FILMS AND STAGE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 250, 19 September 1940, Page 7

FILMS AND STAGE

“Pinocchio,” in Technicolour. A toymaker who wants a son to love, a cricket who wants a gold badge, and a puppet who wants to be a real live hero are the principal figures in “Pinocchio,” the full-length Walt Disney fantasy presented in multiplane technicolour. is the puppet who, in response to 'the toymaker’s wish to have a son, is turned into a live boy. But he does not become a real boy until he learns, by the trial and error method, to distinguish between right'and wrong. Of course as all little boys (and little girls, too) have found out since the world began, the wrong things are far more fun than the right things, but they get you into heaps of trouble, as is proven by the adventures of Pinocchio. The Walt Disney version of “Pinocchio” is based on the story by C. Collodi. It is well-loved, by children

and adults and lias been translated into more than two hundred languages and dialects. “Pinocchio,” which commences screening at the State Theatre to-morrow with three sessions—2, 5 and 7.45 p.m. will also be shown_ on Saturday at 10.30 a.m., 2, 5 and 7.45 p.m. Musical Comedy. Tony Martin is the singing star ■who heads “Music in My Heart,” which opens to-morrow at the Mayfair Theatre. Martin a popular Lyric tenor and lias been equally successful on screen, stage and radio. Before embarking on a singing career lie was an

orchestra musician. Playing opposite Martin and sharing his amusing ’adventures is lovely Pita Hayworth. Her singing, dancing and flair for sophisticated comedy will surprise' only those who forgot that she is the former Rita Oansino, of the jnternationallyfamous Spanish dancing family. Cast as Miss Hayworth’s younger, matchmaking sister, Edith Fellows also plays a singing and comedy role. Edith possesses a coloratura soprano voice of amazing range and brilliancy, a fact attested to by many noted operatic stars who havo urged the child to prepare herself for a wholly musical career. Alan Mowbray, who is engaged

to Miss Hayworth in the store 7 , neither sings nor dances, but like Eric Blore, George . Tobias, Joseph Crehan and George Humbert, other supporting players, lie has done comedy roles in Broadway musicals.

In the musical “Ziegfeld Girl” Eleanor Powell, Hedy Lamarr, Lana Turner, and Walter Pidgeon have top roles.

Gene Raymond admirers will be pleased to hear that he is returning to, the screen in “Cross-Country Romance.” He, too, will probably be glad to be back in tlie studios._ He lias not been seen on the screen since “Stolen Heaven,” made nearly two years ago.

Real Life Drama. “Young Torn Edison,” which opens tomorrow at the Regent Theatre, with Mickey Rooney as “Young Tom,’ shows the great inventor and scientist as he was when ho went to ithool in a small country community. To these small town folk he was a “crack-pot,” his desire for knowledge was something not in the school books, his interest in doing things which had not been done was proof that he was crazy. And the restless inventive mind, the desire to find at first hand what happens when two chemicals are mixed, was just something which did plot conform to the normal and thus was to bo suppressed. So the film shows the adventures of young Tom, how he sets the school on fire and how he blows up another boy with gas, and later, when things seem to bo going better- for him, how he destroys all he has built up by discovering, all by himself, the “new” explosive of nitro-glyccrine. There could not have been a harder boyhood, but it was a boyhood with

many adventures and many laughs and the steady current of humour in the story wedded ,to the strong human interest and the really splendid acting of Mickey Rooney make this one of the best films of the year. Heroic Life Unfolded. “Four Girls in White,” opening at the Kosy Theatre to-morrow, pays a tribute to the profession of nursing. Featuring a cast of five principals, Florence Rice, Una Merkel, Ann Rutherford, Mary Howard and Alan Marshal, with Kent Taylor, Buddy Ebsen, and Jessie Ralph in support, the pic-

ture comes as a companion piece to “Men in White.” It is the story of four girls who enter upon nursing with different purposes. It treats mainly with Norma Page, played by Florence Rico, whose real purpose in embracing the noble calling is to win a rich doctor or patient for a husband. Unscrupulously she schemes to gain her end. Her scheming results in the death of a fellow nurse at the hands of an insane patient, and when she returns to the hospital from a yachting trip she finds herself shunned by fellow nurses. Before she can resign t'hc dreaded “disaster call” comes in. Norma joins the other nurses.and risks

her life to return a heroine, with the respect of the girls and the love of Dr. Melford as a reward.

Elsa Maxwell denies that she ever had any intention of playing Marie Dressier roles. ’“Why,” she asks, “should I try to compete-with a wonderful memory ?” Four big pictures for release this month will ho “The Man Who Talked Too Much,” with George Brent and Virginia Bruce; “My Love Came Back,” featuring Olivia de Havilland; “Ladies Must Live,” top-lining Rosemary Lane and Wayne Morris; and “They Drive By Night,” with George Raft and Ann Sheridan.

