ENTERTAINMENTS

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20991, 19 December 1939, Page 5

ENTERTAINMENTS

TO=NIQHT’S PROGRAMMES

STATE THEATRE “Melody For Two” is a musical comedy based on a new angle. It has nothing to do with the theatre or the usual backstage stuff. Its theme is the stiff competition that exists between musical organisations and individual performers whose works are heard on the radio—the competition being especially keen when it comes to trying for the well-paid spots on the big national networks. Patricia Ellis is the lovely girl who helps James Melton and his organisation to victory. Patricia reveals for the first time that she can sing as well as act. Winifred Shaw's husky contralto voice is familiar to all picture-goers as the one that made famous such numbers as “Lullaby of Broadway” and “The Lady in Red.” “Sally of the Regiment” comprises thrills, humour and romance very entertainingly. Anna Lee and Wallace Ford head the strong cast. THEATRE ROYAL One of the most compelling of present-day problems is presented in entertaining fashion in “The Dominant Sex,” delightful screen version of Michael Egan’s record-breaking play, featuring Phillips Holmes and Diana Churchill. Women all over the world will sympathise with Angela Shale, the young wife who starts her married life intending to keep the independence of her single days and who finds herself in perpetual conflict with her husband as the result. Men will understand the problem of the young husband, Dick, who, hankered after an old-fashioned wife, a real home, and a baby. Brilliant with the pace of a fast game of ice hockey, “Idol of the Crowds,” features John Wayne and Sheila Bromley. The highlight of the picture reveals two evenly matched ice hockey teams battling in the rink at Madison Square Garden. CIVIC THEATRE Gracie Fields is at her most vivid and amusing best in “Shipyard Sally.” Opening with the launching of the Queen Mary on the Clyde, moving powerfully on to depressed days, and progressing through comedy and pathos to a triumphant and inspiring ending, the story provides a perfect setting for the finest film yet made by one of the most popular stars the world has known. Gracie appears as Sally, variety singer, who is discouraged by the poor response of Glasgow audiences, and embarrassed by the presence of her rascally but lovable father, the “Major.” (played by Sydney Howard). “The Major” buys a Clydeside pub with Sally’s savings, just before the depression settles over' the shipyards, with exciting and amusing results. Two of the funniest scenes show Gracie posing as a young man in a men’s club and as an American blues singer. ROXY THEATRE “The Son of Frankenstein,” a thrilling drama, and “Sweet Devil,” a sparkling musical film, will be screened today. Dread heritage of the Frankensteins, a man-made monster of inhuman temperament and proportion, returns to cut another bloody swath across the screen in “ Son of Frankenstein.” Basil Rathbone has the title rol*? ns a scientist who takes up the work snapped short by his father’s death 25 years before, and brings back to a life of human devastation the monster who made flesh creep in the original production of “ Frankenstein ” and its successor, “ Bride of Frankenstein.” Boris Karloff recreates the monster role, and Bela Lugosi of “Dracula” fame assumes an even more harrowing characterisation as Ygor, mad shepherd cut down from the gallows. REGENT THEATRE “Clouds Over Europe” is as much a comedy as a topical spy drama, with Ralph Richardson playing the outstanding role of his career. As the Scotland Yard sleuth he is perfect. Whilst the film deals basically with the burden of 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. There is excitement enough—what with enemy agents operating a motor-disabling ray from a camouflaged trawler, and with Laurence Olivier and his caotive pilots making a bold dash for freedom, and with one of His Majesty’s destroyers steaming to the rescue.