MAURICEVILLE TALKIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 September 1939, Page 7

MAURICEVILLE TALKIES

TOMORROW NIGHT. Paced from start to finish with a deft alternation of hearty laughs and spine chilling thrills. RKO Radio’s “Forty Naughty Girls” is a notable addition to the lists of detective mystery films. The picture will be shown tomorrow night at Mauriceville. James Gleason and Zasu Pitts head the cast of the picture, the sixtn of Stuart Palmer’s popular stories of Inspector Oscar Piper and his feminine aide, Hildergarde Withers, to reach the screen. Like its predecessors, the new offering brings its two principals into frequent conflict over the tangled web of suspects and motives that develop in the story. For sheer' bafflement and surprises the picture easily ranks as the best of the series to date. The mystery in this thriller picture when the press agent of a big Broadway revue is found murdered in one of the girl’s dressing rooms during a performance. Oscar and Hildegarde are in the audience, and quickly set about to unravel the puzzle, only to encounter an embarrassing number of clues —particularly as nearly every member of the company appears to have had good reason to end the press agent’s career. The recently developed “nitrate test,” which reveals whether or not any one person has fired a gun within 24 hours, soon eliminates many of the possible killers, but this makes things more complicated. Complications pile up in a staggering fashion. The two principals turn in splendid performances. Marjorie Lord and George Shelley handle the romantic leads splendidly.