ENTERTAINMENTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 157, 3 June 1940, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS.

MAYFAIR THEATRE. “BLIND ALLEY.” Piercing the unholy mysteries of a killer’s-gun-crazed mind; forcing a inurdoier to destroy himself—with horrors conjured from ' his blood-stained past —in one of the most sensational dramas of suspense-laden thrills the screen has ever dared to reaveal! Columbia’s "Blind Alley,” now showing at the Mayfair Theatre, with Chester Morris. Ralph Bellamy and Ann Dvorak heading the brilliant east which tells a sensational story of a mobster who could lint, be destroyed by bullets —and a fearless doctor who took the gunman’s brain apart, piece by piece and before his very eyes, to blast his career of’slaughter 1 In a roistering, rough and tumble role, as the fighting, singing skipper of the Marigold, known in every port in the .South Seas., George Houston, popular screen baritone and star of “Wallaby Jim of the Islands,” scores yet another hit in Action' Pictures’ all tochnicolour “Captain Calamity,” now showing at the Mayfair Theatre. Tho story lias Captain Calamity wandering the seas, seeking adventure and a fortune.- Unable to make ends meet lie starts a rumour that lie has discovered treasure —aiid produces a golden dubloon us evidence—needless to soy this subterfuge leads to plenty of excitement, with Houston fighting his way through to win tho girl in the story—Marion Nixon. A Phantom goes on the warpath and the hero is caught in a deadly explosion in “The Blast,” the eleventh gripping episode of “Tho ;Phantom Creeps,” 12-cliap-tei Universal serial showing to-day at the Mayfair Theatre.

KOSY THEATRE

“SECOND FIDDLE.” Sonja Ilenie is full of surprises these days, thanks to her co-starring role , with Tyrone Power in Irving Berlin’s “Second fiddle.” This 20th Century-Fox picture offers one of the greatest combinations of talent ever gathered for a single show, featuring Rudy A'ailco and Edna May Oliver, including new-star Mary llealy, Lyle Talbot and Alan Dinohart, and introducing six new Berlin song hits. In the film Sonja performs on the ice with her first screen skating partner, presents spectacular tropical dances—the rhumba and . tango—on the ice, and introduces witii Rudy Vallec, the new ballroom dance sensation, the “Back to Back.” She also romances with Tyrone Power —a couple fans have demanded to see again ever since their triumph "in “Thin Ice.” In addition Sonja hangs -up her skating shoes and dons a streamlined swim suit for a sequence in the film, proving herself as much at home gracing the border of a pool, or disporting in the water, as she is on (lie ice. Tho cast of “Housemaster” includes such prominent player's as Otto Ivrugcr, Diana Churchill and Rcnc Ray. It tells the story of a middle-aged housemaster devoted to his boys and who finds that the newly appointed headmaster is gradually trying to get him to. resign. Matters are made worse when , three charming but irresponsible girls, who arc staying with him, descend upon the school upsetting the routine and almost causing a mutiny.

REGENT THEATRE. “ANOTHER THIN MAN.” Shifting with a deft pace from baby parties to bizarre crime, from martial mirth lo murder thrills, and from palatial Long Island estates fo the dives of New York, “Another Thin Man,” latest of (he sparkling “Thin Man” series, teams that favourite screen pair, William Powell and Myrna Lov, once again as the shrewd and witty Detective Nick Charles and his charming hut somewhat daffy wife, Nora. Their gay banter, which enlivened “The Thin Man” and “After the Thin Man,” the other pictures' in tho series, gets away with a new high in this offering due to the introduction of a Thin •Man, Jr., the baby whose arrival was predicted at flic end of the preceding picture. The laughs, centring around Nickie, Jr., ao playact by eight-months-old William Poulson, reach a hilarious climax with a bahv party given in his honour by underworld pals of Detective Charles. Tho story brings the Charles family and lheir quizzical wiro-hairoil (wrier, Asia, to New York for a vacation. No sooner have they arrived than the financial adviser of Nora Charles is slain on his Long Island estate and Nick is called in to investigate. In the typically shrewd fashion of the “Thin Man” sleuth. Nick solves the murder, even though he lias to lake time off now and then to rescue Nora from a tough New York dive, attend flic, baby party and upset plans for Iris own murder, v '" i