AMUSEMENTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22987, 16 September 1936, Page 5

AMUSEMENTS

STRAND THEATRE Another well-balanced doublefeature programme is now being shown at the Strand Theatre, the principal picture being " Hell Ship Morgan." A dramatic story of life on the high seas and the rough treatment meted out to mutineers by a captain who believes in the iron law of discipline, provides excellent entertainment. Victor Jory and George Bancroft, both players who have achieved considerable success in action films, have the leading roles, while Ann Sothern makes a delightful heroine. Billie Seward, brunette Columbia actress, is again teamed with Colonel Tim M'Coy, virile Western star, in Columbia's "Justice of the Range," a hard-riding, exciting romance of the early West, which will be the associate feature in the programme. "Justice of the Range, which was directed by David Selman from an original story and screen play by Ford Beebe, gives Miss Seward her fourth role opposite M'Coy. The box plans are at the theatre and the D.I.C. DOUBLE-FEATURE PROGRAMME Many of the finest talents of stage, screen and radio are featured with Myrt and Marge in " Myrt and Marge, Bryan Foy-Universal production, to be commenced at the Strand Theatre on Friday. Myrt and Marge are starred, and make their first appearance on the screen in this production. Eddie Foy, jun., famous musical comedy star of "The Cat and the Fiddle" and other Broadway hits, contributes his individual style of comedy. Ted Healy and his Stooges, who have added to the gaiety of " Crazy Quilt" and "A Night in Spain," are seen for the first time in a feature production. J. Farrell MacDonald and Tom Jackson, screen favourites, are cast in "Myrt and Marge." Trixie Friganza, grand old lady of the stage and screen, offers a new " little bag of tricks " in the leading comedienne role. Grace Hayes, whose soprano voice has been heard in many big Broadway hits, and on phonograph records, has another big part. Ray Pledge, the "Clarence ' of Myrt and Marge, joins his team-mates in making a first film appearance in this Foy production. "Myrt and Marge" 'is directed by Al Boasberg, formerly Hollywood's outstanding comedy writer, who has now become one of its best comedy directors. Paramount has produced more than 30 Zane Grey stories. The latest is " Drift Fence," which will be the associate feature in the programme, with a cast headed by Larry ("Buster") Crabbe, Katherine De Mille. Tom Keene, Benny Baker, Glenn Erikson and Stanley Andrews. STATE THEATRE Although now in the second week of its Dunedin season, "Captain January," Shirley Temple's latest starring vehicle, continues to prove a popular attraction at the State Theatre. The talented little player plays a waif rescued from the sea by a jolly lighthouse keeper, Captain January, and the action centres round the determination of a truant officer to place the child in an institution. Guy Kibbee is excellenllv cast as Captain January, and Slim Summerville is very fine as the lighthouse inspector. Buddy Ebsen is Shirley's new dancing partner, and together with June Lang, he supplies the romantic element. Sara Haden plays the acidulous truant officer. Two uproarious comedy scenes are those in which the two old sailors attempt to coach the little girl for her school examination: and in which the same three give a rendition of the Sextette from "Lucia di Lammermoor." Three new songs were composed especially for the picture by Lew Pollack. An interesting programme of short subjects is also shown. The box plans are at the theatre and Begg's. •' FOLLOW THE FLEET " Beginning on a battleship, shifting to a San Francisco waterfront dance hall, and then to a societv function on Nob Hill, " Follow the Fleet," with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, which will be commenced at the State Theatre on Friday, reaches a finals '.hat elaborately features the Irving Berlin number "Face the Music," and which will be sung by Fred Astaire and provide the accompaniment for an interpretative dance by Astaire and Miss Rogers. The sequence surrounds a play dven on board a freighter, the Connie Martin, to raise funds so that Harriet Hilliard can make the final pavment on the craft in which she and Randolph Scott pbn to sail to distant honeymoon ports. The performance is laid in Monte Carlo, and 100 glamorous and handsome dress extras provide the atmosphere. There are also eight beautiful and alluring girls in nautical waiterette costume and 10 gorgeous show girls in Bernard Newman-de-signed gowns. REGENT THEATRE Fully worthy to compare with "The Scarlet Pimpernel," as romantic entertainment, "The Amateur Gentleman,' the first release by a new British company. Criterion Films, which is now showing at the Regent Theatre, is a brilliant version of the famous novel by Jeffery Farnol. The film is not onlv a vivid pageant of London, Bath and the beautiful English countryside in Regency days, but it is also a full-blooded drama, gloriously coloured with Farnol's evergreen romance The kernel of the plot, Barnabas Barty's masquerade to save his father