"JOURNEY'S END."

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 186, 8 August 1930, Page 9

"JOURNEY'S END."

"Journey's End" the most notable play of the century loses nothing in effectiveness by being transferred to the audible screen. In fact it gains in its gripping power as scenes and incidents are depicted that the stage cannot possibly portray. Glimpses of the trenches, of No Man's land and a raid in which the lovable "Uncle" Osborne is killed, have been made into effective sequences that add much realism to the production. Nothing has been better done for the screen. The acting is magnificent and the production of the fine English - speaking voices \ delightful. While the film was actually made in Hollywood, the cast is entirely British. Colin Olive who made his reputation as Captain Stanhope in the stage play at the Savoy Theatre in London is cast in the same part and his interpretation is magnificent. The whole cast has been admirably selected. This wonderful war drama is a study of individual character —of action and reaction. In addition it is a great lesson of the futility of war and war's great sacrifices. Nobody who witnesses this human drama, played for the most part in a dug-out on the Western front in 1917, ■can fail to be touched as well as thrilled bv the play of human emotions. There is the brave Stanhope, the company commander, whisky-sodden day and night—drinking to forget the fear that he admits is always in his heart—and yet so brave tlmt lie is beloved by all his officers and men. There is Osborne (lan MacLaren), the philosopher. He never shows emotion and when great events are happening outside can calmly read "Alice in Wonderland." The dashing Raleigh, (David Manners) fresh from school, learns early in his soldiering career the horrors of the war. He goes out to almost certain death and his passing iivthe dug-out after being brought in from a raid is a touching incident. Trotter (Billy Bevan) is always happy. He jokes and eats as if nothing was happening; and the audience laughs with him. Hibbert the coward is well portrayed. One of the most dramatic moments is when Stanhope threatens to shoot him as ai deserter if he does not stay "and see it I through." There is everything to C % OI P I mend this film —the acting, the tipli, the detail Sf# K teche screening tafeas over tw p