ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 177, 28 June 1937, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

KOSY THEATRE. i “CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS.” This picture, which is screening at the Kcwy Theatre to-night, is the most novel of all tho productions made from the famous series of novels by Eric Stanley Gardner, whose attorney-detective, Perry Mason, is known to every lover of fiction. And, for once, Perry Mason has a genuine romance, for he is married to his wise-cracking secretary in tho very first scene. But it is a strange honeymoon, one that nearly drives the bride to the divorce courts, the bridegroom being kidnapped at the point of a gun and forced to take over a criminal case, by a woman who has had a secret love affair and fears that her name is abtut to be dragged through tho columns of a scandal sheet. It is this woman's husband who is mysteriously slain that very, night, and strangely enough the wife believes herself guilty of the murder, although she accuses her attorney of doing it. Thera arc eight persons who come under the suspicion of the police, all having various motives for tho crime. Just what this motive may be, is a complex mystery until the detectives working on various theories, that of revenge, for the man was a blackmailer; an attempt to cover up a scandal, for tho wife was having a clandestine love affair wiMi a big shot politician; and’greed, the dead man having left a vast inheritance. This is the fourth time that Warren William has played the part of the cool, analytical and dohonairc Perry Mason. “DODGE CITY TRAIL.” Flaming action, glorious romance and swinging melody fill the screen of the Kosy Theatre to-night where “Dodge City Trail,” Columbia's new outdoor .musical drama is tho current attraction. Featured in llio cast arc Charles Starrctt, .Marion Weldon and llicit new singing sensation, Donald Gray--son. The film unfolds a musical saga of the old west, when the railroad ended al Dodge City and only the stage coaches pentruled info tho wilderness beyond. The musical background is provided by Donald Grayson’s pleasant voice singing lour new songs of the range, written especially foi tho picture by New Washington and Sammy Slept. Charles Starrctt is seen as a young ranch foreman, entrusted with the safely of a valuable herd of calt'e. Oil | the trail north a band of outlaws hold up a stage coach and liidanp a beautiful young girl, played by .Miss Weldon. Starrctt rescues the girl only to learn that her lather, unknown to her, is the real leader ol the outlaws who cover up his criminal activities by I'liuniug a gambling hull. In hitaftempt to aid .Marion’s father, Slarrcti becomes involved with the gang. The final scenes are replete with hard-riding, gunshooting action that brings the story an an exciting finish. Olliers in rhe excellent supporting cast include Russell, Hicks, Si Jonks. Al Bridges, and Art .Mix. ('. C. Coleman directed Irani Harold Shumate's screen play.

MAYFAIR THEYTRE. ‘MAID OF SALEM ” Handsome Fred Mac Murray, who has played roles as a newspaperman, Texas Ranger, band leader, society boy, engineer, and whatnot, comes to the screen as a dashing Virginia cavalier in Paramount’s “Maid of Salem,” a tender romance of seventeenth-century America, in which he is co-starred with Claudette Colbert, and w men will screen tonight at the Maylair Theatre With the exception of “The Texas Rangers,” it is his first appearance in an historical film, and lie was selected for the part by Frank Lloyd, three-time Academy Award winner, because he is regarded as the ideal male romantic lead for Miss Colbert, with whom lie appear ed in “The Gilded Lily,” his first motion picture, and “A Bride Comes Homo Mac Murray plays the role of Roger Coverman, a fugitive from Virginia, where he had dared question the king’s prerogative. lie takes refuge in old Salem, in the Massachusetts colony. Lear of arrest makes it necessary for him to hide m his uncle’s home, and it is there he meets the lovely Puritan maiden and the ro mance begins. '1 here are secret meetings in the forest, where he teaches her the graceful measure of the gavotte, and tells her of his love. Unknown to either, they arc observed, and, -alter he leaves, when the famous witch scare of 1692 breaks out, she is accused of having dealings with lho devil. When she tells her inquisitors that it was not the- devil but a handsome young man with whom she danced in the woods, they insist upon her naming him. This she refuses to do. and she is condemned to die. She is saved from the scaffold when Mac Murray returns and awakens the four-stricken populace ..to the folly of the hysteria which seized them. Many characters of old Salem are'redrawn in “Maid of Salem,’ and the entire village, as it existed in 1692, was built from old maps for authenticity. Miss Colbert and Mac Murray are supported by a brilliant cast which includes Louise Dresser, Bennie Bartlett, Gale Sondergaard. K. K. Clive, llarvey Stephens, Donita Granville, Virgilua Weidlcr, Rosita Butler, Beulah Bondi, Edward Ellis, Donald Meek,, and many others.