"GREAT EXPECTATIONS."

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 31, 6 February 1935, Page 7

"GREAT EXPECTATIONS."

At Regent Theatre Next Friday.

"Great Expectations," already hailed as a great film, is expected to draw capacity houses to the Regent Theatre, where its Wellington season opens on Friday next. The closest examination merely accentuates the brilliance of this production in all departments. The photography is .notably impressive, and in placea startungly effective, especially in the scenes where Magwitch appears. It is said that the attention which has been paid to detail has never been surpassed in any other film, production, each "shot" and sequence being really a marvel of technical accuracy. It would be foolish to expect the original story of "Great Expectations" in its entirety upon the. screen, which is definitely limited. in its scope, but the film which' has been . produced reflects. the ' real authentic spirit of Dickens's narrative. It is an unusually long picture, taking about two: hours: to screen, but interest is never allowed to flag for an instant throughout that time. From the moment that Pip is revealed seated among the graves of his family in the little Kentish churchyard up to the last romantic scenes the progress of the. story never falters. The acting is exceptionally; good. One, of the finest pieces of: character acting seen on' the * screen for some : time is that of Henry Bull, who takes the part of Abel Magwitch, ;the convict. The strange 'personality of a man who is at once criminal and unfortunate, coarsened, yet with a heart of gratitude passing imagination, is handled with admirable skill. From . the first scenes, on the desolate marshes after his escape from the prison hulks, to the deathbed scene in a London gaol, Hull convinces that here is Magwitch as Dickens meant him. to be. A tragically repulsive figure, touching at all points the destiny of the young blacksmith's son, Pip, raising him to be a "gentleman" and at the same time imperiljing his happiness. Florence Reed, as Miss Havisham, is sinister yet human. Dickens's lines have been left to speak for themselves, or for Miss Havisham. The novelist's minute descriptions of scenes, manner, and gesture have been followed with unusual faithfulness.