1955-04-23 — Page 2

KING'S PRINCESS EMPIRE

AT 2.30, 5.00," 7.15 & 9.30 P.M.

AT 2.30, 5.20, 7.30 & 9.40 p.m.

AT. 2.30, 5.20, 7:30 & 9.40 P.M.

4 SHOWS TO-DAY

GRACE KELLY

ACADEMY AWARD WINNER

For Best

Actress

of the Year

BING GRACE WILLIAM CROSBY KELLY HOLDEN THE COUNTRY GIRL

• PARÁMOUNT PICTURE

EXTRA! ADDED ATTRACTION

Paratum Presents

VISTAVISION

A Product Festene

.

Eminutebil"highlights frope

Paramount's

First 10 Attractions

- in VistaVision

----------------------

• MORNING SHOW TO-MORROW.

KING'S

At 11.30 a.m.

RKO-Disney's

TECHNICOLOR CARTOON PROGRAMME

PRINCESS

At 11.00 a.m.* Columbia's

"3 STOOGES" & TECHNICOLOR CARTOONS

on Giant Screen

EMPIRE

At 12 Noon

| 20th Century-Fox

presents "PRESIDENT'S LADY"

AT REDUCED PRICES!

Susan Hayward

NEW YORK GREAT WORLD

CAUSEWAY BAY, TEL. 78721

KOWLOON. TEL 53500

TO-DAY AT 2.30, 5.30, 7.30 and 9.30 P.M.

THE FUNNIEOT MAN OF THEM ALLI

CHARLIE CHAPLIN

THE FUNNIEST MOVIE OF THEM ALLI

"MODERN TIMES

Willien, Directed and Pachuted by CHARLES CHAPLIN - Raioased then UNITED ARTISTS

HOOVER: LIBERTY

CAUSEWAY BAY TEL.72371-

5

KOWLOON

TEL. 50333

NOW PLAYING

AT 2.30, 5.30, 7.30 & 9,30 P.M... "It has all the chill and intensity of High Noon."

*-—-— Hellywood Rapuster" M-G-M-##[5[NTS IN COLOR

CINEMASCOPE.

SPENCER TRACY ROBERT RYAN

BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK ANNE FRANCES DEAN JAGGER WALTER BRENNAN JOHN ERICSON

ERNEST BOCCHINE LEE MARYEN - RUSSELL, COLLENS Just the Way it Happened!

With Perspecta Stereophonic Sound!

Performances on Sunday Apr. 24

FIRST MATINÉE ROOVER # 1200 — LIBERTA 1230.

THE

CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 1955.

FILMS-CURRENT AND COMING

will

The Country Girl' probably not 'amuse you at all if you are one of his devoted fans, expecting to see the usual happy-go-lucky chap, quick with a quip or a song and friends, with everybody.

There's a hint of the old shy charm when we first meet f

a has-been actor being audition- ed for the starring · part in a new show, but it soch disap- pears.

Before he comes on to

the stage to run through, father pathetically. bis corny act, the director

of the show, Wiluam Holden (and the

ht only person the audidon who is on his sider ails in a thumbnall sketch of the one-time success for

the pro-

I benefit of, the DAY.

ducer. Drink

been his downfall, but Holden works hard to convince his sceptical colleagues that he knows the man has it in him to be great in the part, and finally wing his case on the under- standing that the responsibility is entirely his.

From there on to the end of the picture, whether Bing Crosby, William Helden or Grace Kelly are holding the centre of the stage, it is Crosby's behaviour. Crosby's past, Crashy's charac ter that motivate the action. alfident assurance

his mood changes,

From

at

the audition "partment' to one

in his of self doubting humility. He's still at this stage a sympathetic character though, and his dowdy wife, Grace Kelly, registers as a nagging watchdog worrying at his self respect and snapping at his attempts to rise to the sense of responsibility he apparently once possessed.

