FILMS AND STAGE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 142, 16 May 1940, Page 7

FILMS AND STAGE

Debonair Burglar. Headed by*a ca6t which 6tars. debonair David Niven and lovely Olivia do Havilland, the exciting mysterymelodrama "Raffles” comes to tlie State Theatre to-morrow. “Baffles” dramatises the story of a suave and dapper gentleman crook, and moves in the highest society and is known as a champion cricketer. Raffles, played by

David Niven, has -been baffling Scotland Yard for months with his daring and spectacular robberies. But just when lie becomes engaged to Gwen Manders, sister of his school chum, and decides to .withdraw from his secret life of crime, lie furnishes Inspector MacKenzie, portrayed by Dudley Digges, With a clue which finaly leads to the door of the Amateur Cracksman. Most of the action of “Raffles” takes place on the beautiful country estate of Lady Melrose, an eccentric dowager noted for her bizarre parties and her brilliant collection of jewels. Attractive Double Feature.

Joan Bennett, Randolph Scott and May Robson head a cast of thousands in the epic of America’s rebirth in the days following the war between the States, “The Texans,” which opens to-morrow 'at the Kosy Miss Bennett is seen as a fire-eating Southern belle, who outdoes the “Jezebels and “Scarlett O’Hara’s” by starting a one-woman rebellion against the corrupt politicians who are bleeding the South and lining their own pockets during the tumultuous days of the Reconstruction. Her rash plans only stop when her handsome' young Southern officer returns from the war to convince her that North and South must bury their old differences. The Bing Crosby picture, “Sing j ou Sinners,” the second ’ full-length feature, is a comedv built around a madcap California family, composed of Bing his mother, two brothers and the fiancee of one of the brothers. The story traces the fortunes of the family, from its small town days, when the irresponsibility of one of the sons, played bv Bing Crosby, threatens to bring disaster to all concerned, to its final triumph in Los Angeles, which is accomplished with the help of wellpicked race-horses and a singing tno. Gulliver in Movieland. “Gulliver’s Travels, ” the. first fulllength animated cartoon to reach the screen since Walt Disney’s “Snow White” of two seasons ago, comes to the Regent Theatre to-morrow week. Conceived, drawn and produced in technicolour by Max Fleischer, who is 1 rotter known to film goers for his “Popeye’,’ and “Betty Boop,” “Gulliver’s Travels” tells the immortal story .Jonathan Swift penned two hundred

years ago anil which has been a classic since. It recounts the amazing adventures of an English seaman •shipwrecked in “Lilli put, a land where everything—-people, huildingSj landscape —is in miniature scale- Punctuating the story of “Gulliver s Travels” are eight new songs written especially for the production. They are: “Faithful,” “Forever,” ‘Alls Well ” “We’re All Together Now, “Faithful Forever,” “Bluebirds in the Moonlight,” “I Hear a Dream, and “It’s a Hap-Hap-llappy Day. Dollars tn Thousands.

Claudette Colbert _ was the films leading money-maker in 1938, according to a list just released by the United States Treasury Department. She earned a salary of .301,944 dollars. Other top earners in that year were: W arncr Baxter. 279,807 dollars; producer Darrvl Zanuck, 265,000; Bing Crosby, 260,000; Jack Benny, 250,000; George ltaft 186,964; Fred MacMunay, 183,333 ; ’ Loretta Young, 181,615 ; Alice Faye. 169,791; Charles Boyer, 161,000; Bob Burns, 1-55,952; Joel McCrea, 152 000; Leslie Howard, 141,24 J, Tyrone Power, 140,750 (Power’s wife, Annabella, madc 87,500) 5 Gary Coopei, 140 129; Merle Obcron, 139,280; 1 reilric March, 136,000 ; Marlene Dietrich, 130,000; Victor McLaglen, .125,470, Shirley Temple, 114,848; Sonja Home, 11.3,000; John Barrymore, 100.833, loan Bennett, 94,333; W. O. Fields, ’93 ]66 • Herbert Marshall. 93,<00; Don Ameche. 93.000. Sam Goldwynalso paid the violinist Jascha 'Heifetz 100.000 dollars for appearing m We Snail Have Music.” The aliove figures include •onlv salaries, bonuses, arid commissions. Thev do not include dividends and nl-lier sources of incomes. By the time Uncle Sam got through with deducting his share in taxes, the stars were left With less than half of their earned salaries. For instance, the Government deducted 164,300 dollars from Claudette Colbert's 301,944; 140,200 from Darryl Zanuck’s 265,000; 136,800 - from Bmg Crosby’s 260,000.

