"THE LADYANDTHE MONSTER" AT THE IMPERIAL NEXT WEEK At the Imperial next Sunday will be “Hat’s Off.” Added, select ed short subjects. Monday and Tuesday the feature will be “The Lady and the Mon ster.” This picture deals with thrill-seeking parents who neglect their children and then wonder why their offsprings get into dif ficulties. William Night turned in a good job of directing, while Pro ducer Jeffrey Bernerd’s showman ship makes itself felt. Noel Neill, who has been under contract to Paramount, does splendid work as the daughter, who has been neglected by her twice-rnarried mother, Helen Vin son. Richard Byron, recruited from the New York stage, gives a con vincing performance as the son of Anthony Warde, an important de fense plant man, who neglects Richard. Helen Vincent, Lyle Talbot, Ad dison Richards, Ivan Lebedeff, Emmett Vogan, Claire McDowell and Ian Wolfe furnish their usual reliable performances, while John Calvert, the magician, makes a good impression in his initial screen appearance. Jean Carlin is seen to good advantage. Bored with her finishing school routine and neglected by her mother, Helen Vinson, a career ■woman, Noel Neill goes to a road house, which is raided by the po lice. She escapes, but Addison Richards, juvenile officer, learns ©f it and informs Miss Vinson of the escapade. Starved for affection Noel meets Ivan Lebedeff, violinist and night club owner, who has been making love to her mother. Ivan had promised to marry Jean Carlin, but when Jean’s father, John Calvert, learns Lebedeff had been toying with his daughter, he murders him. Suspicion is placed on Noel and Richard Byron, who had fallen in love with her, but Richards re ports the real murderer has been found. The program at the Imperial Wednesday and Thursday will be “Are These Our Parents?” starring Helen Vinson and Lyle Talbot. The story is a far-fetched affair ac ceptable only because departure from reality is to be forgiven in melodramatic entertainment of^the type under discussion. In an at tempt to heighten the sinister mood of the story the production has been directed at a slow, de liberate pace by George Sherman, who also functioned as associate producer. Plot developments result trom the attempt of Erich von Stroheim, satanic man of science to prove that the human brain can be kept functioning alter death with the aid of a machine invented by his assistant, Richard Arlen. Von Stro heim swipes the brain of a plane accident victim, a brilliant but ruthless individual in his lifetime, and. submits it to the test. Through the use of telepathy von Stroheim | places Arlen under the influence of the brain, causing the latter to take on the personality of the dead man and indulging in crim inal deeds alien to his nature. Aghast, Vera Hruba Ralston, Ar len’s fiancee and von Stroheim’s ward, tries to put a halt to the experiment. Arlen, finally shaking off the spell, defies von Stroheim with the assistance of Miss Ral ston. The film winds up with a slam-bang fight between hero and villain in which the brain is put out of operation. Miss Ralston, Czechoslovakian skating star who has been featur ed in Republic’s ice extravaganzas, performs appealingly in her first straight role. Arlen and von Stro heim discharge their assignments well. A brief but telling appear ance is made by Helen Vinson as the widow of the man who was brained. Mary Nash, Sidney Black mer and Bill Henry are some of the others in lesser roles. Friday and Saturday, “Riders of the Rockies,” with Tex Ritter. Mrs. B. W. Hardy left last Sat urday to spend a few days at Wilmington and Carolina Beach with her son. Mrs. R. M. Bardin is convalesc ing after an appendectomy opera tion last week. Allen Is Member Ordnance Outfit With the Fifth Army, Italy After playing “Jack-cf-all-trades” from Egypt to Rome, a Fifth Army prdnance company of which Corporal John D. Allen, son of Mrs. Edith S. Allen, who lives in Roanoke Rapids, is a member re cently completed its second year overseas. Starting at the Suez Canal in June, 1942, the company salvaged and serviced tanks, trucks and guns for the British Eighth Army across North Africa to Bizerte, and for the Fifth Army from Sa lerno to the Anzio beachhead to Rome and northwards. Veteran ordnance men, they repair every thing in their machine shops from 45 ton tank trailers to wrist watches. Frequently they go into the front lines at night and work on tank engines while under enemy fire. For such outstanding work on the Anzio beachhead the unit was awarded the Fifth Army Plaque of Excellence. The local soldier also was awarded the red and white Good Conduct Ribbon for efficiency and exemplary be havior. — .1 — ——— I Lloyd L. Ennis Finishes Course F/O Lloyd L. Ennis, son of Mrs. J. E. Lynch, 307 Monroe street, Roanoke Rapids, recently com pleted an orientation course de signed to bridge the gap between training in the states and combat soldiering against the enemy in France. He is stationed at an Air Service Command Base "somewhere” in England. Major and Mrs. E. B. Cannon, of New Orleans, La., are spending a few days here with Mr. and Mrs. L. S. Cannon. 