REGENT THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 December 1938, Page 2

REGENT THEATRE

“THE LAST GANGSTER.” Edward G. Robinson, who played the first gangster in motion pictures, now plays the last. He comes tonight to the Regent Theatre in “The Last Gangster,” a dramatic story of a man’s term in a penitentiary, with James Stewart, Rose Stradner, glamorous new actress from Vienna, and a notable cast. “The Last Gangster” tells of the imprisonment of a “public enemy” and the struggle of his wife, who did not know his calling, to lose her identity and save their child from the disgrace attached to his name. Miss Stradner plays the wife and Stewart the newspaperman who befriends her and with whom she finally finds happiness. The dramatic highlight is the scene in prison where Miss Stradner tells Robinson she at last knows the truth, and must leave him and take their baby away for ever. A riot in the mess hall of a Federal penitentiary, grim details of prison life and the armoured prison train, roaring actively in great newspaper offices, and inner workings and haunts of gangland provide the dramatic background for the central romance. Players include Lionel Stander as the gangster’s henchman, Douglas Scott, John Carradine, Sidney Blackmer, Grant Mitchell, Edward S. Brophy, Alan Baxter, Frank Conroy and Louise Beavers. A “Laurel and Hardy” picture will also be shown, and this will certainly be an added attraction. “DAD AND. DAVE.” The latest product of . Cinesound Studios, "Dad and Dave Come to Town,” after playing to record houses in Wellington comes to the Regent Theatre on Saturday. The film provides first-rate comedy. It is a fever of fun artistically presented, a comedy as original as it is diverting in the boldness of its conceptions and the skill of author and producer. The Rudds have prospered since they were last seen, but they still do things backwards, and whether the fun comes in the roundabout way they work, or in the miles they travel to straighten things out again, they still represent the soul of Australian humour, and the sentiment which is a religion with the backblocks folk. Bert Bailey does his best work on the screen to date,, and Dave excels himself. The cast is a strong one, stiffened by Shirley Ann Richards, Muriel Flood, and two Americans, Billy Rayes and Leila Steppe. ____________