NEW PARAMOUNT THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 291, 4 September 1937, Page 13

NEW PARAMOUNT THEATRE

* “Draegerman Courage” and “Love Begins at 20” The main claim to fame of Warner’s “Draegerman Courage,” at the New Paramount Theatre, is that it is based on the recent sensational rescue of two men after they had been entombed for many days in a Nova Scotia mineshaft, and the picture is accordingly dedicated to the miners of Canada and. the U.S.A. Topicality alone is seldom sufficient to make a film worth seeing, though it often provides a good working basis, and in this particular case there is scope for strong drama and. suspense in the scenes of the rescue, with the “draegermen” (the Nova Scotian term for miners) working feverishly to dig through to their comrades, while others bore a pipe-line down which food and a telephone wire is passed to the men imprisoned in the bowels of the earth. Meanwhile, in the darkness of the caved-in pit the water is steadily rising, and the horror of the race against time is enhanced by the fact that the entombed men are able to communicate with their families. Yet such a situation, though essentially emotional, needs restrained treatment to be truly effective on the screen, and in this respect the conception of “Draegerman Courage” is inclined to be better than its execution. Barton Mac Lane and Jane Muir are the featured players in the story woven round the mine incident, but the most telling performances are those of Henry O’Neill and Robert . Barratt, playing the doctor and mine-owner, who are imprisoned. While a really great picture about the perils of the miner’s calling has yet to be made—A. J. Cronin’s “The Stars Look Down offers itself as a worthwhile suggestion —this Warner production is a commendable attempt. It cannot, however, be recommended to those persons who suffer from claustrophobia. The specialised brand of comedy which Hugh Herbert has made popular with many picture-goers finds full vent in “Love Begins at 20,” the second feature It is light, bright, domestic farce, which wastes no time in getting started, and thereafter maintains a very even level of merriment. It is the'old story of the worm that turns, the “worm” being Horatio Gillingwater, who proves his manhood by arranging his daughter’s marriage in defiance of his wife, becoming involved in a bank hold-up, and settling accounts with fhe man who, until then, has been held up before him by his wife as the ideal of male perfection. A good cast, including Patricia Ellis, Warren Hull, Hobert Cavanaugh, and Dorothy Vaughan, supports Herbert.