Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Wednesday 5 June 1946, page 8


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By BEÀUCAIRE

THOSE WHO ARGUE that Aus-

tralian - made pictures have never made a hit in this coun-

try are given the lie direct by facts and figures put up by Pat Hanna, famous Digger comedian of the 1914

18 war.

Pat told me "during the week that his old films, Waltzing Matilda and Diggers in Blighty, were being re-vived in the suburbs with enormous success. So much so that he had

dug out a copy of "the still older Diggers, and was now giving that a rerun. Pat stated that he had ac. quired the rights of old Efftee films,

such as His Royal Highness, and these were also proving successful

revivals.

Diggers in Blighty still holds the long-run record at Hoyts De Luxe.

.

The sensational Scarlet Street, Uni-versal shocker, with Joan Bennett, Edward G. Robinson, and Dan Duryea, has been smashing records in Sydney. It has surpassed boxoffice receipts previously held by Pygmalion.

.

Thea Rowe, who characterises Brit-ish folk songs at the Assembly Hall, go.t the re^gtion every artist dreams of when slfe visited St Catherine's school recently. The younger girls were so carried away by her singing of the old nursery rhyme Christmas Is Coming that when she got to the part "Please to put a penny in the old man's hat," the children crowded up round her and solemnly dropped imaginary pennies into the hat she held out in front of her.

t Miss Rowe got quite a different re-

action from the same song when,

POTTED ADVICE:

-fc+C-Mc My choice or the week. -|t-fc Well worth seeing.

+C-M< Don't miss it. ?¥. *"¡»ir average quality.

THE SONG OP BERNADETTE-PLAZA (Religious Drama) .. i^ici^iç WATCH ON THE RHINE-KING'S (Human Drama). i^kiK SARATOGA TRUNK-CAPITOL (Romantic Drama). ifkit A SONG TO REMEMBER-SAVOY (Musical Romance) .... -jtitir: THE LOST WEEKEND-STATE (Psychological Drama) .. .. jfif MADONNA OP THE SEVEN MOONS--ATHENAEUK (Drama) ^-fc ANCHORS AWEIGH-METRO (Novelty Musical). ** THE STORK CLUB-MAJESTIC (Night Club Romance) .. .. ** SALOME, WHERE SHE DANCED-PRINCESS (Adventure) . ^fc-fc DEAD OP NIGHT-GROSVENOR (Macabre Drama). -fc A BELL FOR ADANO-LYCEUM (War Psychology) . it;

New Films Not Yet Reviewed:^«>H%^

ADVENTURE-ST JAMES (Action Drama).

GOODNIGHT, SWEETHEART-LIBERTY (Musical).

EXPERIMENT PERILOUS-DE LUXE (Psychological Drama).

on tour for the Army Education Service, she put it over for men of the malarial research station at Cairns. A prolonged roar of laugh-ter broke out when she field out her hat to an officer io characterise the

words, "If you haven't got a penny, a, farthing will ' do." She discovered later the officer's name was Farth-ing!

.

Max Oldaker, playing the leading part of Rudi Kleber in the coining musical for His Majesty's, Dancing

Years, has planned to write, one day, his autobiography.

But he has gone about the job much more systematically than most of us. So as to keep tab on his ac-tivities in the theatre since he left Devonport,'Tasmania, for England, in 1931, he has written regular and comprehensive letters home to his folk. These, he told me over lunch this week, have been carefully filed by his parents so that they will be alLready to hand when he starts on . the job of writing.

Melbourne will hear Max Oldaker

play the piano for the first time in Dancing Years. Max stated that he did a- fair bit of accompanying in England while playing summer sea-

sons in seaside towns.

While tenor vocalist at the Sun-shine Theatre, on the Isle of Wight he played piano solos as part of a stunt programme in which all artists were asked to perform on their favourite instruments. The soprano played very beautifully on the cello. Contribution by the comedian. .Arthur Askey, was an exercise for

solo larynx on a glass of beer!

.

One of the most-discussed actresses i« Melbourne at the moment is middle-aged Lucile Watson. Her de-lightful byplay and polished hand-ling of her comedy lines as the fussy American mother in Watch On The Rhine have brought her more into the limelight than the princi-pals, Bette Davis and Paul Lukas.

Lucile Watson has starred in 45 stage plays in London, Paris, and New York. She played in Watch On The Rhine on Broadway before playing in the film version. She also has an important part in the coming International picture, To-morrow Is Forever, with Claudette Colbert, Orson Welles, and George

Brent.

.

Lucille Bremer and Fred Astaire, whose surrealist dance number is one ol' the few bright spots of Yolanda and the Thief, are featured in two more novel dance sequences in Ziegfeld Follies, lavish technicolour revue for the Metro. One of these is a dramatic pantomime version of Limehouse Blues. The other is a lush affair done to This Heart 0/

Mine.

This lissome 'redhead is the most attractive and suitable partner Fred . has found since he parted with Ginger Rogers.

.

Girls who have pined for the heman charms of Clark Gable during his wartime absence from the screen will be all a-flutter at his return to Melbourne in Adventure at the St James.

This is Clark's first picture since his return from service as a major in the "US Army air forces. It is also the first time he has co-starred with Greer Garson.

.

Picture viewing under difficulties is experienced at a couple of our Bourke st theatres 'because of the behaviour of certain little boys. The comments and rude noises they hurl at love-interest sequences make bad hearing in more ways than one.

If the film is too boring, they scam-per lightheartedly between the seats and indulge in merry horseplay. Dur-ing the week the recurring, prod-ding pains I felt at the base of the neck I eventually traced to two small boys creeping between seats and digging at patrons as they went.

This could be forgiven-but not the ' hunk of chewing gum I am still try- ' ing to scrape from the seat of a pair of light grey trousers I was wearing

for the first time!

On the same day, but in another picture show, I dropped a scarf as I left. In the few seconds it took me to turn back to pick it up, it had gone with the wind! Anyone dis-covering a burgundy scarf with a depressed appearance, just the sort you'd imagine belonged to a film critic, please tell 'it to return home and all will be forgiven.