'ADVENTURES OF MARK TWAIN' AT PEOPLES THEATRE SUNDAY The Peoples Theatre will offer for its feature picture next Sun day, Monday and Tuesday, “Ad ventures of Mark Twain.’’ Here is a big-scale effort and a mg-time show, executing with fidelity and conviction of accuracy the home spun characteristics of one of the most homespun of native sons— Samuel B. Clemens, as Mark Twain, as he was better known throughout the engirdled globe. He was born when Halley’s Com et streaked across the sky and he died 75 years later when the comet, on celestial schedule, re appeared. Between boyhood days along the Mississippi, the then raw stretches of the unpeopled West and Twain’s rise to domestic and international fame was a story of drama. This meant, of course, that Mark Twain passed through those variable experiences which make for happiness and sorrow. With him, however, there was the good fortune which a sense of humor imparts. Clemens, or Twain, had it as well as all sundry are aware. The filmed story of his life has it and audiences are about to get it for their enjoyment and vast satis faction. This biography, drawn almost entirely from the factual, starts with Clemens’ birth, carries him through happy childhood times on and along the Mississippi, but mostly on. It tells of ’ the despair of his mother over his future, of his ambition to become a river pilot, which he achieves; of how he falls in love with a miniature of Alexis Smith whom he ulti mately marries. It continues with his gold-seeking adventures in new country where he had repaired to roughen his honest edges with money he felt necessary before seeking .the girl's nanu tuiu ul how both of them travel down the pathways of renown to his finally established position in the worfd of American and world-wide let ters. Wednesday and Thursday at the Peoples, Marjorie Reynilds and Dennis O’Keefe, in “Up In BaW'l’s Room.” The story, of course, is the one about the bridegroom who tries to keep his wife from knowing about an intimate present he gave, |j!me years before his marriage, to a. woman now engaged to marry his friend. Two other happy marriages and one romance are nearly wrecked before the husband’s fumbling attempts to convinc^^.is wife and mother-in-law of his in nocence succeed. The principals in the cast all handle their parts competently, al though striving at times too ijmch. for reality which never is Orally necessary. Mischa Auer’s zany an tics are a relief for those seek ing more modern comedy. The sets and women’s gowns are lavish, - % Friday, “The Ghost Ship.” Dix, sea captain, realizes something is wrong and that perhaps he’s going insane because of things that oc cur for which he feels lie^rnay be responsible, but of whiOT^ he has no knowledge. Wade is the first to suspect him. Unable to convince anyone, Wade nearly meets his end as have several others in horrible mystjtious deaths, only to be saved by’the mute Finn. But the captain is killed in a bloody knife battle with the Finn. DAVIS GRADE ONE TIRES Brand New, First line, Top Qual ity. Deep, Tough, Non-Skid Tread. Select Steel Bead Wire. Strong, tour-ply, easy-riding sidewalls. Product of America’s Finest Engl •wfflng and Industrial SkllL EARMAN'S Western A. A. Store 6-15-44 PEOPLES SUN. - MON. - TUES Fredric March - Alexis Smith ADVENTURES OF MARK TWAIN Added: Latest News WED. - THURS. Marjorie Reynolds - Dennis O’Keefe UP IN MABEL'S ROOM Added: Selected Short Subjects FRIDAY Richard Dix - Edith Barrett THE GHOST SHIP Added: Selected Short Subjects SATURDAY Gene Autry OH, SUSANNA Added: The Desert Hawk fMPCQfAft.ll Summer Operating Policy Admission: Matinee and Night 10c and 21c Plus Tax SUNDAY HAT'S OFF Added: Selected Short Subjects MON. - TUES. Vera Ralston - Richard Arlen • 11 THE LADY AND THE MONSTER Added: Latest News * WED. - THURS. Helen Vinson - Lyle Talbot J': ARE THESE OUR PARENTS? c Added: Latest News FRI. - SAT. © Tex Ritter RIDERS OF THE ROCKIES e i Added: The Tiger Woman S' i