Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 April 1939 — Page 15

THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 1939

MOVIES

By JAMES THRASHER

: Miss Corinne Luchaire is arriving on the American scene, and screen, at a propitious moment. Simone Simon has pouted her last pout for Hollywood cameras; Danielle Darrieux is making movies in her native land, and handsome Tyrone Power is about to claim Annabella for his own. : If ever we oma ge une needed a new Is peewee. 2] French screen 3 3 | star, it’s now. : , So here she is, the 17-year-old Miss Luchaire, coming to Loew's tomorrow in “Prison Without Bars.” But with a difference. For it’s the critics, not the press agents, who have ballyhooed the young lady in her first English-speaking picture. And she’s never been closer to Hollywood than Alexander Korda’s London studios. However, Miss Luchaire claims that her great-grandmother (on her mother’s side) was an American Indian. Which should make her practically one of the folks. And you might as well know right now that in Loew’s other picture, “Ice Follies of 1939,” Joan Crawford doesn’t do any ice skating. So don’t ask for your money back.

Joan Crawford

” ” ” A great many proud parents have been calling the Indiana these last few days, wondering what age limit had been set on the theater’s “Personality Baby” photo contest.

The answer is 18 months. For the contest is being held in conjunction with the screen debut of “Sandy” Henville, 1l1-month-old youngster who appears with Bing Crosby in the Indiana’s forthcoming “East Side of Heaven,” and the management wants to keep the contest close to “Sandy's” tender age. Beauty isn’t going to enter into the judging. What the lucky youngster must possess is “umph,” which is what the press agents tell us Ann Sheridan also has. To Indiana’s “umphiest” infants will go three cash prizes, and 50 prizes of tickets. Incidentally, “Sandy” is a girl —real name Sandra, though she plays a young man in the picture. For some reason or other her movie bosses are being very coy about her gender.

Want to be a successful hillbilly? Well, you might try studying voice at the Cincinnati Conservatory (that’s what Annie and Zeke Canova did) or graduate from the sophisticated “Ziegfeld Follies” to a spot on the suave Paul Whiteman’s radio program (like Judy). The three Canovas, features of the new Circle stage bill tomorrow, hail from Jacksonville, Fla., and never lived in a log cabin in their lives. Their name really is Canova (Spanish), and they were christened—of all things—Juliet, Diane and Leon. 2 8 »

Those of you who missed “The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle” at the Indiana may take heart. It will be at the Apollo for the coming week.

Opening Tomorrow—

The Circle has another parade of headliners booked for its stage

show beginning Friday.

Topping the list are Ethel Shutta (left), favo-

rite of disc and dial fans, and the rustic radio Canova trio, Judy, Zeke

| THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

RADIO STARS DESERT AIR LANES FOR STAGE

|

PAGE 15

and Annie. Also on the bill are Al Donahue and his orchestra; Paula

Kelly, singer, and Duke McHale, “Babes in Arms.”

