ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 52, 29 January 1938, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

STATE THEATRE. “HEIDI.” Shirley Temple as “Heidi!” Millions the world over have been enthralled by the warmth, tho tenderness and tho charming beauty of Johanna Spyri's bolovcd story of Heidi and all the colourful folk who lived and laughed and loved high up in the Swiss Alps, just beneath the stars. Translated into all languages and read everywhere, it is a story that had to wait for its star befoi-o it could be brought to the screen. Tho Twentieth Century-Fox production of “Heidi,” starring Shirley Temple, screening at the State Theatre to-night; is the picture for which she’ll bo remembered always. “Heidi” brings Shirley Temple more glorious than has ever been known, in tho picture she was asked to make by thousands of fans who wrote to the Twentieth CenturyFox studios. Bringing love to hearts filled with hate, and twinkle to eyes filled with tears, “Heidi” tells of an embittered mountain-top exile, brilliantly portrayed by Jean Hersholt, reclaimed from his fierce hatred of the world, of a young girl who finds tho strength and courage to walk again, and of the little heroine who brings everyone new zest for life. Arthur Treacher and Helen Wcstley play prominent roles in the story, and Pauline Moore, Thomas Bock, Mary Nash, Sidney Blackmcr, Madv Christians, and Sig Rumania are also featured in the cast. Written into the faithfully transcribed screen play by Walter Ferris and Julicn Joscphson are two dance sequences that present the first star of tho screen at her greatest. “In Our Little Wooden Shoes,” the specially composed song by Lew Pollack and Sidney D. Mitchell, gives Shirley a gay and charming interlude in the warmly dramatic story. It was in “Wee Willie Wilikic” that she made her first attempt at a straight dramatic role, an attempt so successful that. Darryl I. Zanuclc, Twentieth Century-Fox production chief, decided to make “Heidi” in the big-pic-be rlained in-the picture. “Heidi” has Remaining unspoiled in the midst of. it all, Shirley was wide-eyed with elation when she was assigned the role and wanted to be assured that all the things that made “Heidi” so colourful to her. would bo retained in the picture. ’Heidi” lias sold millions of copies and is on the prescribed reading list of schools all over (ho world: Ideally c<lst and gloriously played, it makes a picture that its many readers long have hoped to , sec. Raymond Griffith served as associate producer, and the special dance sequences were staged by Sammy Lee.

KOSY THEATRE. “OUTLAWS OF THE ORIENT.” “Outlaws of the Orient,” now showing at the Kosy Theatre, stars Jack ll.olt in a, superb performance. Mae Clark in the leading feminine role, contributes dash and beauty, arid, of course, a capable interpretation of her role. Harold Huber as a war lord is as menacing and villainous a character as the screen has ever contributed. Holt is an American oil company foreman. Two days before his approaching marriage to Bernice Roberts lie must rush back to China. He hopes to return at once. Instead ho finds that lie must remain indefinitely because. bis brother, played by James Bush, is drinksodden and unfit to carry on the work. The husky Holt plunges into his. job, only to have a rival oil company hire Tartar tribesmen lo harass him at every turn.. He “buys off” the tribesmen himself. This forces him to pad his payroll, to conceal the expense. Then, when Miss Clarke, who portrays a book-keeper at the home office, is unable to balance Holt’s ao counts, she is fired. Seeking redress she goes to the oilfield. When Holt’s coolies desert him during a Tartar attack, Miss Clarko remains a 6 company cook. She falls in love with tho younger brother. I-le, mistaking Holt’s interest in her, deserts to a nearby settlement. Holt follows und rescues him from tribesmen, but thereby provokes a siege that threatens to destroy the whole oil field, lie and lus few loyal workers barricade themselves in. From that point the . story moves through a scries of surprising pulsetingling scones, culminating in a smash climax. “MARRY THE GIRL.”

Every so often along comes a moyie so amusing that no one can help laughing at it from beginning to end. And into such a catogory falls “Marry tho Girl, the Warner Bros. farce-comedy now showing at tho Kosy Theatre. To begin with, the story itself is funny. Then look at the cast of laugh-getters that portrays it—Frank McHugh, Hugh Herbert, Mary Boland, Carol Hughes, Mischa Auer, the Gorilla Man, Allen Jenkins, 01m Howland, Hugh O’Connell, Alan Mowbry, and leddy Hart, among others. “Marry the Girl has a novel setting—the offices of a groat newspaper syndicate. This is presided over bv Hugh Herbert, who is obviously a nut, and his sister, Miss Boland, who is the brains of the outfit: I rank McHugh is general handyman of the organisation. Ho lias three) jobs to do us the picture opens —ho has to get Hugh O Connell, the syndicate’s best cartoonist, on the water wagon and back to work; lie must induce Alan Mowbray, an eccentric writer on psychiary, to sign a new contract; and most important of all—ho must prevent the marriage of Carol Hughes (whom lie himself loves) to Misclia Auer. All hands wind up in the crazy psychiatrists sanatorium before McHugh is halfway through with his triple task. But it all works out smoothly, with Frank winning the girl, tlie syndicate restored to businesslike order, and everyone happy.