"SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON."

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 109, 9 May 1940, Page 12

"SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON."

ATTRACTION AT THE CIVIC. What boy or girl of years ago did not enjoy the adventures of the Swiss Family Robinson whose experience on the seemingly desert island contained all that the normal child —or adult for that matter— ever wished for? The characters who entertained us then and who still entertain thousands of people the world over arc brought to life on celluloid in "Swiss Family Robinson," which opens 'a season at the Civic Theatre to-morrow. This picture carries out the name as was observed in the famous Johaim David Wyss book and no liberties have been taken with the plot. It ie primarily a story of exciting adventure with natural catastrophe the only villain in the piece. KfTects of enforced hardships on tho characters are clearly traced and there is more than a satiefactory decree of humour, much of this deriving from the incidents with turtles, an ostrich and other wild life encountered on the island. Then. too. how the family made their island dwelling and improvised all the means by which shipwreck meant delivery into a tropical paradise makes for continued interest and resurrects all those thrills that the etory brought to us when we read it years ago. Thomas Mitchell and Edna Best, with the ever-popular Freddie Bartholomew, take the leading parts in one of the finest films that have been shown here—and one that is guaranteed to give a temporary "escape" from the crowding troubles of A war-stricken world.