AMUSEMENTS

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 135, 18 January 1939, Page 2

AMUSEMENTS

‘‘THE ADVENTURES OF MARCO POLO” The screen, which lately has focussed’ a majority of its bigger productions on biographical subjects, has seen many remarkable characters taken from the past. . Few of these historic personalities, however, enjoyed a life more significant and romantic than Marco- Polo so few people seem to know, whom Samuel Goldwyn has chosen as the lier.o of “The Adventures of Marco Polo." his rollicking adventurous romance which brings Gary Cooper to the Do Luxe Theatre to-night and 'Thursday. “THE PERFECT SPECIMEN” “The Perfect Specimen.” a comedydrama starring the immensely popular Errol Flynn and the no less well-liked Joan Bloiidell, is scheduled to open next Friday at the He Luxe Theatre. This Warner Bros, production has been rated’ hv pre-view critics as among tli every best Jaugh-and-thrili photoplays of the year.

It is said to show that Flynn, in addition to his qualities as a swashbuckling fighter with ancient weapons (as in “Captain Blood,” “The Charge of the Light Brigade” and “The Prince and the Pauper”) is also a, first-class battler with the gloved fists in the roped arena—a. new locale for tlie handsome irishman.

An amusing idea actuates the story of “The Perfect Specimen.” An immensely wealthy' grandmother, with ideas of her own about eugenics and environment, thinks that Errol, her descendant, should- be' brought up all his life as her estate and trained to, be what the title of the movie indicates.

Cfhance (and Miss Blondell) get him off the estate and lie has his own way to make in a world of which he lias been completely innocent. He proves that his tutoring lias net been in vain, even when it comes down to boxing. He has been taught that as well as everything else, and he comes pretty close to fulfilling his grandma’s hopes. There are two fights in the show, both of-which Errol wins; there is a kidnapping scare; there’s a goofy poet, played! by Hugh Herbert ; a pliimsieal secretary to the old lady, played by Edward Everett Horton; a tough truck driver, played by Alsen Jenkins; an energetic youth, played by Hick Foran. of western-movie fame; an attractive young lass played by Beverly Roberts—and no end of other amusing characters.

“The Perfect Specimen”-comes from a story by Samuel Hopkins Adams, and was directed- by Michael Curtiz, who steered Flynn through the making of . “Captain Blood.”