FILM AND STAGE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 204, 30 July 1937, Page 10

FILM AND STAGE

Bright Musical. “Head Over Heels,” .'Jessie Matthews’s biggest and brightest musical, which comes to-day to the State Theatre, introduces four new faces to the screen, and between Jessie and these people occur some of the most amusing scenes in the film. There are her two leading men, Robert Flcmyng from Dublin and Louis Burrell, who is Dutch, both of whpni are good-looking and sure, of instant success. Then there is Romney Brent, a little better known ; his last appearance was with George Arliss in ‘‘East Meets West,” and Edward Cooper, who is very well known on the English music halls. Jessie sings no less than six song hits in “Head Over Heels.” At last Sonnie Hale, wellknown comedian of English films and stage and husband of Jessie Matthews, has realised his ambition of many years standing. He lias become a director, and has produced his wife in a musical film that gives her more scope than any previous appearance. “Head Over Heels” is his initial attempt in this field, and judging by the result, it is the forerunner of many. Jessie sings six new song hits and dances with verve.

Laughs And Sentiment. With one of the finest all-round casts that has been assembled in a long time “Call It a Day,” comes in picture form on Saturday to the Mayair. It is a delightful comedy-drama based upon the sentimental experiences of all the members of an English suburban family when the first day of spring sets them wandering along love paths. Olivia de Havilland. little brunette star, is to be' seen as. the daughter of the family. lan Hunter

and Frieda Inescort are her parents. Then there are Anita Louise, Alice Brady, Roland Young, Peggy Wood, Bonita Granville, and half a 'dozen others who become involved in the atmosphere of romance. There is brilliant dialogue, plenty of laughs, and some moments of the deepest and tenderest sentiment, it is promised. With elaborate settings of the suburban home and countryside, the picture was produced on a lavish and beautiful scale.

Phyllis Brooks, the young actress who played in several Hollywood films a short time ago without creating any great stir, has been given a contract through her work in the Broadway play, “Stage Door.” New films will be: “The Awful Truth,” starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant; “Life Begins With Love,” which will star Jean Parker with Douglass Montgomery and Edith. .Fellows; “Park Avenue Dame.” starring Richard Aden and Fay Wray; “Carnival, Lady,” with an all-star east.

Drama of the Outdoors. With virgin forests of the NorthWest as its background and a feud between rival lumber companies as its theme, “God’s Country and the Woman,” comes to the Regent Theatre on Friday next witli George Brent and Beverly Roberts in the stellar roles. Brent is at his vigorous and ingratiating best as Steve Russet, a rich idler who achieves power in the big woods through conflict with his ruthless brother, and the influence of a courageous girl of the forest, Jo Barton, a role portrayed by Beverly Roberts. “God’s Country and the Woman,” which was screened almost wholly in the big woods district, is said to be the last word in natural colour photography. The story revolves about the fact that Brent has

a brother, Robert Barrat, who heads a lumber company and whose hatred is aimed against Beverly Roberts who owns u rival company. He is engineering a crooked deal which will make the girl pay unreasonable royalties for transporting supplies across his territory, when the young brother arrives on the scene. Brent upsets the deal, denounces his brother, and starts back to the city. Barrat has him shanghaied and brought back to the woods—with the idea of iorcing

him to become a lumberman. Then begins the terrific conflict.

As the result of the visit to England of Mr Frank S. Tait. J. C. Williamson Ltd. is arranging to present a complete Shakespearean company in Australia. With the co-operation of the directors of the Stratford-on-Avon Memorial Theatre, a company of 28 players and a producer will go to Australia with an attractive repertoire at the end of February, 1938. ,

It took two years and a great deal of money to produce “Elephant Boy.” The story is a simple one of jungle life and lias been adapted from Rudyard Kipling's “Toomai of the Elephants.” In “There Goes My Girl,” Joan Woodbury, one-time featured dancer of Airua Calientc, Mexico, does a difficult soTo dance never before executed by a woman. Using a. heavily, metallic eim broidered and weighted cape of fifteen pounds, Miss Wooubury dances the coloitrful Toreador” in & niylit club sequence.

