NEW PROGRAMMES

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22111, 5 June 1937, Page 19

NEW PROGRAMMES

CIVIC “THE GREAT BARRIER” The powerful drama of the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the ’eighties of last ■ century, forms the central theme of ‘The Great Barrior,” which will be shown at the Civic Theatre commencing next Wednesday. The theatre will be closed on Monday anQ Tuesday for alterations. This film was a great success in Great Britain, where Queen Mary is reported to have seen it twice. In all centres it met with an excellent reception. The cast is headed by Richard Arlen. who is stated to give the best performance of his screen career and he is ably supported by J. Farrell Mac Donald, Lilli Palmer, Barry Mackay. and Antoinette Cellier. The production of the film was undertaken by Gaumont-British Films. 'The story tells how two young men in search of adventure arrive in a email town in Canada on the track of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which is at this time incomplete, but in the late stages of construction. They meet Mary Moody, the daughter of a railway magnate, in whom one of the men quickly becomes interested. Both men are involved in a brawl during the evening at a local tavern, and are arrested and fined 100 dollars each. As they have no money with which to pay. they are forced to work on the railway line in order to raise the money to pay their fine. Hickey, one of the young men, soon shows his ability as a leader of men. and becomes a foreman. Mary does all she can to influence father in his favour, and when a small party is dispatched to prospect for the pass through which the railway is to cross the Rocky Mountains, the two men go with it and encounter great danger and hardships. On the finding of the pass depends the completion of the railway. One of the men is iniured and sacrifices his life to save his companion.

In the construction camp, meanwhile, things are looking ugly, work has stopped on the line and the Government threatens to withdraw its support. Frantic with rage at the nonarrival of their pay, the men revolt and are turning on their bosses when, high in the mountains, they see the rmoke of a beacon signifying that a pass has been found. Hammers swing into action again, nick axes ring out against the rocks as the work proceeds. Hickey is brought down from the mountains to be nursed back to health—and the railway goes through.