ST. JAMES THEATRE.

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 45, 22 August 1938, Page 4

ST. JAMES THEATRE.

"Boy of the Streets."

From out of the depths of the tenements of a great city rises a stirring story of youth and honour and of a boy's fight to find himself. It is Monogram's solendid "Boy of the Streets," and its star is Jackie Cooper, whose moving characterisation of Chuck, the tenement "big shot," definitely establishes him as an adult star.

"Boy of the Streets," which is the next attraction at St. James Theatre, is a story of the children who grow up in the sombre shadow of the tenements. The camera focuses on Chuck, leader of a gang of young hoodlums, catching him at the sensitive adolescent age when he is first forced to decide what is right and what is wrong. Chuck's only ambition is to be a "big shot" like his father, and when he suffers youth's greatest disillusionment — the discovery that his parent is a fourflusher and a fake—he attaches himself to Blackie, a public enemy, sinister symbol of the power Chuck means one day to possess. But a greater disillusionment, the discovery that gangster methods are cowardly, teaches Chuck the meaning of words like honour, courage, and success and point the way to discipline and decent citizenship. Four star performances characterise this picture. Jackie Cooper, as Chuck, proves his artistry in an unforgettable, finely-shaded portrait of the sensitive lad who conquers his, evil environment; and Marjorie Mam,| New York stage star, wins spontaneous applause as Chuck's mother. Guy Usher is a pathetic "Fog Horn" Brennan. and George Cleveland wins comedy honours as "Tim Farley," political stooge. Kathleen Burke and Gordon Elliot supply the love interest, and Maureen O'Connor, radio's baby star of 1937, makes her debut in this pic-i ture, co-starring with Cooper as the little Irish lass who stands beside him in his fight to conquer his environment. She sings beautifully, and is a grand little actress. "Boy of the Streets" is a picture Qt *c*" Isle with m real moral ,