who was featured in Broadway's

‘The Sea Gull’ Is Played By Lunts in Stunning Style

“The Sea Gull,” Chekhov’s strange play of violent passions ex-

Alamo

“FORGED PASSPORT,” with Paul Kelly, June Lang, Lyle Talbot and Billy Gilbert. Screen play by Franklin Coen and Lee Loeb; directed by John H. Auer. Member of the U. S. Immigration Patrol on the Mexican Border breaks up a gang of smugglers and avenges the death of one of his pals. Gang leader is tricked into admitting his crimes and hero gets a bride and a promotion. “NORTH OF YUKON,” with Charles Starrett, Linda Winters and Bob Nolan. Screen play by Bennett R. Cohen; directed by Sam Nelson. A mountie gets his man, murderer of a Northwest trader, by being discharged from the service, joining the player and finding out the truth about the killing. Apollo (Return Engagement) “THE STORY OF VERNON AND IRENE CASTLE,” with Frad Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edna May Oliver and Walter Brennan. Screen play by Richard Sherman; directed by H. C. Potter. A dance-mad girl and a slapstick dancer form a team and are married. After a struggle for recognition they become international successes. They decide to retire but the World War breaks out and Vernon Castle enlists in the Royal Flying Corps. Later he is transferred to a Ft. Worth airfield as instructor, where he is killed. Circle “THE LADY'S FROM KENTUCKY,” with George Raft, Ellen Drew, Hugh Herbert and Zasu Pitts. Screen play by Malcolm Stuart Boylan; directed by Alexander Hall. A small-time gambler and a poor but lovely Kentucky girl own a horse together. The gambler wants to run him for the money involved but the lady does not want to wreck the horse’s health and future career. The gambler, in a spot, races the horse anyway and wins. | Ethel Shutta (On stage), with Judy Canova, Zeke and Annie; Al] Donahue and his Orchestra, with Paula Kelly, vocalist, and Duke McHale, dancer. Indiana «EAST SIDE OF HEAVEN,” with Bing Crosby, Joan Blondell and Mischa Auer. Screen play by William Conselman; directed by David Butler. Bing, a singing messenger boy, and Joan, a switchboard operator, postpone their marriage because Bing mixes into the family life of a wealthy citizen. He takes care of a baby for the daughter-in-law of the wealthy citizen and attempts to reconcile the family. The baby is stolen but recovered and Bing gets a job on the radio. * “MYSTERY OF THE WHITE ROOM,” with Bruce Cabot, Helen Mack and Constance Worth. Screen play by Alex Gottlieb; directed by Otis Garrett. A surgeon is murdered during an operation and his two assistants suspected. The hospital janitor finally identifies the murderer. Loew’s “THE ICE FOLLIES OF 1939,” with Joan Crawford, James Stewart, Lew Ayres and Lewis Stone. Screen play by Leonard Praskins; directed by Reinhold Schunzel. Larry Hall and Eddie Burgess have skating team but Larry ruins their chances by adding a girl. The couple elopes and Eddie tells Mary that it is her fault they lost their contract. Mary gets a singing job in the movies and goes good. Larry is jealous of her success, but she backs his “Ice Follies” and gives up her career. “PRISON WITHOUT BARS,” with Corinne Luchaire, Edna Best and Barry Barnes. Screen play by Arthur Wimperis; directed by Brian Desmond Hurst. A new head, with ideas of prison reform, comes to a girls’ reformatory near Paris to replace the former cruel administrator. She makes many improvements but loses her love, the prison doctor, to cne of the inmates.

25 TO PRESENT DANCE RECITAL

Twenty-five pupils are to be presented in the Miriam Hoss Dance Studio's annual recital at 8 o'clock tonight at the Ben Davis grade school auditorium,

Irwin McCray is to act as master of ceremonies, and there will be readings by Miss Virginia Rawlinson. FINAL DAY!

are

TOMORROW © BATTLE OF

Errol Flynn in “DODGE CITY,” With Olivia de Havilland

A fabulous treasure of dazzfing entertainment! . . Including a Great Cavalcade of the Dance rhythmed by memory’s fondest melodies!

; — 4S.

LIL (HLH ROGERS)

+B (TE (LT:

RULED Li HES

WALTER BRENNAN Samet Beecher

pressed almost in understatement, brought back the Russian drama to a local stage after several years when Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne presented it as their closing offering at English’s yesterday afternoon

and evening.

Despite Stark Young’s new and clarifying translation, which the

Lunts introduced, despite also its ripe age of 45, “The Sea Gull” re-

{mains a rather cryptic creation. Few

plays, surely, make so many demands upon the performers for their effect. And the audience, too, must play its part. Attention alone is not enough; one must see and hear in a sort of state of absorption, receiving and storing up all the subtleties of mood and inference which form the dramatic fiber.

