ENTERTAINMENTS

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20990, 18 December 1939, Page 4

ENTERTAINMENTS

TO=NIGHT’S PROGRAMMES REGENT THEATRE English producers are often regarded as having no sense of humour, but “Clouds Over Europe” is one of the wittiest and most humorous productions brought to the screen. Whilst it deals basically with clouds over Europe and the burden of the Empire, it highlights the activities of a humorous Secret Service investigator, who alone in the United Kingdom believes that there is something more than mere coincidence in the disappearance over a year’s span of four bombing ’planes on trial flights to test secret War Department apparatus. Since no one else takes him seriously, though Major Hammond soon stops taking himself that way, the picture follows suit. It doesn’t lose its sense of humour once, not even in the most melodramatic moments. So although there is excitement enough—what with enemy agents operating a motor-disabling ray from a camouflaged trawler, and with Laurence Olivier and his captive pilots making a bold dash for freedom, and with one of His Majesty’s destroyers steaming to the rescue—“ Clouds Over Europe” is as much a comedy as a topical spy drama. Ralph Richardson plays the outstanding role of his career in “Clouds Over Europe.” As the Scotland Yard sleuth he is perfect.

ROXY THEATRE The film adaptation of Dr. Cronin’s much-discussed book, “The Citadel,” is a moving drama of life in the mines, where a struggling young physician risks his life to save trapped workmen in the pit. He meets a girl and marries her. They move into the city where he develops a paying practice in the social set, but learns to abandon the high ideals with which he started out. A bad operation restores him to his senses. With the help of his wife and a group of fellow doctors he makes a come-back and we see the drama of victory over big odds—the triumph of love and faith. In “The Citadel” are seen Robert Donat, that sterling English star, and Rosalind Russell, the society girl who went to Hollywood and made good. “The Life of the Party” is a gay musical comedy, featuring Joe Penner, Gene Raymond, Harriet Hilliard, Victor Moore and Parkyakarkus. STATE THEATRE “Five Came Back” deals with the grim experiences of a group of aeroplane passengers and pilots forced down in a Brazilian jungle by a tropical storm. Two pilots, a steward and nine passengers leave the United States for Panama, and, as the title indicates, only five of them return to civilisation after a month’s enforced stay in the steaming wilds of the upper Amazon. What happens in the meantime affords the compelling drama of the story. There are 11 oddly-assorted people: Bill, the strong silent pilot; Joe, his co-pilot; Alice Melhorne, wealthy heiress, and her rather worthless fiance, Judson Ellis, who are eloping to wed in Panama; Peggy, fleeing to escape trouble; Henry and Martha Spengler, an elderly botanist and his wife, a gangster, Pete, escorting his chief’s small son to a place of safety; and a prisoner, Vasquez, being taken to Central America to be hanged, and the grim detective, Crimp. The story works up to a thrilling climax. THEATRE ROYAL In the thrilling Western drama, “Ride, Ranger, Ride” featuring Gene Autry, some of the ingredients are:— Full-blooded Indians in war paint—hundreds of them; troops of Texas Rangers out to get their quota of redskins; blue-coated cavalrymen “pacifying” savage chiefs and braves with muskets; high-wheeled prairie schooners as far as the eye can see; civilisation at death grips with savagery; the whole softened with sentimental songs and love, romance and humour. “Army Girl,” is a delightful adventure romance, filmed against the spectacular fast-moving background of America’s peace-time army. One scene shows an army tank crashing off the s*de of a cliff bank and smashing sidewise through the air, hurtling to the ground beneath with a thunderous roar. Madge Evans and Preston Foster have the romantic leads.

CIVIC THEATRE “Shipyard Sally” shows popular Grade Fields at her best. It places Grade at Clydebank. There, with its shipbuilding workers on the dole, Sally (Gracie) and her father, the Major (Sydney Howard), buy a broken-down “pub.” Elated to present a petition from the Clydeside workers, that the depression be lifted, she goes to Lunnon, and crashes a fashionable party, posing as an American “swing sister.” There she sings, “I Got the Jitterbugs.” Is she versatile? In the course of an energetic performance she talks in Lancashire and Scots’ dialect, a southern American drawl and a burlesque man-about-Mayfair accent. Her funniest scene and cleverest playing occur in a men’s club, where she wears a magician’s suit that sprouts embarrassing tricks. A rhumba song she embellishes with her high-pitch-ed, high-velocity Gracie-notes. A Wodehousean character is contributed by Oliver Wakefield, a firstrate comedian of dithering speech.