REGENT THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 February 1940, Page 2

REGENT THEATRE

“EAST SIDE OF HEAVEN.” Down to earth humanness combined with music so catchy that you just naturally hum it as you leave the theatre is a movie formula guaranteed to please. And it more than pleases in Universal’s new Bing Crosby-Joan Biondell picture, “East Side of Heaven,” at the Regent Theatre tonight. Bing is a cruising troubadour, or to put it more plainly a singing taxi driver. Joan, his sweetheart, is a hotel telephone operator. Mischa Auer is Bing’s unemployed roommate who has learned from reading the stars that he should not even look for work until 1942. This trio would be quite sufficient in any picture. But in “East Side of Heaven” they are aided, and very materially, by “Sandy,” the cutest infant ever to face a movie camera. “Sandy” is “deposited” with Crosby by Irene Hervey, who takes this means of keeping her baby from her wealthy and hard-fisted father-in-law, portrayed by C. Aubrey Smith. That’s when the fun really starts, fun such as you have rarely seen until you watch Bing, Joan and Mischa try to take care of the youngster. Then there is the music, four brand new lilting tunes of the kind you want to sing, whistle or hum in or out of a shower bath. They are called “East Side of Heaven,” “Sing a Song of Sunbeams/’ “That Sly Old Gentleman from Featherbed Lane” and “Hang Your Heart on a Hickory Limb.” Crosby sings them in that style which is all his own. Furthermore, each song has a definite and natural place in the plot. Excellent supporting featurettes complete the programme.