ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 253, 23 September 1940, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

REGENT THEATRE

“YOUNG TOM EDISON.”

All suspicion that Mickey Rooney h strictly an unusual personality rathci than an actor will vanish when . “Young Tom Edison” is seen at the Regent Then tie. Playing^-the great inventor as i youth. Mickey clearly establishes him seif in the ranks of Hollywood’s “to. notchers.” The picture tells a vivid of the ’triumph of a typical biy and is sc down-to-earth and human that it wil. bring a warm glow in tlie heart of mail) a boy and former boy and a tear to tin. eye of every sister and mother in tin audience. There is a generous portion c. -■oniedy in the story, comedy which Rooney dots to perfection because it is genuiiu uoyhood comedy. And the story lias itdreams, 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 ffaurog. The man who made “Skippy’ certainly has topped the Academy win ning effort of a few years ago. The cast with Rooney is outstanding. First, there is Virginia Weilder, who again proves she’s Hollywood’s leading child actress. As Edison’s sister she is • a superb teammate fer Mickey. Fay Bainter is a perfect selection as Edison’s mother and is magnificent. George Bancroft playing Edison’s father, has a role totally unlike anything she has ever done and one which may well spell “new career” for this grand actor. Eugene Pallette, Victor Kilian, Bobbie Jordan, J, M. Kerrigan, Lloyd Corigan, John Kellog, Clem Bevans, Eily Malyon and Harry Shannon round out an excellent supporting cast.

STATE THEATRE

“PINOCCHIO.”

In bringing his version of the childhood classic (‘Pinocchio,” to the screen as his second full-longth feature, Walt Disney has happily combined the most outstanding characteristics of the original book with the unique appeal which the world audience has come to look for in every Disney character. The film shows at the Stato Theatre to-day. In the original story of Pinocchio, the marionette who came to life, the title character was a brutish little rascal who not only tormented the kind old wood-carver who created him, but killed a wise talking cricket that had lived in the house for over a hundred years, when the cricket tried to give him some good advice. Ho was selfish, and had practically, no likeable qualities at all. Ho was bad for the sheer fun of being bad. Walt Disney’s little puppet character, as dramatised for R.K.O. Radio release, has been endowed with all the typical Disney appeal without losing any mischievous qualities. Walt’s “Pinocchio” is bad more from an imioceneo of what is right and wrong than from anything else. In appearance, too, the Disney Pinocchio is different from the puppet who generally appears in old book illustrations. The original was generally depicted as a long, lank marionette, very -simple in construction, with a face almost totally devoid of charm. The Pinocchio of Walt Disney’s artists h.\s a loveable little boyish quality not only in appearance, but in his voice and in his sincere but blundering effort to learn right from wrong.