STATE THEATRE.

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 95, 19 October 1937, Page 5

STATE THEATRE.

"Wee Willie Winkle." Kipling's colourful characters live glamorously, adventurously, and courageously on adventure's last frontier in the Twentieth Century-Fox picturisation of his famed "Wee Willie Winkie," which opens on Friday at the State Theatre, with Shirley Temple and Victor McLaglen in the starring roles From the neart of mighty India, where all the world is wild and strange, where the British raj ends at KhyDer Pass, in the land of the Bengal Lancers, comes this glorious adventure of the Scottish Highlanders in action and of the little girl who'won the right to wear their plaid. The most spectacular production in which Shirley Temple has yet appeared, "Wee Willie Winkie" gives Victor McLaglen a powerful role as a fearless, fighting fool, and provides splendid opportunities to C. Aubrey Sniith, June Lang, Michael Whalen, Cesar Romero, Constance Collier, and young Douglas Scott. Life at a frontier army post in India is not too happy for Shirley and her widowed mother, June Lang, for her grandfather, C. Aubrey Smith, is a gruff old disciplinarian. The youngster decides that the only way to win the Colonel's approval is to become a soldier herself, and her friend. Michael Whalen, a young lieutenant, turns her over for training to the burly sergeant Victor McLaglen, who dubs her "Wee Willie Winkie" because of the quaint way she has of screwing up her eyes when she asks questions. Shirley gets into plenty of trouble at the post, but wins the gratitude of an imprisoned chieftain, Khoda Khan, when she returns his lost amulet In a surprise raid on the post, the proud chieftain is freed, and the border is immediately ablaze With crimson warfare, with McLaglen's life being one of those lost. Feeling that both Khoda Khan and her grandfather would prefer peace, Shirley takes a desperate step to end the killing, and sets out at night for the Pathan camp. When hep departure is discovered, the Highlanders set out grimly for Khyber Pass, graveyard of many a soldier, determined to rescue her or die in the attempt. With lives at stake, Shirley makes one last desperate gesture to save them and restore peace, bringing the picture to a thoroughly thrilling climax. -