Couple Score in Play

Mr. Lunt and Miss Fontanne, with their company, set forth the play in stunning style. To appreciate their performance, go to the text and see how little of the tense, brooding quality is found in the speeches. Actors and director had

probed to the core of Chekhov's im{plied meaning. They played their parts between the lines and speeches, and achieved the success that can only follow such preparation. The queer thing about “The Sea Gull” is that, once away from the theater, the hoplessness and morbidity which wracked you seems so intangible. It is all characterization, brilliantly conceived and as brilliantly carried out, though the simplicity and reticence of Chekhov’s dramaturgy are almost baffling. The play’s Dr. Dorn has summed up Chekhov's characters best when he says “how nervous they all are.” Irina, the vain, self-centered, thoughtless, heartless and successful actress. Constantine, her son, suffering from his mother’s lack of

understanding and from his hopeless love for Nina, jealous of the author Trigorin, both for his liter-

ary standing and for his place in Irina’s affections.

® Characters Distinctive

Nina, the young, worshiping girl who leaves her unhappy home to become an actress, abandons Constantine’s love only to be ruined and abandoned in turn by Trigorin’s, and left to insane desperation. Masha, and her hopeless, quenchless love for Constantine; Semyon, her pathetic, ignored husband; Pauline, her mother, with her hopeless love for Dorn; old Peter Sorin at’ the end of a stodgy and frustrated life. And how beautifully they all were done. Miss Fontanne’s Irina was a faultless embodiment. Mr. Lunt gave to Trigorin a similar perfection and the soliloquy on writing was a triumph of fine acting. A lack of

AMBASSADOR

DOORS OPEN 10:00

Last Day: “Yon Can’t Cheat An Honest Man” & “Duke of West Point”

® STARTING TOMORROW & DOORS. OPEN 9:45 Last Pay! ‘“‘Startlite Over Texas” Jack Holt “S Ser anke Case of Doctor Meade "oo ‘Fly G-Men"’—News ® TARTING TOMORROW ® Rist Indianapolis Showing Geo. O’Brien—“"Trouble in Sundown”

June Lang—‘‘Forged Passport” “Lone Ranger Rides Again”

‘CAFE SOCIETY”

WE THING THAT ot IS

ONE OF THE BEST TWO-

. FEATURE SHOWS YOU WILL EVER SEE!

Love runs riot amid \ whirling, swirlin thrills on the ice

JOAN

SEE BALLET

ON ICE IN COLOR!

NS D

AMES STEWART AYRES : STONE

A Am, RAMATIC DYNA) Foye

WOMEN without

MEN....ove

PRISON...STRANGE SECRETS THAT OPENED DOORS BARRED TO THE REST OF THE WORLD!

ALEXANDER KORDA presents The Greatest Star Find in Yen Years

superlatives prevents a detailed appreciation of each performance, though each deserves it. Yet it would be unfair to neglect Richard Whorf and his sensitive, moving projection of Constantine's character, which is an extremely

Schnee’s performance partook not only of exhaustion and madness, but of decrepitude and a touch of delirium tremens. (J. T.)

Mae Engle

In Recital

Jordan Teacher to Play at Odeon Tonight.

Mse Engle, piano teacher at the Jordan Conservatory, will give her annual spring recital at 8:30 o'clock tonight at the Odeon, assisted by Harold Triggs, head of the school’s piano department. The public is invited without charge. A feature of the program will be the first performance of a twopiano composition called “American Weasel.” It was written by Virgil Phemister of the Jordan voice faculty, who has dedicated it to tonight's artists. Also included will be two works by Percy Grainger, Miss Engle’s former teacher, and Moross’ arrangement of Gottschalk's “The Banjo,” which the two pianists played last year and which is being repeated by request.

BUILDS IRISH COTTAGE

Frank McHugh is building an Irish cottage with fireproofed thatched roof as a playroom for his children.

MICKEY DATES MARY,

Mickey Rooney has been taking up Mary Beth Hughes’ time this last week—with roller skating, ice skating and badminton games making it three consecutive dates.

