“GUNNER GEORGE.”

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 112, 21 February 1941, Page 8

“GUNNER GEORGE.”

FORMBY TO THE FORE IN FUN RIOT. Never before lias the world been in snob dire need of laughter—the kind of laughter which springs wholeheartedly from the antics of the characters presented on the screen. To-day, more than ever, people on both sides of the Atlantic and in Australasia look to the motion picture industry to take them away from the grim realisation of the conflict. During the last war pictures.were to a great extent.‘in their infancy. The theatre was still the strongest force in entertainment - and yet from the crude attempts of that time, a film character became famous. The British soldier of that day speaks of Charlie Chaplin with a deep sense of gratitude. He not only provided a figure of fun at which disillusioned people could laugh ; he not only created a fantasy world in which.tired minds could escape; he became the most important psychological factor in the morale of the army man. To-day, another Englishman, in George Form by, has taken on the mantle of the inimitable Chaplin. His popularity with the fighting men is undoubted, as was proved when he recently undertook an entertainment itinerary of the military camps in England. And in “Gunner George” his latest naughtical mirthquake, he is just as successful as a mirth-provoker as Chaplin, was in “Shoulder Arms.”