ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 114, 12 April 1940, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

METEOR THEATRE. “THE KID FROM TEXAS.” Bumps on the polo field and on ihe path of true love provide Dennis O’Keefe with a strenuous, dashing romantic and highly comical role in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s “The Kid from Texas,” in which lie is teamed with Florence Rice and screens today at the Meteor Theatre. O’Keefe plays Bill Malone, cowboy on a Texas ranch, who sees polo games in newsreels and becomes a follower of the game, practising it on the range. He invades the Long Island socialite set, object, to play polo. But they will have nothing to do with him, nor will the heiress he proceeds to court. Aunt Minetta. daughter of a Western pioneer and rich woman in Long Island, befriends him, ho joins a Wild West show, stages polo games between Indians and cowboys and thereby achieves happiness and. eventually, romance. O’Keefe’s role is a typically breezy Western characterisation mingled with all the uncertainties his incursion into society brings him. He plays it with romantic dash. Air and Airs Thin Alan are back again in another uproarious comedy hit. This time the famous William Powell-Mvrna Loy co-starring team makes its appearance in Aletro-Goldwyn-Alayer’s “Double Wedding,” which screens to-day at the Metcoi Theatre. With Powell east as a penniless hut devil-may-care artist who lives in a trailer, and Miss Loy as the owner of a fashionable New York gown shop, the story describes the efforts of the heroine to prevent her younger sister from marrying Powell instead of the man she herself has picked out for her.

STATE ThEATRE

MEXICAN SPITFIRE.”

Tempestuous Lupe Velez and her inimitable stylo of comedy, combined with tho laugh-making proclivities of the rub-ber-legged comic, Leon Errol, will commence to-morrow at the Slate Theatre, when “Alcxicaii Spitfire” will be screened. The feminine firecracker, Lupe, plays the title role in this laugh-feast which divides its locale between Now York and Guadalajara, Aloxico. A sequel to the star’s recent comedy, “The Girl From Mexico,” the current RKO Radio film again presents tho actress as a Alcxicaii entertainer married to Donald Woods, advertising man. The plot of the story revolves around tho efforts of Linda Hayes, as the groom’s jealous ex-fiancee, to break up the marriage so that she can marry the personable young man. In this cause she has the support of Elisabeth Hisdon, the groom’s snobbish aunt. On the other hand Leon Errol, the uncle, is heartily in accord with tho marriage, although his blundering efforts to straighten out their marital troubles always boomerangs. As a result of one of their schemes which backfires, Lupe and the uncle find themselves fleeing to Mexico, Errol to avoid arrest for forgery and impersonation, and Lupe to obtain a quick divorce in the heat of jealousy. Many ot the film’s most amusing scenes occur in Alexico and lay the foundation for the ensuing hilarious events which take place in New York when the couple return there. They find Woods at a bachelor dinner on the eve of his marriage to his former sweetheart. A telegram arrives advising Lupe her divorce is illegal. ’lbis is the spark which ignites a little bundle of feminine TNT. George O'Brien is starred in “Legion of tho Lawless” as a two-fisted lawyer who is even handier with a Colt than with a law-book. This is established after he lias hung out his shingle in a frontier town where it develops that no lawyers are wanted, and where a so-called Vigilante group attends to all the affairs of the district. The group is merely a cloak under which a small band of killers operate to terrorise the entire community. O’Brion decides to exterminate them. When a railroad survey's a new route through the town, the members of the gang plan to drive out the homesteaders and ranchers along tho proposed right-of-way arid file on tho land for themselves. O’Brien endeavours to organise the intended victims, and -this leads into the thrilling climax of the picture when lie single-handedly takes on the leader of the mob and in a series of gun-battles manages to restore law tutd order to the community.