ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 117, 16 April 1940, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

METEOR THEATRE. “ROSE MARIE.” Much a? (he film public liked “Natiglily Marietta,” "Sweethearts” and “Maytiinc,” it finds “Rose Marie,” which is now showing at the .Meteor Theatre, to contain more appeal than any picture Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy have produced. Like its forerunner, "Rose Marie” was directed by W. S. Van Dyke and produced by Hunt Stromuerg, who again combined their ralcnts to give this picture, one o„f the finest productions to come out of Hollywood m a long tunc. Replete with .haunting music, a tender love story, magnificent photography and backgrounds, it is truly the film sensation of the year. Miss MacDonald plays the name role, an opera star who travels disguised into the wilds in search of her dissolute brother, a criminal from justice. Nelson Eddy portrays Sergeant Bruce, as fine a “Mountie” u.s over rode a horse. Assigned to bring the criminal to justice, there is tbe thrust of personal duty when these two meet and fall in love. With all its outdoor scones made against natural backgrounds of surpassing beauty in t lie mountain-lake country of the Sierra Nevada?, "Rose Marie” is a pictorial work of art. The musical numbers arc brilliantly jstaged and brilliantly sung. Uuc of them, I the Totem Pole sequence, is peopled by j more than a thousand dancers. Spectacular in its giant effects it will go on record as one of the most thrilling scenes ever ; brought to the screen. A strong supportling east includes James Stewart, Reginald i Owen, Allan Jones, George Regas, Robert Grorg, Una O'Connor and Lucien Littlefield. STATE THEATRE. The map still shows plenty of spaces where Ihe hand of the Jones Family lias never set foot and so long as this is so, moviegoers can rely on excellent enter- | taimnent from this nomadic screen family. Their latest jaunt is to the Grand Canyon, where they have inherited a gold mine, in their new 20th Century-Fox production, “Quick Millions,” which opens to-day at the State Theatre. Good all round fun, the Joseph Hofftnan-Stanley Ranh screen plays brings the Joneses back to Marry vi lie from their recent trip to Hollywood only to send them packing again when they receive word of the inheritance. So it’s off to the West again, and what with Injun ghosts, fake geologists, bullets, bandits, and gun-lights, (bey strike it rich in their richest vein of fun. “Quick AIIII lions,” the title, would seem to refer rather to Ihe laughs in the film than what the Joneses make from their mine, for it costs ' them ten for every dollar they take out. There are a million laughs from every Jones, and the family includes Jed Prouty. Spring Byington, Ken Howell. George Ernest. June Carlson. Florence Roberts and Billy Malian. Al-o featured in the film arc Eddie Collins, popn'ar little comedian, Robert Shaw and Helen Erieson. The latter two supply the romance cf the story, whose excitement and fun begins when Lawyer Collins takes over the Joneses' interests and acts as prospecting guide for the family. At last the miraculous Sonja Hcnie appears in a picture as American as an ice cream cone! A dazzling modern girl, having a modern good time on a co-ed campus, wearing swank clothes. keeping swell dates —that’s Sonja as you’ll see her in “My Lucky Star.” her new hit. for 20th Century-Fox, which opens to-day at the State Theatre. A credit io Darryl F. Zanuck and to everyone who hail a hand in its making, this is a picture that winks and glitters with fun and romance and the magic of stars hanging low on a still frosty night. It lias songs and laughter that seem to sail through the. air like ski jumpers and Sonia's magnificent “Alice in Wonderland’’ ice ballet —climaxing what is by all odds her happiest screen story—is a thing to make you cry out in wonder and delight.