AMUSEMENTS.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 371, 27 February 1937, Page 8

AMUSEMENTS.

Plaza Theatre.

“Dodsworth.”

The maiden voyage of the Queen Mary plays an important part in Samuel Goldwyn’s screen version of Sinclair Lewis’s “Dodsworth,” which shows at the Plaza Theatre to-day and Monday, with Walter Huston and Ruth Chatterton in the starring roles.

Pictures of the maiden voyage, made by a Goldwyn camera crew which took passage on the liner from England to America, were matched up with shots made on a built-to-size replica of the boat and play deck of the giant new Cunard-White Star liner, erected on the sound stages of the Samuel Goldwyn Studios. Sidney Howard, who made the stage adaptation of the novel, also prepared the screen version of this stirring story of an easy-going American husband who retired to travel and find himself, but instead found out the pretty, selfish, frivolous wife who wanted one last fling at romance before settling down to middle-age. Paul Lukas, Mary Asjor and David Niven are also featured in the cast, while other important roles are played by Mme. Maria Ouspenskaya and Gregory Gaye, who, like Huston, repeat the roles they created in the stage version: Odette Myrtil, Kathryn Marlowe, John Payne, Spring Byington, and Harlan Briggs.

“Dodsworth” was directed by William Wyler. The settings are by Richard Day and the costumes by Omar Kiam. The photography is the work of Rudolph Mate, A.S.C. The film is released through United Artists.

King’s Theatre.

“The Texas Rangers.”

Paramount’s “The Texas Rangers," King Vidor’s historical epic of the men who moulded a State from the territory of Texas, shows to-day and Monday at the King’s Theatre. The picture features an all-star cast headed by Fred Mac Murray and Jack Oakie, and including among its headliners Jean Parker, Lloyd Nolan, Edward Ellis, Bennie Bartlett, and a score of others. Mac Murray will be remembered for his outstanding work in the colour-picture, “Trail of the Lonesome Pine,” and Jack Oakie and Jean Parker for their roles in “Call of the Wild" and "Sequoia" respectively. Filmed on location in Texas and New Mexico by a company of several thousand persons, with the assistance of officials of both States, “The Texas Rangers" combines a fast-meving. action and thrill-filled story and a panoramic view of the unfolding of the history of the Lone Star State. Banded together under an oath to “drive out hostile Indians, stop feuds, destroy cattle and horse thieves, gangs of stage and train robbers, kill or capture murderers, and make Texas a reasonably safe place in which to live,” the Rangers contributed much to the colour of the State’s early days. Both Mac Murray and Oakie join the tearless band in the course of the motion picture.

Encounters of Ranger companies with bands of marauding Indians and with stage coach robbers are a part of the plot development. Miss Parker, remembered for her sincere interpretations of Important roles in “Sequoia” and “Little Women,” is cast as the daughter of the head of a Ranger unit.