LAST DAY-

SI WILLS Romo Yas ack POWELL Helen REYNOLDS

YY 6 CR LIL BACK AVS NILA

25¢Till 8 WENDY BARRIE

Hn

FINAL DAY! BOB BURNS

IN “I'M FROM MISSOURI”

INDIANA

SHE'LL STEAL

«+. A STOLEN BABY WHO WILL COO HER WAY INTO STARDOM

YOUR HEART!

Meet Sand TOMORROW

difficult task. Sydney Greenstreet’s

Sorin was admirable in its re-

ON strained pathos. In fact, the only CLARK GABLE

fault one might find would be in Nina's final scene, where Thelma ||

AL DO!

City uF MOR c HEST

JUDY

FOREMOST RADIO, ST wIT

SISTER ANNE, BRO

T “SARATOGA”

Plus MY DEAR MRS. ALDRICH

Ci

COMEDIENNE AGE & SOREEN

THER ZEKE

ETHEL SHUTT

LOVELY LADY OF SONG

cHALE

CF STAR OF Sy ARNS.

JREFD FOLLIES,

PAULA KELLY

ENT

“THUMBS UP

CHARLIE CARROLL “7

_ i BT LR 0A

"THE LADY'S FROM KENTUCKY 4

LGA

ELLEN

M186

EAST SII*”

NEIGHBORHOOD:

HEATRE

WEST SIDE

3155 6:8

Fred MacMurray—Madeleine Carroll

“CAFE SOCIETY” Charlie Ruggles—Mary Boland « “BOY TROUBLE”

EX TRA A! Donald Duck Cartoon! Starts Sun. —“WIFE, HUSBAND, FRIEND” “TOPPER "TAKES A TRIP”

4830 SuSE FIRST SHOWING EAST

1—Michael Whalen—Jean Rogers “INSIDE STORY”

E 9 “SECRET SERVICE OF THE AIR” 3—Harry Langdon “SUE MY LAWYER”

Paramount

1—Louis Bro) DURE OF WEST Gargan—Andv

Wash. & N. Jersey Thur., Fri. 4- Unit’ ao Joan Fontai POINT” at “8: 35

Wm Devine “PERSON SECR ETARY" 6:55—10:25

§—Jackie Cooper “SCOUTS TO RESCUE” 4—Dave Apollon and His Orchestra

IRVING 5507 E. Wash. St,

Henry Fonda “JESSE JAMES” “TOM SAWYER—DETECTIVE”

Tyrone Power TACOMA ....... 20: rothy Lamour—Lloyd N

51. LOUIS BLUES?

nda ‘Farrell—Barton MacLane ‘TORCHY GETS HER MAN

TUXEDO OE rletas ©

BELMONT Belmont and Wash.

Alan Baxter a Jacqueline, Wells “MY SON IS A

Tailspin Tommy “MYSTERY PLANE”

Speedway City S peedway Dennis O’Keefe “BURN ’EM UP O

Cecelia Parker O'CONNOR” Ann Shirley “BOY SLAVES”

NEW DAISY pou. Faitbanis''sr “THE YOUNG IN *HEART> Dorothea Kent “STRANGE FACES”

SOUTH SIDE

New Garfield 2203 Shelby St.

Fred MacMurra “COCOANUT

Barve Hilliar Tony Martin “UP GHD VRIVER”

FOUNTAIN SQUARE

Ala an Baxter._Jacqueline Wells Y SON IS A CRIMINAL” “HOME PRAIRIE” Plus OUR GANG COMEDY

SANDERS ITH,

“EXPOSED” Art Jarreit “TRIGGER PALS” NORTH SIDE

T ALB OTT Talbott at 22d

Victor McLaglen e “PACIFI “STRANGE CASE OF DR. MEADE”

Morris C LINER” Colleze at 63d NOLEk Gable La, Shearer DIOT SWE ul G

“NANCY PORTER”

CINEMA

16th & Delaware Ke 4

OVERNIGHT!

THIS GIANT SHOW STARTS TOMORROW

INDIANA

BRUCE CABOT HELEN MACK

CONSTANCE WORTH JOAN WOODBURY TOM DUGAN