ST. JAMES THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 113, 6 February 1937, Page 13

ST. JAMES THEATRE

“Uncivilised” The name of Charles Chauvel first became known among picture-goers in hew Zealand as that of the director ot In the Wake of the Bounty, and the pioduetion of several other pictures in the intervening years has gained for bun tM reputation of a maker ot unusual films in wild places of the Pacific and Australia. "Uncivilised,” which was shown at the St. James Theatre last night, is such n picture.. It is as different 08 possible from the previous Australian films that have had city and pastoral settings. Ihe few city shots are essential to the plot, but really serve as contrast to the mam setting on the north-west coast of the island continent. Those who see Uncivilised” see the Australian aboriginal in his home. The camera follows the footprints of the camels across the desert and into the hunting grounds of the blacks. The weird dances of the natives —startling white figures that stamp, Quiver and convulse to. the interminable drugging rhythm of drums —alone would distinguish the picture, but the story is the main interest. For long there were rumours of a White woman captive among the blacks of the north-west, and it was probably those rumours which gave the author the idea. The plot might be considered far-fetched, but the idea has been given credence by many. To get material for a now novel Beatrice Lynu, an author whose recent novels have failed to find popularity because her heroes have been “ordinary men,” goes to the north-west coast in search of a white man who is said to rule a tribe of blacks there. She is barely approaching his country when she is kidnapped by an Afghan camel driver who, although a slimy customer, frankly informs her that he intends to sell her to the white chief for the advantage of trading in drug in his country. With the aid of blacks and their canoes he quickly puts a month's travel between himself and the mounted police, who are on their trail, and delivers her to the chief. The white chief, a son of missionaries who has been living with the blacks ever since childhood and who knows hardly anything of the ways of civilisation, still respects his white blood. Partly because of this and partly to maintain the respect of the natives he must have a white lubra. To him the girl he is brought seems almost too beautiful for him to touch, while she is repelled by him. The situation is rather more than she bargained for. The arrival of the opium smuggler who had sent a Malay girl to win the affection of the white chief and the secret of his hoard of rubies, into which intrigue the Afghan enters, brings about the white girl’s head added complications with many a tense moment, the climax coming with a battle between two tribes and a strange denouement. Dennis Hoey is the white chief, Margot Rhys the white girl. Both photography and direction are workmanlike. The programme includes several gazettes and a cartoon.