ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 251, 20 September 1940, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

REGENT THEATRE

I‘YOUNG TOM .EDISON.”

All suspicion, that • Mickey Rooney is strictly an unusual personality rather than an actor will vanish when “.Young Tom Edison” is seen at tho Regent Theatre. Playing the great inventor as a youth. Mickey clearly establishes himself in tho ranks of Hollywood’s “lop notchers.” The picture tells a vivid story of tho triumph of a typical’boy and is. so down-to-oarth and huiiian that it will bring a warm glow in the heart ot many a boy and former boy and a tear to flic .eye of every sister and mother in the uudienco. There is a generous portion of comedy in tho story, comedy which Rooney does to liorlcetiou because it is genuine boyhood comedy. And the story lias its dreams, its tears, its thrills and, above all, its triumphs—the sort that brings an exultant lump into your throat. Mickey, of course, is superb, directed by the genius of childhood story director, Norman Xaurog. 'ilic man who made “Skippy” certainly lias topped tho Academy winning effort of a lew years ago. Tho cast with Rooney is outstanding. First, there is Virginia Wilder, who again proves she’s Hollywood's leading child actress. As Edison’s sister she is a superb teammate for Mickey. Euy Baintor is a perfect selection as Edison's mother and is magnificent. Georgo Bancroft playing Edison’s father, has a role totally unliko anything she has ever done and one which may well spell “new career” for this grand actor. Eugene Pallette, Victor Kilian, Bobbio Jordan, J. M. Kerrigan, Lloyd Corigan, John I-Ceilog, Clem Bevans. Elly Malyon and Harry Shannon round out an excellent supporting cast.

METEOR THEATRE

“RETURN TO YESTERDAY.”

In “Return to Yesterday,” which was directed by Robert Stevenson and is now showing at the Meteor Theatre, Clive Brook is supported by Anna Lee, this being her. third Ealing production this year. Other artists include well-known players, such as Dame May Whitly, Milton Rosnier and Garry Marsh. A great deal of the action ot the story takes place in a small repertory theatre on a seaside pier. Clive Brook and Anna Lee have both had their share of repertory and touring before they became famous in films and both have declared feelingly that the Ealing studio’s art department has recaptured with great accuracy all the discomforts and the romance of this type of theatre—the flashy curtains garnished witli badly designed royal crowns, the rickety chairs, the musty ill-litting scenery, the backstage notices to artists, the telephone that is always half coming away from its moorings on the wall and the faded pennants hung in the auditorium to distract attention from the peeling piaster of the walls. Robert Stevenson confesses that their most difficult problem in getting this set ready was to prevent the natural good taste' ot the art department from creeping in 1