REGENT THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 December 1940, Page 2

REGENT THEATRE

“THE GHOST BREAKERS.”

Thrills and lauglis alternate so swiftly in “The Ghost Breakers,” which will be shown tonight at the State Theatre, that at times the story is forgotten in a gale of laughter. Bob Hope, one of the best of the wisecracking fllih comedians, takes the part of Larry Laurence, radio commentator and coffee-advertiser, whose revelations of gangster activities sometimes land him in trouble. Playing opposite him is the charming Paulette Goddard, whose real dramatic skill is matched by a most unusual flair for comedy. Larry Laurence might have gone on peacefully as a radio-speaker if he had not, for once, put a gun in his pocket when “Frenchy” took a sudden dislike to a radio revelation that was altogether too revealing. As he makes a very hesitant approach to “Frenchy’s” hotel door, someone else is shot, and Larry nervously takes a potshot at nothing in particular and convinces himself that he committed the murder. The police are convinced of just the same thing, and Larry takes refuge in Mary Carter's room, throwing himself upon her mercy, and into her bathroom. Miss Cartel - (Paulette Goddard), who has just inherited a mysterious castle in a Cuban Island, has already had her nerves rather sha-

ken by a cryptic telephone call, and the queer half-revealing remarks of her lawyer. When the lights fail in the thunderstorm, she is not at all reassured by a total stranger who. when she remarks that it is a nice night for a murder, huskily replied. “How did you know there was a murder?” Larry is less like a murderer than a subject for a murder, and by a hilarious chain of accidents he is smuggled out of the hotel. Of course, his innocence is easily proved, but by that time he is already involved in a far more exciting sequence of adventures which reach their climax on Mary Carter’s island. “The Ghost Breakers” is an excitingly amusing comedy-thriller, studded with Hope’s wisecracks, and most attractively decorated by the presence of Paulette Goddard. It is a very good evening’s entertainment. The featurettes will include a Sportslight, an overseas news reel and an interesting scenic, the whole programme making one of exceptional merit.