REGENT THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 May 1941, Page 2

REGENT THEATRE

“STRIKE UP THE BAND.” Mirth and melody should reign at the Regent Theatre when Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland and a group of clever youngsters, many of them seen with the youthful stars in “Babes in Arms,” will appear in “Strike up the Band” tonight. Rooney and Judy Garland organise a high school band in the story and that’s when things begin to happen. Paul Whiteman has announced a radio contest for high school bands. They set out to raise funds for the trip to Chicago. They stage a travesty of old-time melodrama, with the buzz saw, heroine tied to the railway tracks, and such ancient ditties as "Heaven Will Protect a Working Girl." When Paul Whiteman appears in their town they borrow his orchestra’s instruments during an intermission and give him an audition he never expected. They raise money for the trip, then one of the youngsters becomes ill and must be flown to a great surgeon. Rooney is irresistibly funny Judy Garland sings the catchy "Our Love Affairs” and “Nobody,” and burlesque old-time numbers. The featurettes are excellent and include the latest Air Mail News of European events and an amazing number entitled “Nostradamus,” 'in which the revelations of the extraordinary monk of that name, who lived over three hundred years ago, arc shown and in which his uncanny prophecies of the present great world conflict are explained in detail. It is an amazing picture and should be seen by all Regent patrons.