DE LUXE THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 157, 29 March 1941, Page 15

DE LUXE THEATRE

The main film now screening at the De Luxe Theatre, “Gambling on the High Seas,” is an excellent blend of excitement aud romance, with such good players as Wayne Morris, Jane Wyman, Gilbert Roland, Roger Pryor and John Litel to keep up the suspense to the last. One of the main characters is a notorious gambling ship, which has for years been operated by a gang of racketeers under the ruthless leadership of their chief (Gilbert Roland). This gang is a menace which has not been run to earth till a young and energetic reporter (Wayne Morris) and his vivacious secretary (Jane Wyman) take matters into their own hands. : ,

As soon as they get on the trail the action becomes fast and furious. The girl is kidnapped by the gang in order to stop her bearing witness against them, and her rescue is carried out in a series of fast action shots which leave little to be desired in the way of suspense. Thanks to the activities ol the couple, the gang is finally brought to justice and the leader sentenced to life imprisonment. The second feature, “The Devil's Pipeline,” is of the Richard Arlen-Andy Devine partnership' series, and in every way bears out the promise of its predecessors. The firm of Talbot and Jennings has fallen on evil days, and when Dicky Talbot (Richard Arlen), is offered an investigation job in an oil field in the tropics he has to accept. A mysterious "squiggle” at the end of a clerk’s signature has been interpreted by a smart office girl as an appeal for help. Talbot and his partner go down to the oil fields, and find that the author of the signature is a young woman with plenty of good looks as well as intelligence, and she loses no time in telling them just what sort of a racket is being carried out by the overseer and his fellow conspirators. One way of procuring cheap labour is to sentence strong men who look as if they can work to long terms of hard labour for quite trivial offences, then, by a convenient arrangement between the overseer and the local prison authority, transfer them to the oil fields. Needless to say, head office is still charged a full work account and the overseer and the prison authority reap the profit.. Talbot and Jennings, to say nothing of. the woman in the plot, have many exciting experiences before the criminals are finally routed. The heat and squalor of the jungle are well brought out. ' Also on the programme is episode three of "Junior G-Men,” a serial wuth a difference, featuring the famous Dead End Kids.”