AMUSEMENTS

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 200, 28 June 1939, Page 4

AMUSEMENTS

BERNARD SIIAAY’S BRILLIANT qOAIKIJY “RYGAI ALIGN” BROUGHT TO THE SCREEN “Pygmalion,'’ the screen version ol Bernard Shaw’s brilliant comedy, is coining to the Regent -.Theatre this week. Leslie Howard plays the .starring role in this Pascal Production which deals with a subject of direct interest and illimitable appeal to the masses. Bernard Shaw's story, it will be remembered, tells of a Cockney flower girl, % who becomes the subject of an experiment to a professor of phonetics —a role ..which provides Leslie Howard one of the greatest opportunities of his .distinguished career to. display his . jm’cjjiallenged histrionic genius. 'The 'idoapfrom the phonetic expert’s point of view, is to prove that it is possible to tafeuja. girl out of the gutter and transform her into a society lady of fine? jsjpeech )and exquisite manners. TllC''experiment is a brilliant success. The. girl is taken for a, Princess at an Ambassador’s rcceptio#—but the real problem arises when, this triumphant result has been achieved. AA hat is to the girl now ? As a C event Garden she was, at least happy doing a job she knew, but Mow that slic lias lieen taught-to lie a lady, slie cannot return to Ifer former occupation. At the same ime. she is unfit and unqualified for any other kind of job—and completely bewildered! by the revolutionany change in her social surroundings. The working out of the 'young girl’s destiny, provides a. climax of unparalleled dramatic and emotional quality.

“Pygmalion” provides something new, fresh and different in the way of cinematic entertainment, it is a real London story with the genuine Lotion backgrounds. The characters in the film hire the ordinary every-day. people of those islands—unrivalled/ the world over for their quaintly whimsical, broadly humorous, immovable straightforward outlook on life.

The heroine of “Pygmalion” is a common, Co vent Garden girl called Eliza Doolittle. Her father is a London dustman. Eliza is one of the people.—a member of that class which is the real backbone of the nation. She is genuine and sincere, full of simple human qualities—a type which everyone knows and admires. This delightful role is filled by Wendy Hiiler who, brought before, the public eye by her memorablestage performance in “Love on the Dole.” makes her screen debut in this film, in which she gives a performance which raises lur right into'the front ranks of stardom. AnNputstancling array of supporting pla. / is is. headed: by AYilfrid .Dawson, renowned for his brilliant character studies, who appears as Eliza’s father, the rabelaisian dustman, who relinquished all claim on liis daughter for a monetary consideration, while strong*! characterisations are taken by such celebrated players as Alarie Lohr, Scott Sunderland, Jean OadelJ, David Tree, Esme Percy, Violet Van burgh", and A’iola Tree. Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard collaborated on the direction of “Pygmalion.” “SPAAVN OF THE NORTH” The seteen’s first great saga of the men who plough the Arctic seas in search of Alaska’s “silver horde” ol salmon is told in “Spawn of the North,” which will be screened next Saturday and Alcnday at the Regent Theatre. With George Raft, Henry Fonda and Dorothy Lamour heading an all-star east, it tells of the titanic .struggle between fishermen and sea pirates for control oi the waters otf the Alaskan coast and the tragic experience of two lifelong friends ranged against each other in the final battle. It was directed by Henry Hathaway, who brought “Lives of a Bengal Lancer” and “Souls at Sea” to the screen.