Love In Spring. "What the balmy breath of spring’s first day does to slumbering hearts is the theme of a delightful comedydrama entitled “Call It a Day,” which has its local premiere on Saturday at the Mayfair Theatre. The subject is appealing. As a stage play “Call It a Day” ran for a couple of years in Loudon, then for more than a year in New York. With the broader sweep of the camera, it is much better as a picture than it was behind the footlights. Big, good-looking lan Hunter plays the part of a well-to-do Britisher. His wife is Frieda liiescourt, noted London and Broadway actress. They have been married 20 years and are pretty much in a rut. Then there’s a daughter of 18 or thereabouts—the lovely Olivia de Haviland—and another of 15, Bonita Granville, of “These Three.” Peter "Willes, young British actor, is the son of the family. It’s a well-settled, unemotional household. But spring works Its magic. The husband falls in love—or thinks lie does—with an actress client, Marcia Ralston. The wife has a proposal from Roland Young, 'whom she meets through her best friend, Alice Brady. Olivia conceives ail infatuation for a painter, Walter Woolf King, who is doing her portrait. Her brother, Willes, discovers charms in the girl next door, Anita Louise. All in one day they fall into love and out. Bedtime finds them all the same old family—a little more experienced, a lot wiser. This with the aid of smart, sophisticated dialogue and entrancing sets. Detective Thriller. “Bulldog Drummond,” one of the most popular detectives of fiction and the screen, lias only eight hours' in which to solve a series of crimes which grip London in his latest adventure, “Bulldog Drummond Escapes,” actionpacked, light-hearted film thriller which begins on Tuesday at the State Theatre for a season of three days. The role of the dashing young sleuth and soklier-of-fortune is handled by Ray Milland, the handsome young Englishman who soared to popularity as leading mail in “The Big Broadcast of 1937” and “The Jungle Princess.” He is supported by Sir Guy Standing, as Inspector Nielson, of Scotland Yard, his rival in the crimeferreting business; Reginald Denny as “Algy,” his pal and assistant; Heather Angel as the gill in the ease, and Porter Hall as the villain. The latest Drummond adventure begins shortly after his arrival in London by ’plane. Landing in deep fog at Croydon Field, he soon finds himself confronted with 'he most baffling crime of his career. His car is stolen from him by a beautiful woman when he stops to investigate a scream on the moor. The first thing he must find out is the identity of the mysterious beauty. When he does he finds himself with two murders, a kidnapping and a counterfeit ring to contend with. And, as usual, Inspector Neilson is no help. Thrills and Glamour.

“God’s Country and the Woman,” the brilliant picturisation. of the James Oliver Curwood novel of the same name, dealing with a feud between lumber companies in the deep forests of the Great North-West, opens on Friday next at the Regent Theatre, with George Brent and Beverly Roberts in the leading roles. The thrillingly dramatic romance of the story is heightened by the fact that the scenes, almost all of which are in the open, were photographed wholly in natural colour. Brent and Miss Roberts have an excellent supporting cast including such outstanding favourites as Barton Mac Lane, Robert Barrat, Allen Hale, El Brendel, Billy Bevan and Joseph King. Brent is first seen as a rich idler, who makes a casual visit to the woods where his brother owns a vast tract of timber, and is attempting by crooked methods to injure the business of a rival lumber company managed by a girl, Miss Roberts. Discovering the trickery of his brother, Brent denounces him and is about to go back to the city when his brother has him shanghaied and returned to the deep woods, where the lusty melodrama of love and hate runs its furious course. There are fights galore between the steel-muscled lumbermen of the two camps. There are thrilling scenes of a runaway logtrain and the blasting of a log jamb, glamorous love scenes, and stirring action.

Enjoyable Comedy. On Saturday at the Kosy Theatre, Harry Leon Wilson’s best seller novel, “Oh, Doctor!” comes to the screen, starring Edward Everett Horton in the side-splitting movie. Laugh-maes-tro Horton -portrays a gentleman who enjoys , poor health, seeking new , illnesses that lie can have happen to him. He falls in love with a beautiful nurse, who receives romantic attentions from a publicity-chasing athlete. Being jealous, ‘ Horton risks his neck to prove he’s a great neeker; lie does swan dives —dying swans; he wrestles gorillas; he balances on window ledges of tali buildings. The only thing ho does not do is climb up her balcony —but then she has no balcony. The plot of the comedy invests Horton with an inheritance of more than a half million, which he will receive in six months. He fears that all his illness—a hypochondriac’s imagination —will not let him live that long. A band of crooks find him gullible and arrange to give him 50,000 dollars to enjoy the rest of his days. He signs over his inheritance to them. “Oh, Doctor!” is enjoyable comedy, good clean fun, with plenty of laughable situations, and smart lines.

