ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 261, 2 October 1940, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

MAYFAIR THEATRE. “A STAR IS BORN.” Janet Gay nor and Eredric March arc now at the Mayfair Theatre in David O. Sclznick’s technioolour production “A Star is Born.” This glamorous story of a little country girl who came to Hollywood, faced the odds of 100,000 to one and scaled the heights of stardom, 1 marks the first up-to-the-minute story to be filmed in technicolour. Adolphe Menjou, May Robson, Andy Devine and Lionel Stander are featured in the supporting cast, which" also includes 1 Owen Moore, Peggy Wood, Elizabeth Jenns, Edgar Kennedy, J. C. Nugent, Guinn Williams and others. William A. Wellman directed “A Star i= Born” from a screenplay by Dorothy Parker, Alan Campbell and Robert Carson. Tho film shows many famous Hollywood landmarks in their natural colours for the first time. Aniong these are the Trocadero, world-famous night club, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the Santa Anita racetrack, tho Biltmore Bowl as it looks during tho annual banquet of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Hollywood - Region Stadium, where the stars see their prize lights, the Hollywood Bowl, and the Brown Derby, celebrated eating place, and the famous intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street,, the centre of movieland. Tho settings wore designed by Lyle Wheeler and the costumes are by Omar Kiam. Lansing Holden is credited as colour designer. The photograjrliy is the work of W ..Howard Greene and the music is by Max Steiner. “A Star is Born” is released through United Artists.

REGENT THEATRE

“TI-IE OLD MAID.”

“Til# Old Maid,” co-starring Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins, shows at the Regent Theatre to-night. Filmed by Warner Bros., it has been hailed by ore-view audiences as the outstanding dramatic event of the year —a rare combination of brilliant talents in the fields of acting, writing and directing. One feminine star —especially if she be that double Academy winner, Bette Davis —might be considered sufficient for a photoplay, no matter how great. But in “The Old Maid” there are two. Besides Bette Davis there is the lovely and highly capable Miriam Hopkins, who has starred in many a top-notch production on her own. The girls have equally important parts. This is the first time, since they reached stardom, . that either has ever shared acting honours with another player of her own sex. “The Old Maid” was written first as a novel by Edith Wharton, often called the “aristocrat of American writers.” She will be remembered as the author of “Ethan Fconic” and “The Age of Innocence, among many other books. Then four years, ago, Zoo Akins, the brilliant dramatist, transformed the book into a stage play which not only had a long run in New York but won the Pulitzer Prize for that ■year, the highest award that can be bestowed upon a dramatic production. With Miss Davis and -Miss Ilopkins in tho picturisalion of “The Old Maid” are such players as George Brent Jane Bryan, Donald Crisp, Louise Fazenda, James Stephenson. Jerome Cowan, William Lundigan, Cecilia Loftus, Janet Snow, De A nlf Hopper and Rand Brook.

METEOR THEATRE

“DUST BE MY DESTINY.’

The Meteor Theatre will present io-day “Dust Be My Destiny,” with John Garfield and Priscilla Lane, the two outstanding star discoveries of the past season. Based on the novel by Jerome Odium, the new film probes deeply and poignantly into the problems of the young “nobodies” of- ibis generation, who wander about seeking jobs and “a place to hang their hats.” Garfield and Miss Lane meet and fall in . love when he is senfenced to a short term on a work farm for vagrancy. Her stepfather, one of tho foremen of the farm," niakes it so tough for (hem that they are forced to run away: He chases them, but drops dead of a heart attack. Unaware of this, they go on, and arc married. When they hear, over a radio news broadcast, that Garfield is wanted for the murder of the foreman, she wants him to go back and prove his innocence. But his previous experiences ,with the law have proved to him that there is little chance for a “nobody” once he. is in tho grips of the law. So they start fleeing across the country in the hope of finding a place where they can get a now start.. But oacli time things begin to look promising, they find themselves in danger of being found out, and have to pull up stakes and move on. At last, however, after he has heroically risked his life to help in tho capture of bank bandits. Priscilla tells the police who he is, risking his love for her in order to put an end to tho ceaseless wandering. On the witness stand, she swears his innocence, and it is largely through her appeal and her account of their life together, Bint l''c jury returns a verdict of “Not Cuilty ”