MAJESTIC THEATRE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 478, 11 March 1933, Page 3

MAJESTIC THEATRE

TO-NIGHT. "The Sporting Widow/' the film title for the human-interest comedy story hy Harvey Harris Gates and Malcolm Stuart Boylan, is the type of movie that becomes an admirable vehi'cle for actors who know their char-acter-stuff and lcnow it well. The principal roles are taken hy Alison Skipworth and Richard Bennett. Alison Skipworth, veteran of th'e stage,. an artist as. well as an aetress, and a humorist by instirict, demonstrates delightfully just the kind of bluff a "sporting widow" needs, to get her sehemes over quickly and with charming finesse. Richard Bennett, a m-aster of quaint comedy roles for thirty years, and possessing rare skill as an interpreter of character roles, portrays the kind of trusting hUsband who doesn't know a gouge from a gimlet, or can't tell a hary from an old harpie. Miss Skipworth plays the role of a Countess — a Countess of adventure along the high way of opportunity. All the travellers are prospects — pay dirt, so to speak, for the Countess d's an accomplished gold-diglger and swindler. What she can't get by finesse — s'he takes. any way. As the picture opens, the Countess is preparing for departure. Tea is ■being served to old friends and acquaintances. The small talk, led hy the Countess with grace and dignity of high station, touches upon Paris, London, Budapest, the gay places where wealth and fashion abound. There's excitement, fluster, for the countess is leavingl — not home, but gaol. She has just completed her last term for swindling and the hunt for more saps is on again. Out in the world again she hits the trail of easy money — from easy men. She spots them with uncanny shrewdnes.s. Then, on to the small town and the hot springs. There the Countess finds Riichard Bennett, her fourth husband, and the children. Richard has prospered. He's proprietor of the Paradise Springs Hotel. She forthwith plans to trim Richard, children or no children; for he i's &o easy — easy men ought not to have money. But why spoil a good comedy by telling! it? It's for the whole world to see — to enjoy in its pungent humour — to laugh and laugh again. "The Sporting Widow" opsns at the Majestic Theatre to-night.