An Irish one-act play, “Larry O’More,” has been staged at Invercargill by Rev. Brother Peter and his party from St. Mary’s Basilica. “Pagliacci,” starring Richard lanber, under Karl Grime’s direction, was released simultaneously in four Vienna theatres recently and attracted record crowds to each one. ■ The brief farewell season of Colonel W. de Basil’s Monte Carlo Russian Ballet at His Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, was a phenomenal success, bo great has been the success of the ballet that arrangements are being made with Colonel de Basil for further seasons in Australia in eighteen months or two years’ time. Two of the operettas in the repertoire of the Williamson company might'well he described as sisters—in fact by now they might be called “Old Maids.” For all that they are still great entertainment. “A Southern Maid”-and. “Maid of the Mountains” are alike in that they are distinctly about people who live glamorously. A new romantic team appears oil the screen, in Anton Walbrook, the international stage and screen favourite, and Elizabeth Allan, who are the Russian lovers in “Michael Strogoff.” Walbrook, who is credited with 300 ' stage and screen roles abroad, is making his American debut in “Michael Strogoff.” Elizabeth Allan recently scored marked success as Katherine Hepburn’s sister, in “A Woman Rebels.”

Unusual Drama

Casting Paul Kelly as the su perch urged race track detective in the fast-paced drama, “The Frame-Up,” which opens on Saturday at the Ivosy Theatre, was little less than inspired. It is a race track picture without a race. Rather, its climax does not hinge upon a certain horse “bringing home the bacon.” The story’s colourful setting and characters spring from a prominent track, but right after that branch out into a new life of their own. Kelly, as chief of the State Racing Commission officers assigned to the track, keeps his mind on his work as well as he can in face of the distinction provided by a pretty new secretary, played by Jacqueline Wells. As handicap” day nears, the adjoining town is taken over by gamblers and bookmakers, all betting on a certain horse. Others don’t concede it a chance, so the invaders get big odds. Suspicious, Kelly learns that the horse in question has been stolon and a “ringer” put in his stall, while the original horse’s owner is afraid to complain because he is menaced by gunmen. Kelly goes to the head of the gang, played by Robert

Emmet O’Connor, and says he will simply scratch the “ringer.” O’Connor assures him he won’t, because his men have decoyed and kidnapped Jacqueline. Further, they have deposited money to Kelly’s account, making it look as if lie has talfen a bribe. The climax is thrilling. Famous Stcry.

Four huge sets, realistic to the last degree, re-create vividly the Paris of “Seventh Heaven,” which opens on Friday next at the State Theatre. Simone Simon, the sensational French screen find, and James Stewart are starred in the version of Austin Strong’s famed love story. A complete

section of the Montmartre district of. Paris was constructed on the studio lot for street and outdoor action scenes. Most of the buildings on the French street were at least three storeys high, and some four storeys. Many of them were decorated with balconies. These buildings, however, were not roofed, so a second huge set was built indoors on now sound stage 14 containing the picturesque tile and slate roofs of those buildings. The roof set was more than a half mile away from the street containing the matched lower portions of the building. A third big set, consumed an entire stage—the interior of a church, which in a later part of the

picture is converted into a wartime hospital. On a fourth set was lmilt the notorious “Hole in the Sock” cafe of the Montmartc district. The exterior of the cafe was already represented on tlie French street set. More than a dozen other sets also were constructed • varn'i' seoiiences of this story of Paris at the time of the World War. On tlie rool-top set. where Chico and Diane’s garret overlooks Montmartre, 1,600 pieces of clothing were hung out each morning on thirty-five different clothese lines strung from balconies over the district.

Shirley Temple has obtained the largest of “he-men” for “Wee Willie Winkle,” based on Kipling’s famous story. Victor McLaglen.is to he Shirley’s leading man, as Sergeant McDuff. The J. C. Williamson Company, opening in Auckland in a repertoire including “The Merry Widow,” “Maid of the Countains” and “Southern Maid,” includes the following in support of Gladys Moncrieff and Cecil Kelleway: Eric Bush, Don Nicol, Lois Green, Carmen Mascagny, Cecil Pawley, Peter Dawson, Gerald Connelly, Lesley Crane and Geoffrey Colledge.