BANCROFT’S BEST

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1057, 22 August 1930, Page 15

BANCROFT’S BEST

‘LADIES LOVE BRUTES” CIVIC’S FINE SHOW He was New York’s “Sky scraper King,” making men and steel do his bidding, but he could not win the heart of the woman George Bancroft, the mighty cha* acter actor, has a rale ideally suiteo I to his strong personality, as Joe Forziati, Italian structural engineer, in “Ladies Love Brutes,” which was shown at the Civic Theatre last evening. Joe Forziati was a self-made man, he loked it and acted like it. He ruled his gangs of skyscraper -teel workers by force of characte and ability, and did not shirk the most dangerous jobs. But he found th°t those tactics availed him nothing in the society world to which he aspired He stood con demned by finan ciers and contract ors he openly de spised. With char acteristic ' energ Mr. Forziati, now : millionaire, applie< himself to the problems of correc clothes and o meeting the right people, anu tnen inmet Mrs. Howell. Cultured, rich, exquisitely beautiful, Mrs. Howell fell in love with the rough builder. Women apparently love brutes. But Mrs. Howell, although j separated from her husband, was not divorced, and furthermore, because of her son, shrunk from marriage with a man who was so obviously not of her world. But Joe Forziati had never been baulked before and did not intend to be now, so he planned to make Mrs. Howell declare her love. How his plans miscarried through, hatred and opposition of a gang leader, Mike Mendens, and how it was all straightened out, is told in a series of swift dramatic incidents which provide plenty of excitement for the audience Beautiful Mary Astor appears as Mrs. Howell, Stanley Fields as Mike, the popular Claude Allister as a society tailor, and Frederic March as Mr. Howell. SIR HENRY SEGRAVE'S DEATH Once again the Civic Theatre has excelled itself in the supporting programme. The entertainment preceded by a half-hour of most enjoyable music by the orchestra, is opened by two fascinating sound gazettes. The scenes of greatest interest were those of the tragic motor4)oat speed records on Lake Windermere, when Sir Henry Segrave lost his life. The camera followed Miss England on her last trip very closely, but the actual tragedy is obscured by the great dash of spray. However, the camera and sound apparatus were on the spot before “Miss England” had sunk and depict Sir Henry being lifted into Lady Segrave’s launch. Then there was a novelty and song item, “In the Good Old Summer Time,” and a comedy sketch, “Actions Speak Louder Than Words.” Finally, of course, there is the music. The Civic Concert Orchestra, under the baton of Mr. Howard Moody, played the beautiful overture “Orpheus in the Underworld” and Mr. G. Paulsen, at The Civic Grand Organ, “In a Monastery Garden.” At the introductory musical session the orchestra played the overture “Poti pouri” (Engelmann) and “The Girl -Friend” (Rogers). At the Civic Grand I Organ Mr. Sunnai Paulsen plays Schubert’s “Blossom Song,” and this is followed by the cornet solo, “Roberto tu che Adore” (Meyerbeer), by Mr. C. Hayes. — William Haines insists he cannot sing, but talkies seem to require that he sing at least a portion of a song. In his new picture, “The Girl Said ‘No’.” at the studios he had to warble the verse of a University song—and learning to do it, he says, was more work than all the lines of the dialogue.