ENTERTAINMENTS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21189, 12 August 1940, Page 2

ENTERTAINMENTS

TO=NIGHT’S PROGRAMMES REGENT THEATRE Popular Ronald Colman portrays Dick Heldar, reckless soldier-of-fortune, in “The Light That Failed.” Heldar, as readers of the famous Kipling novel may recall, is the young Englishman who, after losing the sweetheart of his childhood, finds himself as a war correspondent on the farflung Empire. It is while he is “covering” the war m the Sudan, the war which was to result in the martyrdom of Gordon and the rise of Kitchener on the British horizon, that Heldar becomes acquainted with the hard-boiled Torpenhow (Walter Huston). Torpenhow takes Heldar back to London and there encourages an artistic talent. This talent Develops, and Heldar becomes a sensation in the great metropolis. But his fame is short-lived, a wound received ii» the seething Sudan takes effect, and his sight begins to fail rapidly. From here “The Light That Failed” progresses to a stirring climax. ROXY THEATRE Gracie Fields returns to the screen in a film in which she sings and dances as only she can. It is “Shipyard Sally,” in which she is starred with Sydney Howard. Directed by Monty Banks (who in private life is the husband of Gracie Fields) from a screen play by Karl Tunberg and Don Ettlinger the film gives Gracie the background she likes best—the working class of England. She is seen as the unexpected proprietor of a tavern in Clydebank, the shipbuilding centre of Scotland. She soon becomes the fast friend of the shipbuilders, practically the queen of the shipyards. The popular song, “Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Good-bye,” is introduced in the film. “In Old Monterey” deals with the efforts of government agents to disposses a group of ranchers from their homesteads. Gene Autry sings “It Happened in Monterey,” “Little Pardner,” “Born in the Saddle,” “My Buddy,” “The Vacant Chair,” and “Tumbling Tumbleweeds.” STATE THEATRE “Enemy Agent” dramatises newspaper stories on spy activities, and is charged with genuine excitement. Richard Cromwell gives one of his most convincing performances as the young plane draftsman who fights to clear himself of spy charges. Helen Vinson is excellent as the pretty secret service operative who lures the spies into a trap set for them by Robert Armstrong, who plays the G-Man assigned to the case. “Missing Evidence,” featuring Preston Foster and Irene Hervey, is a vivid picturisation of the counterfeit sweepstakes ticket racket, showing how practised and how the deals with the perpetrators. W THEATRE ROYAL “Blondie” Bumstead, that popular young housewife of newspaper comic strip and motion picture fame, returns to the screen in “Blondie on a Budget,” the newest in the hilarious series. She is Penny Singleton, and Arthur Lake again portrays “Dagwood,” her trouble-beset husband Rita Hayworth is also in the cast as Dagwood’s “old flame,” whose arrival on the screen causes plenty of excitement and laughs for the audience. “Stronger Than Desire” deals with a suspicious wife who has a retaliatory flirtation which involves her in blackmail and a murder mystery. Walter Pidgeon plays the lawyer husband who extricates her from the tangle in a dramatic courtroom climax.

CIVIC THEATRE “Drums Along the Mohawk” tells a thrilling story of the pioneer days. Claudette Colbert has a role of unusual power as the delicately reared girl who marries Henry Fonda and whom experience turns into a fearless woman who fights painted Indians by the side of her young husband. Highlights of the story show the beautiful Mohawk Valley aflame when the marauding Indians fire the farms of the pioneers; dread war-drums warning of fire and massacre; savage hordes scaling the stockade walls; muskets blazing and swinging as the pioneer women fight shoulder to shoulder with their men. There are also battle scenes revealing all the horrors of war at first hand. The Air Mail Fox News shows the New Zealand second echelon arriving in England, sightseeing in London, Maoris giving haka, and troops moving to Palestine.