VIVID MELODRAMA

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 173, 19 April 1937, Page 5

VIVID MELODRAMA

“Michael Strogoff” Screened Privately screened last night at the State Theatre, “Michael Strogoff,” an R.K.O. production booked for early release in Wellington, proved itself a production of exceptional dimensions. The well-known Jules Verne novel of old-time Russia makes ideal material for fastmoving red-blooded romance, and full advantage has been taken by producers and directors of the wealth of opportunity in the story for action and spectacle. Michael Strogoff. played by a new and interesting Viennese star, Anton Walbrook, is sent by the Tsar with dispatches to an army beleaguered by rebellious Tartars. The tale is n vivid diary of his adventures, which include escape from a massacre, capture on, a battlefield, torture at the hands of the temporarily victorious Tartars, and finally terrific single combat with the Tai-far leader, whose death at Strogoff’s hands saves the day. So impressive is the scope of this film,, os big and realistic the backgrounds against which the story is told, that t-he melodrama does not pall. The film liegins as an exciting adventure in the grand manner, sustaining and oven enlarging on that note until the very end. Fay Bainter, a new character actress of quiet skill. Margot Grahame and Akim Tamiroff are others in a notable cast.