STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 July 1940, Page 2

STATE THEATRE

“20,000 MEN A YEAR.” The new programme at the State Theatre tonight comprises two outstanding pictures, ”20,000 Men a Year" and “The Rains Came.” For brilliant entertainment, with a theme as timely as today’s headlines and romance to thrill, be at the State Theatre tonight and see “20,000 Men a Year.” This stimulating Cosmopolitan production for 20th Century-Fox concerns the youth of the nation, who are taking to the sky thousands strong. The film, which features Randolph Scott, Preston Foster and Margaret Lindsay, is told from the viewpoint of the girls who love them and the men who train these eager lads. Lou Breslow and Owen Francis prepared the screen play from an original story by Frank Wead, which is set in a small air field in California, selected to train students from a neighbouring college. Randolph Scott is the instructor in charge. Foster’ is an official, described as a “tough buzzard with eagle feathers,” who wins Scott’s enmity but lives to change his mind. Margaret Lindsay is delightfid as the sister of one of the fledglings. There is a great supporting cast, headed by Mary Healy, who fulfills the promise she showed in Irving Berlin’s "Second Fiddle,” in a romantic role opposite Robert Shaw; George Ernest (of the Jones Family films); Jane Darwell, Kane Richmond and Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom. the fighter who has become one of the screen’s champion comedians. The supporting picture is being shown at the request of a large number of patrons who were thrilled with “The Rains Came” when it was presented here some time ago and by others who were unfortunate in missing it. Myrna Loy breaks with the “perfect wife” tradition to play the amorous Lady Edwina Esketh; Tyrone Power has his most romantic role as the highcaste Hindu surgeon, Major Rama Safti, who proves the one great love of Lady Esketh’s life; and George Brent is seen as the worldly Tom Ransome.