1941-03-08 — Page 15

Saturday,

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

'March 8, 1941.

13

Charlie Chaplin's Great Satire

"He Stayed For Breakfast "

of the

"He: Stayed for Breakfast" Oddly enough, one introduces one of the favourite police is the waiter himself, and hobbies of Hollywood, a satire now we are all set for Marianne on Communism.

dobunking his Communist theo- ries -

{'Here's to Charlio Melvyn Douglas is the Com.

Marx!" she says)--and oven- munist (but they call him a

tually falling in love with him. Radical) acting as waiter in a Paris cafe to a banker, Maurice How un-Communist Melvyn Duval (Eugene Pallette). The Douglas can be you will judge by banker has annoying personal the line he gives to Loretta habits, such as. drinking coffee Young: "No man is mortal when with his little finger sticking out, you're wearing that dress."

And this so annoys the Com- So we're right back in the munist (apart from his convic- piping days of aristocratic tions) that he shoots at the cup comedy, and to blazes with Kari of coffee and gives the banker a Marx.]" nasty shock.

You will find this very amus He flies to his estranged wife ing, irresponsible, unpolitical Marianne (Loretta Young) for comedy. Loretta, as over, looks consolation (you would think it dewy-eyed and luscious, and consolation enough). But in- Melvyn Douglas is faultlessly In "The Great Dictator," Hynkel and the carpet-bearers most moving cry from the heart, stead, he finds her with a boy funny as the waiter. The film

and It is only fair not to damn friend' (Alan Marshal), and, now being shown at the Lee running to and fro.

There is good fun, too, in a brilliant, if uneven, film be worse still, the police nosing is currently showing at the

cause of it.

around in search of the waiter. King's,

Theatre, Charlie Chaplin Garbitsch's plans to overave the has turned one of man's visitor, Napoloni's seizure of the deadliest weapons upon a limelight, and the Dictators' con- monstrous regime. The re- test for the higher seats and

better camera angles, sult is perhaps the most withering political satire

Politics apart, the film has many things in Chaplin's best

ever published-not forget- manner-his bewilderment in ting Swift.

the plane when his watch keeps popping up out of his pocket His "Adenoid Hynkel" is until he realises he is upside superb. The megalomaniac down; the scene where the Jews Dictator's bubble dance with

menace.

THE GREAT DICTATOR”

“Virginia City"

The good earth, he says, is rich and can provide for every- one. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls-hus "Virginia City," the week-end agent. Alan Hale and Guinn barricaded the world with hate feature at the Queen's and Williams act as "dumb" assis- -hus goose-stepped us into Alhambra, would have been tants to the Yankee spy. misery and bloodshed. To much more entertaining if it had those who can hear me, I say -do not despair.

Yes, Abraham Lincoln does

been shorter. It has plenty of appear at the end of the picture. The misery that has come spectacular action, but is nol upon us is but the passing of strong in characterisation.

reed, the bitterness of mea

who fear the way of human The plot tends too strongly to progress. The hate of men the obvious. However, lovers of will pass, and dictators die, Westerns, if they are not com-| and the power they took from pletely bored with tales of the the people will return to the American Civil War, will find it people. And so long as men

die, liberty will never perish, to their taste.

a geographical globe is in spired. Few could have ex- pected such a devastating parody of Hitler at the

draw lots by eating little pud- microphone, roaring non- dings, one of which is supposed sense which yet suggests the to contain the fatal coin, and original's fanaticism and. Chaplin surreptitiously swallows

coins till he clinks; and the shav

"The Great Dictator" will The story concerns the efforts ing of a terrified customer to a have an extended run at the Lee of a Southern officer to tranship Theatre, on which the owners Billy Gilbert's "Herring" Brahms rhapsody. (Goering), by way of contrast, Controversy will rage chiefly have spent a great deal of money gold from Virginia City held by is wholly farcical, and Henry about the end. Mistaken for the to make it up-to-date and com- the Yankees. He is helped by Daniel's "Garbitsch," steely and Dictator by the army marching forlable in every way. The Julia Hayne, a spy, who falls in subtle, is Goebbels played into Austria, the barber has to theatre will henceforth show love with a Union intelligence pictures; following officer, who hopes to thwart the straight. With the entry of address them. His speech-a first-run Jack Oakie's "Benzino Napoloni" passionate denunciation of force "The Great Dictator" Alfred plan. we are back in the realm of and hatred, delivered in a strong, Hitchcock's

"Rebecca," will be There is a good deal of talk as satire. The Bacterian Dictator's vibrant voice-will be criticised winner,

shown. This picture, adapted well as action, and the spy and train unhappily fails to stop as being out of character..

It is not the Dictator's, nor from Daphne du Maurier's novel, counter spy theme follows fami- opposite the red carpet, and there is a gorgeous mix-up with the dumb little barber's. It is stars Laurence Olivier and Joan liar lines. The main suspense is -the-train-shunting-wildly and Chaplin's. Nevertheless, it is a Fontaine,

Academy Award

whothortho-goldwill through or not.

35080585gratintingly

"THE GREAT DICTATOR

IS HERE

LENART}

LEE

THEATRE

( b )

PERCIVAL

STREET

141

SAAJ

LOAT

FROM TO-DAY

CANTER

THEAIN

CAN TAK

Daily Shows at 2.30, 5.00, 7.20 & 9.40 p.m.

get

Errol Flynn smiles his way in- through. The camera is not too kind to Miriam Hopkins, but she acts well as Julia Hayne.

She Succeeds

Bergner

Glynis Johns, sixteen-year-old ac- Randolph Scott makes a con- steps into stardom by taking over whose picture you see here, vincing Southern officer, and Elisabeth Bergner's part in 49th most of the sympathy goes to Parallel," hotly debated film half- made in Canada, Anishing at Den- him.

ham.

As a guerilla leader who tries)

She's the daughter of Mervyn Johns, Welsh player renowned for the

to steal the gold, Humphrey subtlety of his acting, was in the Bogart is conventionally sound. nim "South Riding," has a delicate, Some humour is supplied by child-like talent rare in Alma. She has played Shakespeare, Barrie, pan- Frank McHugh as an insurance] temline.

Are You Sure?

1.

How many members of Mr Roosevelt's' first Cabinet (1933) are still in office, and who are they?

2. How many British ex-Prime Ministers are still alive? 3. Ceramics is the art of la) wall decoration (b) screen [design (c) pottery,

4. In what well-known novels do these characters appear (a) Svengali (b) Sydney Carton (c) Cigarette (d) Edmond

Dantes?

5. What does "mafficking" mean, and where does the word

come from?

6. What were the former names of Istanbul and Leningrad? 7. Marihuana is the name of (a) a dangerous drug (b) a Mexican dancer (c) a'jungle tribe (d) Japanese "honour" suicide.

8. Why was a sailor known as Jack Tar? 9. Is there a sausage tree? not, what does the phrase mean?

If so, where does it grow? If

10. We speak about a "flock" of sheep. To what animals

or birds do we apply these terms: (a) Gaggio (b) Drove (c) Litter (d) Pack. (o) Cast?

Answors on Paga 14,

the men who

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