Antagonism

There is antagonism from the start between William Holden and this wife he feels to be the cause of her husband's degrada- tion, and the tension mounts slowly to the climax in which she lets herself go in a burst of tury which must have been the deciding factor in the Academy Award judgment;

By JANE ROBERTS

A scene from "The Country Girl"

com-

Other roles

are taken

tion" and many of the shots are bviously the result of an inbet- ligent study of the best methods. of other film directors. The lighting in some of the interior scenes could have been better, but I can think of no more effective way of emphasising the importance of the time factor in one scene than by shooting it from behind

swinging pendulum.

Battling Marines

- In Any story, about the US Marines there is always a mis- understood fellow who attacks the tender feelings and sjack muscles of raw recruit and sta

Ard soned fighter impartially, gets himself thoroughly disliked of throughout three quarters. the picture, to be vindicated in the last reel by the invulner- ability of the fighting machine his insults have helped to pro- duct,

Filling this essential role in "Battle Cry" is James Whit- more, with, "as some of his re- luctant pupils, Tab Hunter. Aldo Ray and John Lupton. Various Warner Brothers starlets plicate their lives for them and in lofty dominion over all is

com-

off the train, We, together with the curiously watchful

by munity, are not let into the Robert Ryan, a fairly conver- secret of why he has come, but tonal western tough boy with Raymond Massey as the Cen- although our consciences are Ernest Borgnine as his eu eral. Somewhere in between, the Battalion clear, the Black Rock dwellers tenant, and Lee Marvin speak- Van Hefin, as

his Marines are certainly rot,

the ing softly as a simple minded Commander leads and stranger's coming is most

Anne in the assault on Saipan... yet menacing cowboy, Francis, with a small part, 19 welcome.

the only, woman in the picture. An Imaginative

un

distaste and picks his way across to the little.

group silently watching from the porch of the only hotel

Chinese Film

Racing Thrills

Bella Darvi, and the driver, Kirk Douglas. They take a long time to make up their minds for real feelings about their each other and the audience is torn from the exciting racing to watch interminable tiffs; tears, meetings and partings.

Placed right on the flat floor of the desert with the towering mountains, although some miles

"The track scenes are the best away, planted like a forbidding

The of The Racers". Part circle of fates around it. Black Rock's

scorched mair

thrills come thick and fast and street flanks the railway down which

while the cars are strapping for the trains

scream their way The Lee theatre is showing twists in the road and letting position. negotiating the tricky without stopping. On the first Chinese picture, the English

out to full speed day since 1941 that one of these tile of which is "Tradition, if the engines streamlined, monsters has come you are familiar

the on the straight, there's never a with

the dull moment. to a halt at the whistle, stop, a Chinese cinema you will re stocky man dressed

city engnise in it the usual features Not as interesting is the love clothes gets off, locks around ef

ground of fghting, the family him at the shanty town, with this form of drama-the back. affair between the ballet dancer, strife when the all-powerful father introduces an adopted son into the household, the tremen- dous family loyalty influencing every aspect of Chinese life and Semething is worrying them the final scene in which most of He cannot get a helpful answer the principals kill each other off to any questica he asks, regard as the result of jealousy Katy Jurado less of how simple and harmless wounded honour and affronted Romero are the second couple it appears. In spite of its family pride.

and in my opinion, more worth This is a well made flm obvious emptiness, he is told that

the hotel It is difficult to

the watching than the others. Katy with three competent players tot a single room. in

him, even for a acting in a foreign picture it Jurado has a fascinating per in the starring roles, but al- can be rented though

I enjoyed if, it must few hours. Deliberate attempts one's understanding of the lan- senality which comes over well

art made to provoke him into a guage is limited to reading the on the screen.

The scenery is superb, need- have been

English sub-titles, but photo- better a

Оп the "stage

that the operator characterisation, and

the cutters

has been of CinemaScope weak

of charge of the cable office is un matter, Imagination and warped mind Bing Crosby, the disillusioned der the influence of the mest used in the making of Tradi- ways be relied on loyalty of Grace Kelly and the dangerous of the town's peculiar this connection citizens. With 01 one-purpose directness William Holden would have with the outside world severed, come over better In a stage access to the telephine denied production, necessarily stripped ham and all his requests for the of the eluttering intrusions of loan of a car refused, Spencer ather show peopic, night club Tracy begins to realise that without a word of explanation singers, and fashbacks,

on either side, the inhabitants of Black Rock are circling for the kill-and he is the victim.

