” and ‘Amigo” are titles certain to grace every orchestra’s request list. In a role very closely paralleling real life, the world-famous baritone is east as a popular singer, kept so busy by his vigorous manager, Gregory Ratoff, that his every moment is filled with a continual round of engagements, endorsements and publicity 6tunts. Manager Ratoff gets away with murder (of the English language) , but finally his protege has enough of the supor-ultra-salesmanship and flees out West to resume his former occupation as a cowboy. Accompanying Tibbett to the wide open spates is Arthur Treacher, wildly comic as a coldly formal English manservant who loses his reserve on a Western reservation and turns cowboy. Pursuing Tibbett to the wide open spaces is Wendy Barrie* as a coldly formal society girl who loses her heart on a mountain top and turns romantic. Between hit tunes and howls tho plot dashes on to the roughest, meet laughable ending ever seen, a grasping, hilarious climax with Tibbett’s golden voice soaring on to the last glorious fade-out. Darryl F. Zanuck sheeted Otto Ludwig Preminger, noted European theatrical impressario, to direct tho film With John Stone as associate producer. Frances Hyland and Saul Elkins wrote the screen play based on stories by Bernice Mason and Sy Bartlett. “SHOW THEM NO MERCY !”

Climaxing her rapid film advance during the past year, Rochelle Hudson has been awarded the only feminine role. of importance in 20th Century’s gripping anti-crime picture, “Show Them No Mercy,” now showing at the Meteor Theatre. Miss Rochelle Hudson and Edward Norris enact the young couple trapped in the cabin of a gang of murderous abductors, while a nation-wide search is being carried on foC their captors. The picture, produced under the personal supervision of Darryl F. Zanuck, is a soaring, enthralling indictment of crime, a visual argument to the effect that those who live by violence must come to a violent ending. The principal gangster roles arc enacted by Cesar Romero and Bruce Cabot, who made his debut as a “heavy” in “Let ’Em Have It.”

STATE THEATRE. “MAKE A WISH.” The screen has not presented during the current season a more complete entertaining motion picture than “Make a Wish,” the new Bobby Breen starring vehicle filmed by Principal Productions for RKO Radio, which screens to-night at tho State Theatre. In no department of production has anything been neglected to make the picture a thoroughly enjoyable one, and it easily qualifies as the best in which the young singing star has ever appeared—a pleasing mixture of comedy, romance, tuneful songs and beautiful backgrounds. Bobby combines real ability as an actor with a magnificent, singing voice which seems even to have increased in volume and sweetness. He. is hoard in several haunting melodies written by the noted Viennese composer, Oscar Straus, the outstanding one of tho group being the theme song bearing the title of the picture itself. Basil Rathbone, no longer tho suave villain, plays a truly romantic role for the first time in his screen career, and contributes a performance which stamps him as a versatile actor of unusual attainments. The leading feminine role is portrayed by Marion Claire, famous radio singer, who gives every promise of future screen stardom. The explosive Italian, Henry Armetta, is va6|ly humorous in a characterisation that is literally a comedy gem. Others in tho big cast who do especially commendable work are Ralph Forbes, Leon Errol, Donald Meek, Leonid Kinskey and Herbert Rawlinson. Much of the action of “Make a Wish,” adapted from an original story by Gertrude Berg, takes placo at a boys’ summer camp in Maine, where Bobby forms a close friendship with Basil Rathbone, a composer. Rathbone becomes interested in the boy’s lovely young mother, Marion Claire, and a romance develops between the two, despite her fiance, Ralph Forbes. This tangled situation reaches a tensely dramatic climax in her New York home, and at the rehearsal of ■an operetta. Director Kurt Neumann has maintained the action at a lively pace, and both he and Associate Producer Edward Gross may well be proud of a picture which stands, high in the list of the season’s best. Musical direction was in the hands of Hugo Riesenfeld, and Paul Webster and Louis Alter wrote tho lyrics' for. the Straus songs. “Make a Wish” is a picture which is heartily recommended. On the same programme there will be screened the first of 1938 Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse coloured silly symphonies entitled “Pluto’s Quinpuplet6,” all in technicolour. At tho 8 o’clock session the two competitors in the Bobby Breen personality contest will sing on the stage. The audience will judge the winners each evening.