A New Greta Garbo. Greta Garbo’s long dream of playing in a sophisticated romantic comedy lias become a reality with “Ninotchka,” her first picture in two years, which opens to-morrow at the Regent Theatre, and the gay new Grota Garbo it presents indicates that her desire was well justified. The Swedish star is seen as a gay, ultramodern girl in a'romance with a French count. Miss .Garbo plays a Russian woman raised in the stern Soviet code who, sent to Paris on a

Government mission, falls in love with a count (Melvyii Douglas), outwits her love rival (Ina Claire), and “gets her man.” Gay moments in Paris night clubs and hotels are among the many delightful sequences. Greta Garbo is never more fascinating than as a modern charmer with a sense of humour, and Douglas plays his role with debonair urbanity, Miss Claire provides brilliant lines.

Miss Betty Bryant, a Bondi (Sydney) girl, and Mr Grant Taylor, ol Melbourne, have the leading roles in the latest Australian picture, “Forty Thousand Horsemen,” which has gone into production, with a supporting cast of about 1000 people. It- will tell the story of the Light Horse campaign in the Sinai Peninsula during the last war, and will include a representation of the charge at Beershebn. Many

light horsemen will take part. A “German platoon” of Australians have been drilled to respond to German words of command.

Because of the success of “South of the Border,” Gene Autry’s studio has decided to use another current hit as the basis of the singing cowboy’s next picture. Accordingly, it has purchased the song “El Rancho Grande,” and a story will be written around it.

iMurder At a Seance. A. E. Mason’s name has recently cone into prominence on the screen; on the heels of “Four Feathers” comes “At the Villa Rose,” showing at_ the Meteor Theatre on Saturday. It is a murder mystery, true, but one written by a master of the craft. A wealthy old lady with a craze lor spiritualism is strangled during a seance; the medium, her companion, is missing; the jewels, motive of the murder, arc found in a secret safe in the house. There are signs that the medium lias been kidnapped, and there starts a really clever story that will take the audience’s efforts to spot the culprit. Judy Kelly is impressive as a truly psychic medium who aids the final unmasking of the murderer in a story that entertains from start to finish. “March of Time.”

Screening on the same programme as “Of Mice and. Men,” which comes tomorrow week to the State Theatre, is the latest of the popular “March of Time” series. Entitled “The Republic of Finland,” it presents a vivid and enlightening pictorial story of the life and national character of the Finnish people, who until recently were desperately fighting to defend their little 21-year-old republic. In colourful scenes showing Finnish 6ki troops and other military units in action “The March of Time” pictures tjie development of Finland’s well-armed and. welldisciplined citizen army of less than half a million men, commanded by General Karl Mannerheim, who in 1918 led Finland’s army against Soviet Russia and thus freed his people of Communist rule. With sympathy for the Finnish cause running high, “The March of Time’s” complete and timely story is a distinct contribution to public understanding of the little country wlioqe courageous people have been making more and more astonishing news each day.

Will Mahoney Starved. What is in a name?—particularly when that name belongs to a man acknowledged as being among the three best one-man “acts” in the world! It is spelt M-a-h-o-n-e-y! Some people pronounce it “Marny” ; others, particularly those who know the per-

son concerned, say “Ma-ho-ney” ! The title, “Ants in His Pants,” may set people wondering about the story, but apparently refers to the strange and galvanising effect upon Barney O’Hara (Will Mahoney) of the sound of the bagpipes. Together with an exShakespearean actor, Horace Worthington Howard, played by Sidney Wheeler, and his daughter Pat (Jean Hatton), O’Hara runs a “Barnurn and Bailey” sideshow act which is on its last legs. Jean Hatton’s voice is one of its mainstays, but she strains her throat and cannot sing, leaving the proprietors faced with ruin. Barney is inspired by the sound of bagpipes to knock out a heavyweight boxer, “The Killer,” played by Alec Kellaway. “Ants in His Pants” opens tomorrow at the Mayfair Theatre. A Star's Biography—No. 58.

Will Hay was horn in Scotland and spent his-youth in Manchester. His father was interested in music and acting, but Will Hay became an engineer. Local amateurs, however, lured him, and he was famous in Manchester before theatrical agents realised his abilities. He has always written his own sketches, helped by his studies in psychology. Interested in everything, Will Hay constructed, a home-made glider in 1910, and added astronomy to his hobbies, lie now owns a telescope weighing two and a-half tons, and has written a book on astronomy. He is one of the most popular stars on the radio, although ho. is an infrequent broadcaster. He prefers films to stage. Ho has played a headmaster in “Good Morning, Boys,” a sea captain in “Windbag the Sailor,” a solicitor in “Where There’s a Will,” a headmaster again in “Boys Will Be Boys,” a stationmaster in “Oh, Mr Porter!”, a co.nvict-cum-prison governor in “Convict 99,” a school tutor in “Hey! Hey! 1J.5.A.,” a schoolmaster to West African natives in “Old Bones of the River,” and a country policeman in “Ask a Policeman.”

Norma Shearer has been assigned the starring role in “Escape,” the story by Ethel Vance of an actress imprisoned in a German concentration camp. A new screen discovery, Mary Martin, has the co-starring role with Bing Crosby in his next film, “Ghost Music.”