Επι

assess

and

Cesar

QUEEN'S & ALHAMBRA

SPECIAL TIMES: 230, 5.10, 7.20 & 9.40 P.M.

CINEMASCOPE

TRACK HIGH-HALTET STIRÊVIPHANIE MUNDI

Battle Cry

TO-MORROW MORNING SHOWS QUEEN'S

5 SHOWS "Battle Cry"

EXTRA PERFORMANCE

AT 11.30. A.M......

people

love

battle

away!

ALHAMBRA

At 11.30 am, Only M-G-M's

Tom & Jerry Cartoons

In CinemaScope REDUCED PRICES!

ROX V & BROADWAY

★ SHOWING TO-DAY Owing to length of picture please note change of times? AT 2.30, 5.20, 7,30 & 9.40 P.M.

· ENTERTAINMENT THRILL OF THE SEASON!"

KIRK

20th Century Fox presents ;

BELLA GILBERT

DOUGLAS DARVI ROLAND

THE

all the emphasis is show of temper, arid agera bodiny graphic standards are a different less to say this is the asper RACERS

Bing Crosby, good though he is as the drunkard, does not quite present us with a charue- ter. He speaks the lines, given hum with the appropriate ex- pression and makes the correct gestures. but he

never quite succeeds in getting outside the personality 0. pleasant Bing playing a rotter.

A Suspense Picture

The absence of action in the first half of the picture does oct old make it slow and the step by..

step revelation of the make-up of the various characters pro

1he suspense without lergy weakening the climax.

At the beginning, and in the court scene in which she bails Crosby out after a night of Tracy himself, an enigma frém drinking, Grace Kelly hits the the start, begins to arouse cur note of reluctant loyalty she suspicions at one point, in spite

was obviously striving for and of his disinclination to fight and

If she had been able to sustain his apparent reasonableness

it,

hers would have been

2

really great performance..

William Holden's wasn't meant to be the pivotal part, and Hke the good all round actor he is, he is content mere- ly to support the other two,

A Western With

Only One Woman

in

the face of the hostility of the town, but because he is opposed by the two main villains' of the picee, the moment passes and we are prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt,

I deliberately use the word "Villains"

is as there

little light and shade in the person-. alities. This is a suspense picture with the emphasis op atmosphere rather than on the interplay of temperament, and the violence of the action which "Bad Day At Black Rock" flares up in the latter part of little of its is divided into two parts. The the picture loses a

because it Involves first consists of a calculated impact tenseness conveyed by a brood- stock types rather than living

ing. abnosphere of suspicion, people good performances, In

with the unspoken threats in the

air gradually building to climax.

鼈

spite

of this, come from

and After this the tension Spencer Tracy

breaks, as the suspicions are Brennan.

Walter

voiced and the threats made Brennan, after having shown good, and overflows into the how good he second part, which js pure "Kentucky" and "The Wester-

the first

could be in

that

can al-

The New Films At A Glance

SHOWING

EMPIRE, KING'S and PRINCESS: "The Country Giri". Two people fighting to restore the, self-respect of a drunken actor. Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and William Holden.

Dis.

HOOVER and LIBERTY; "Bad Day At Black Rock”.

mounting at a whistle stop in America's south-west, a stranger stumbles on a four-year-old mystery. Spencer

Robert Ryan, Dean Jagger and Walter Brennan. LEE: "Tradition". Love, loyalty and betrayal during the Sino-Japanese war. A Chinese picture with English

ab-itles,

NEW YORK and GREAT WORLD: "Modern Times". The world famous clown playing in one of the pictures that him famous. Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard. QUEEN'S and ALHAMBRA: "Batile Cry". The US Marines.

in duty and play-time between 1942 and 1944.

