MISUNDERSTOOD STAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 35, 11 February 1937, Page 11

MISUNDERSTOOD STAR.

BRILLIANT TALLULAH BANKHEAD.

Most great personalities of the stage have received a distinct set-back when Hollywood took them in hand, but few received it to such an extent as did Tallulah Bankhead. Daughter of an American Senator, now chairman of the Senate, she flashed to international fame on Broadway and in the West End before the glamorous cinema called. She went to Hollywood and stayed to make half a dozen films, of which only one, "The Devil and the Deep," which is to be reissued in Auckland at the Majestic Theatre to-mor-row, anywhere nearly approached the standard her talents and fame demanded. She reached the zenith of her popularity on the English stage, where she is even now* known as "our Taloo." At the moment of writing she has just taken her latest Broadway play success to London.

The action of "The Devil and the Deep" is set in a email port on the north coast of Africa, where Miss Bankhead's husband. a role played by Charles Laughton. the brilliant British character actor, is stationed as a commander of a submarine. Though Laughton is affable and genial in social life, at home he is extremely jealous ' of his wife. Into this powerful situation steps Gary Cooper, in a strange and compromising manner. He and Miss Bankhead fall in love, and when Laughton discovers the fact, he plans revenge. A highly dramatic climax develops for the trio.