"LABURNUM GROVE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 196, 19 August 1936, Page 15

"LABURNUM GROVE."

EXCELLENT- PRIESTLEY COMEDY. Rich in eSteJs&itifai'enjt'-'value 1 and remarkable for the English film "Laburnum &pt>ve," shown at. a preview cA't'i s the Embassy, is a picture so fborougb'ly. enjoyable that one s first impulse S/tSScp6"'~go about" telling all his friends j ofoite great qualities. Clean and wholesome, rippling with fun, as English as J a cup of tea, the film is a revelation of the high standards• attained by the British' studios attijeir > best. Edmund and Sir Cedric" Hardjvicke share the honours in the character parte-,, but the tr.tith is. that every' .one of the handful of/'characters is portrayed -jwith, painstaking';fidelity. The plot,; essentially domestic, , with the so typical of '$■?-&' Priestley best-. » It iyas specially for•'"Edniund Gvrenn and Sir Cedric Hardwicke. The former is cast''as a tvpieil Successful 1 London business fast., and, loose with the law^jjnkiloWn'"to his 'family 'and . the people of the eminently respectable North London residential area, who hold him in high regard. Sir Cedric plays the pompous ne'er-do-well brother-in-law, back from the East, who slops through the picture eating •bananas and generally making a nuisance of himself. The feminine characters are. all well cast. Those who enjoyed Priestley's "Good Companions" will find "Laburnum,. Grove" considerably ahead 01 thjt great ; film .• in ..every ' tespect. First J». last a eo.iti£cfe it; has y.e.t . S'the drimatic .which and thetMPlfy. is jnpunded off with anunexpectedl turn whi6h leaves the audience pleasantly surprised and hoping that the worst will not befall the audacious gentleman of -.Grove. 11 i '■ !