ENTERTAINMENTS.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17976, 22 March 1930, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS.

STRAND THEATRE. Tile record-breaking “ Three Live Ghosts" will be* screened at the Strand Theatre to-night. A smash hit on Broadway, this comedy classic is even greater entertainment, as an alltalking, all-laughing motion picture. It's thrilling, mysterious, cyclonic. The action gets off to a flying start right at the outset when three war buddies return home to find themselves officially “ dead.” What they do to convince London Town that they're very much alive keeps things moving then on to the end of this fast and furious comedy drama. Beryl Mercer, as the old Cockney mother, gives a wonderful performance. Of special interest is the appearance of the New Zealander, Shayle Gardner, as the detective. Mr Gardner, after a distinguished career on stage and screen in England and on the Continent, went to America a few months ago, and within a week was engaged for the talkies in Hollywood. Mr Gardiner’s role in “ Three Live Ghosts ” was hi s first one in the new medium, and he has made a tremendous succes of it. THE CIVIC. Hamilton is to be honoured by the first production in New Zealand, at the Civic Theatre to-night, of the great film, “ Dynamite.” “ Dynamite,” a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer talking picture, abounds with entertaining situations. Its central sequence is a marriage of a society girl to a coal miner on (fie eve of the latter’s execution for murder. It swings from the hectic gaiety of a “ wild party,” to scences of intense drama in the depths of a coal mine. Its race of ten pretty girls in the foreign novelty, aero-wheels, is said to he one of the most striking sequences ever put into a motion picture. Famous people of stage and screen are equally divided in the cast of this frst De Mille production for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Charles Bickford and Kay Johnson have been the beau and belle of New York’s Broadway for years; while Conrad Nagel and Julia Faye need no introduction to picture-goers. Otber players in the production include Joel McGrea, Muriel McCormac, Robert Edeson, Tyler Brooke, Leslie Fenton, Barton Hepburn and Ernest Hilliard.

TALKIES AT CAMBRIDGE

A double-star programme will be presented at Cambridge to-night.

“ Painted Faces,” an absorbing story of stage life, starring Joe E. Brown, heads the programme. The cast supporting Brown includes Helen Foster, one of the principals of “ Gold Diggers of Broadway,” Barton Hepburn, Dorothy Gulliver, Lester Cole, Sojin, Jack Richardson and Howard Truesdell. At the beginning of the story an actor, “ The Great Roderick, is found murdered behind the scenes at the theatre. Buddy Barton, a fellowartist who had been heard to threaten the man's life, is arrested and charged with the crime, being found guilty at the subsequent trial. The manner in which the intervention of an unforeseen event brings about his release is told in an entertaining plot. The second attraction will be “Woman of Affairs,” featuring the popular Greta Carlo and John Gilbert. There will also be a comedy, “Stepping Out.”

THEATRE ROYAL,

To-night’s change of programme J will include two star features —“ Dan- | gerous Curvers ” and “ The Waggon Master.” In “ Dangerous Curves,” the “It” girl of the screen, Clara Bow, will make her re-appearance, and is sure to attract a large audience. It is a story of the circus, in which the popular Clara is seen at her snappiest. “ The Waggon Master ” tells of the adventures of the waggon freighters who carried supplies to the isolated mining camps and army outposts in the early pioneer days of the West. The picture, which is all-talking, stais Ken Maynard, who, with Die aid of his famous horse, “ Tarzan," performs many of the daring riding stunts which have made him so well known to local audiences. As the “ Waggon Master,” Maynard strives against great odds to break a monopoly that is starving out the mining camps in the region. The singing of several cowboy songs by the principal adds much to "the enjoyment of the production. FRANKTON’S OWN. “Tenth Avenue,” with Phillis Haver and Joseph Schildkraut, will head the programme. A comedy and a Gazette are also included.