"The Racers", BOXY and BROADWAY:

The Hves and loves of the men who live for the excitement of car racing. Kirk Douglas, Bella Darvi, Cesar Romero and Katy Jurado,

COMING

"Three Ring Circus": Martin and Lewis on the loose in a circus. Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Zsa Zsa Gabor' and Joanne Dra. HOOVER and LIBERTY: "Secret Island”. · Anglo-American co-operation in a research scheme. Gene Kelly and John Justin..

EMPIRE, KING'S and PRINCESS:

LEE: "Front Page Story". A day in the life of a prominent London newspaper, Jack Hawkins, Elizabeth Allan and Eva Bartok.

NEW YORK and GREAT WORLD: .. "The Titfeld Thunder- bolt". An English village runs Its own train service. Stanley Holloway, John Gregson and Naunton Wayne. HOXY and BROADWAY: "Martin Luther””.

DRIENTAL

AIR CONDITIONED

3.SHOWS TO-DAY 2.30-8.00 & 9,00 μm.

gun ner has not been served foo 4-TRACK STEREOPHONIC SOUND — and

Well in recent pictures and it

action of variety..

is pleasant to see that he has Spencer Tracy is the man not lost his sureness of touch around whom all this bad feck-in spite of his spell of medio Ing revolves. A bitter, disillu- 'crity. His role this time is sioned ex-serviceman he has that of the cynical doctor who only intended to spend a few proves to be the conscience of hours in the tiny town of Black the weak-willed sheriff, play- Rock when, he first gets ed by Dean Jagger:

LEE Theatre

AIR-CONDITIONED AND

OZONIZED

TO-DAY AT 2.30, 5.30, 7.30 & 9.30 P.M. CHANG KUO-SIN · Présents

Tradition

5

WITH CNGLISH SUBTITLES

bogwund Becs.

WIDE SCREEN!

STAR IS BORN GARLAND MASON

Teracolor 1-4. STEREOPHONIC SOU JACK CARDON CHARLES BICKFORD

SPECIAL MORNING SHOW TO-MORROW AT 12.30 p.m. Robert Taylor in "ABOVE AND BEYOND” M-G-M_Film.

SHOWING

· TO-DAY

AT 2.30, 5.20, MAJESTIC 7.30 9.30

OTTO PREMINGER presents OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN'S

P.M.

CARMEN JONES

DEL CINEMASCOPE

SPECIAL MORNING SHOW TO MORROW AT 12.30 p.m. GARY COOPER "SPRINGFIELD RIFLE" Color by Warner Color At Reduced Prices".

in

CINEMASCOPE

Color by DE LUXE

la the WONDER of 4-Track, HIGH-FIDELITY, STEREOPHONIC SOUND! -ADDED_ATTRACTION! CINEMASCOPE Short Subject "BIRTHDAY PARADE" In GLORIOUS COLOUR. Book Early To Avoid Disappointment!

TO-MORROW MORNING SHOW ROXY: At 12.00 Noon || BROADWAY; At 12.30 p.m. 20th Century-Fox Presents

A SELECTED PROGRAMME OF TECHNICOLOR CARTOONS

Reduced Admission

Roxy: $1.50, $1.00 & 70 Cts. Broadway: $1.20 & 70°Cts.

Capitol

TO-DAY AT 2.30, 5.30, 7.30 & 9.30 P.M. ON PANORAMIC SCREEN.

DAWN AT SOCORRO

TECHNICOLOR

RORY CALHOUN PIPER LAURIE

DAVID BRIAN-KATHLEEN HUGHES-ALEX NICEL

SUNDAY MORNING SHOW AT 12.30 P.M.

1. Arthur Rank presents "THE MILLION POUND NOTE". with Gregory Peck

in Technicolor

RITZ

SHOWING TO-DAY

AT 2.30, 5.30, 7.30 & 9.30 P.M.

JAMES CAGNEY

WITS NEW HEIGHTS IN HIS NEW WARNER HIT

WHITE HEAT

MAYO

EDMOND OBRIENS

WALSH