RED INDIAN CLASSIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 238, 8 October 1936, Page 5

RED INDIAN CLASSIC.

REGENT'S FRIDAY ATTRACTION.

About a year ago two comparatively youthful and ambitious motion picture producers dug the familiar " Count of Monte Cristo " from the library shelves and made it into one of the major screen sensations of the year, making its leading actor, Robert Donat, a star of the first magnitude and their company a new force in the industry. To-day this pair, with a number of screen successes to their credit, are returning with another familiar classic, James Fenimore Cooper's Western story, " The Last of the Mohicans," which comes tomorrow to the Regent Theatre. The producers argue that wh?t has delighted millions of people in the book form will delight more millions in a good cinema adaption. The elements of surprise, suspense, hair-breadth escapes, the lone scout battling his way through hordes of savage enemies, the chase, the dramatic hand-to-hand combat ... in fact, all the elements that go to make an outdoor film one that will provide real entertainment are claimed to be introduced in the film version of the Cooper masterpiece. . " The Last of the Mohicans is certainly one of the greatest books of its kind e\er written, and it has been translated into a score of languages. Its chief charactei'6, Hawkeye, Uncas, and Magna are fullblooded characters, familiar and alive. Even the lesser figures, General Montcalm, Colonel Monro, and the ancient sachems of the Delaware, were carefully depicted by Cooper, a master of narrative. The cast comprises a number of popular players, headed by Randolph Scott, Binnie Barnes, Henry Wilcoxori, Bruce Cabot, Heather Angel, Philip Reed and Robert Barrat. The familiarity of the story has caused the producers to translate the story very close to the original in the film version and the careful background and fidelity of character necessary in the filming of a wellknown classic have been well observed.