AMUSEMENTS.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 397, 2 April 1937, Page 8

AMUSEMENTS.

Plaza Theatre. “My American Wife.” Francis Lederer has never been given a better screen role than In the Paramount film romance, “My American Wife,” which shows: at the Plaza Theatre, tonight. Nor has the star of “One Rainy Afternoon” ever been provided with a better screen mate than his co-star in the present picture, Ann Sothern. “My American Wife” is light-footed romance, brought to the screen with a flair which only Lederer and a star o’ Miss Sothern’s type could provide. The story itself, from a Saturday Evening Post feature by Elmer Davis, is refreshingly unique, and the cast lined up behind the principals is unusually capable. Heading the list is Fred Stone, veteran player who appears as an old Arizona pioneer with a Western contempt for the spangles and airs of foreign nobility. Billie Burke, Ernest Cossart and Grant Mitehell are outstanding among those that follow. In “My American Wife,” Lederer is a foreign Count who marries an American girl, Miss Sothern, purely for love. They return to Arizona, where the girl, prompted by her mother, begins to capitalise on the social prestige lent her by the Count’s title. Reversing the familiar scheme, of things, the Count himself rebels. He wants to be a real American, a cowboy and ranch operator. He takes Stone as his best friend, and starts learning to roll his own cigarettes and wear a ten-gallon hat. The conflict which follows heads the couple towards divorce, but they are reunited by a bit of deception staged by Stone. A cast of seasoned troupers, headed by the beloved Fred Stone, Billie Burke, that peer of all "gentlemen's gentlemen,” Ernest Cossart, and Grant Mitchell, lend support to Francis Lederer, European star, and lovely Ann Sothern.

“Small Town Girl.”

Lovely Janet Gaynor and handsome Robert Taylor are cp-starred in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's “Small Town Girl," which shows at the Plaza on Saturday and Monday. A leading New York reviewer writes: “The audience sat enthralled by Janet Gayor and Robert Taylor in the excitingly dramatic ‘Small Town Girl.’ It was a Gaynor the audience had always loved, and yet she added a new flavour to her characterisation as the bad, good little girl who married a brilliant and handsome young doctor to get away from the boredom of her sleepy little town. She was the Gaynor of the ginghams and yet she showed a world of smart style and sophistication in the latter sequences which took place in Boston, among ‘high society.’ All in all, it is one of the deepest dramatic roles that she has portrayed during her successful career on the screen. Taylor, as her leading man, portraying the doctorhusband, married to her while intoxicated, showed that he is more than ever the fastest-rising actor on the screen to-day. “The honeymoon scenes on the yacht, when Taylor explains that the trip is being taken to save a scandal, were particularly outstanding for the actor, while Miss Gaynor tugged at the heartstrings of the theatregoers during the scene in which she begged the doctor’s jilted fiancee to allow her to talk to her husband to save a boy’s life at the clinic.” Supporting the stars is a finished cast, including the lovely English actress, Binnie Barnes, in the role of Taylor's fiancee: Lewis Stone as the aristocratic father: Andry Devine, Elizabeth Patterson, Frank Craven and James Stewart, who recently scored as Jean Harlow’s patient admirer in “Wife Versus Secretary." Also standing out in the large cast are Douglas Fowley, Isabel Jewell, and Charley Grapewin. The direction of William W’ellman is worthy of high praise, as are the production values instilled by Hunt Stromberg in the Metro-Goldwym Mayer picture. John Lee Mahin and Edith Fitzgerald wrote the screen play from Ben Ames Williams’ famous novel, “Small Town Girl,” and did an excellent job of the adaption.

Rumpsteak and oyster pudding is a speciality of the “Cheshire Cheese,” the famous old tavern in a lane just off Fleet Street. Once upon a time the ancient house was frequented by a host of celebrities, including Dr. Samuel Johnson, whose favourite seat is pointed out to this day. Upstairs is the quaint smoke-room, with its long table and array of “churchwarden” clay pipes. Here the wits and men of letters were wont to congregate ,and much tobacco was consumed, but whether its quality approached that of some of our modern tobaccos —notably “toasted”—is very much open to question. It has been truly said that when a smoker takes to “toasted” he has no time for any other tobacco. It is so fragrant and comforting. The five (and only genuine) toasted brands, Cut Plug No. 10 (Bullshead), Cavendish. Navy Cut No. 3 (Bulldog), Riverhead Gold and Desert Gold, have everything to recommend them. Not only are they of the first quality, but practically harmless owing to the elimination of the nicotine in them by toasting—the manufacturers' own process.