COSY THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 June 1940, Page 2

COSY THEATRE

“MERRILY WE LIVE.”

The programme at the Cosy Theatre tonight will be headed by “Merrily We Live,” starring Brian Aherne, Constance BenI nett, Alan Mowbray, Patsy Kelly, Billie Burke, Ann Dvorak, Tom Brown and Bonita Granville. This comedy is one of the greatest .laughter producers in recent years, and it ran for nine weeks at the Embassy Theatre in Auckland. The supporting feature is “You’re Only Young Once,” in which Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney, Cecilia Parker, Fay Holden and Ann Rutherford are featured. It is considered the best of the “Mickey Rooney” pictures yet shown. In “Merrily We Live,” Miss Bennett appears as the spoiled and spirited daughter of the Kilbourne household, as curious, eccentric and lovable a group of characters ever to lodge under one roof. Her bright and pointed delineation of a modern girl is both amusing and appealing. Dignity is cast to the four winds if the occasion demands and Miss Bennett enters into the mad capers demanded by the script with an infectious gaiety. Aherne’s role is much broader in comedy values than any he has heretofore portrayed. His entrance as a tramp with tattered clothes and a twoday growth of beard forecasts a mixup in identities and around this feature is built a series of events that stamp the young British actor as a light comedian of engaging quality. He manages the shift from fun-making to romance with deft touches and whe--ther hobo, chauffeur or guest in impeccable evening attire, enacts the character with an intelligent restraint. Much of the hilarity is furthered by the inclusion in the cast of Alan Mowbray, and Patsy Kelly, butler and cook, re-, spectively. Miss Kelly’s humour is rol- - licking and boisterous and Mowbray has improved upon even that rare portrait of a gentleman’s gentleman that he gave in “Topper.”