Sparkles With Wit. The year’s wittiest whirlwind of romance opens on Saturday at the Meteor Theatre with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell co-starred. The film is “His Girl . Friday,” a romantic comedy with Ralph Bellamy featured. Grant is seen as a man who runs a newspaper; Miss Russell is his. capricious, captivating star reporter, and Bellamy tiie fuming, fretting insurance agent to whom she is engaged. Against a background of drama and tragedy, this splendid screen triumvirate move through excitingly hilarious events which top and l climax each other m breathless fashion. “His Girl Friday is heralded as a thrilling modern romantic comedv set against the vibrant background of metropolitan life. The unusually well-chosen cast includes Helen Mack, Ernest Truex, John Qualen, Gene Lockhart. Roscoo Ivarns, Abner Biberman, Porter Hall. Clarence Kolb, Frank Orth, Isabel A\ithers, Cliff Edwards. Frank Jenks, Harry Watson and Pat West.

Sandy Powell’s Nautical Comedy. Sandy Powell’s latest comedy hit, “All At Sea,” in which the lamous star plays the role of an A.B. seaman in the Royal Navy, comes very soon to the State theatre. “All At Sea” introduces Sandy Powell in his funniest screen role —chat of A. B. Sltipton, w'fio wages a lone fight against a pair of enemy agentsi wfio are trying to steal a secret new high explosive. Sandy takes the explosive away with him when he is sacked from a chemical factory where he is employed as a messenger, joins the Navy and is sent to the Mediterranean. The crooks chase after him, and then ensues a series of hilarious thrills in which first Powell and then the crooks obtain possession of the explosive. “All At Sea” was produced with the full cooperation of the Admiralty, who granted special facilities during the making of the picture, and thus many new- and magnificent scenes of the Fleet have been incorporated. Supportino- Sandv Powell are Kay "Walsh, John Warwick, Gus McNaughton, Leslie Perrins and George Merritt. Drama of Envy and Hate.

“The Old Maid”—to be released tomorrow week at the Regent Tneatre — features Bette Davis in the title role and Miriam Hopkins as her sister. As Charlotte and Delia Lovell they, spend twenty years under the same roof — years filled with utter hatred and envy. Adapted from the famous stage play by - Zoe Akins, “The Old ’Maid” first appeared as a serial story by Edith Wharton in the American Red Book magazine. Later it was published as a novel, which was widely read over a period of many years. “The Old Maid” won the Pulitzer prize award as the best play in 1935, after which it v 7 as purchased as a film vehicle for Bette Davis. Associated with the costars are such noted players as George Brent, Jane Bryan, Donald Crisp, Louise Fazenda, James Stephenson, Jerome Cowan. William Lundigan. Cecilia Loftus, Janet Shaw 7, J)e Wolf Hopper and Rand Brooks. The picture was directed by Edmund Colliding from a screen adaptation by Casey Robinson —the same combination that made “Dark Victory” with Bette Davis and George Brent, which was, according to the critics, the most outstanding dramatic event of the past season. A Star's Biography—No. 73.

Ann Sothern is known as the girl ivho gambled two ways on a Hollywood career and won. After being threatened with obscurity by a series of straight ingenue roles, she withdrew from pictures for a year until she found- a. character part better suited for her talents. She was born Harriotte Lake, the daughter of Annette \ de, well-known concert singer, and W. J. Lake, Seattle broker, on January 22, 1909, in Valley City, North Dakota. Most of her childhood w 7 as spent in Minneapolis, and later she attended the University of Washington. After gaining acting experience on the screen, Miss Sothern appeared on Broadway in Ziegfeld’s “Smiles,” and followed this with hits in “America’s Sweetheart” and “Of Thee I Sing.” Rctui-ning to Hollywood, the actress appeared in a long string of pictures, among them “The Hell Cat,” “Kid Millions,” “Don’t Gamble on Love,” “Smartest Girl in Town,” “Dangerous Number” and “Danger—Love at Work.” Then she rebelled. And her next picture, a year later, saw her out of a leading role but playing the desired character part, that of a wise-crack-ing secretary. Next she was drawn to the studio for another chance to act, this time as the free-talking Brooklyn showgirl in “Maisie,” which was f'ollow7cd immediately by a long-term contract. Then came, in rapid succession, “Hotel for Women,’\“Fast and. Furious,” “Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President” and “Congo Maisie.”

Vivien Leigh, the English actress, who played the part of Scarlett O’Hara in the film “Gone With the Wind,” and Laurence Olivier, the English actor, w 7 ere married on August 29., at Santa Barbara, California, at the home of a friend. James Hilton’s “And Now Goodbye,” A. J. Cronin’s “The Valorous Years,” and Louis Bromfield’s new novel, “A Story of Old New Orleans,” have been acquired for film adaptation. The story of Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D., will star Loretta Young in the title role of “The First Woman Doctor.” “Jane Adams, of Hull House,” will star Irene Dunne. It is the story ot America’s great woman leader, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. CareGrant and Irene Dunne, who W'ere teamed in “The Awful Truth,” will again appear in “Penny Serenade.” “Our Wife,” a domestic comedy, will star Jean Arthur and Melvyn Douglas, Loretta Young will have a light comedian partner in “This Thing Called Love.” Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell will star in “There They Go Again.” “Three Girls About Town” will be brought to the screen, with Joan Bennett, Virginia Bruce, and Constance' Bennett. Melvyn Douglas and Constance Bennett will star in “Bedtime Story.”