KING'S THEATRE.

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 90, 13 October 1939, Page 4

KING'S THEATRE.

An Outstanding Picture,

Alexander Korda's unique genius for grand-scale, motion pictures with a British Empire background is again exemplified in his latest picture in technicolour, "Four Feathers," which is in its second week at the King's Theatre. The- film has been adapted from A. E. W. Mason's well-known novel. Zoltan Korda directed the production, and the fine cast is headed by Ralph Richardson, June Duprez, John Clements, and C. Aubrey Smith. "Four Feathers"' is the story of a young English officer who resigns his commission because he knows that he is a coward, that he could not stand war. He is branded a coward by his friends in his regiment, who send him white feathers, and- he is rebuffed by his fiancee. To retrieve his honour and reputation he sets out for Egypt, where Kitchener is embarking on the Sudan campaign. There he undertakes the horrible disguise of a branded Sengali, poses as a dumb native, and undertakes adventures of heroism and daredeviltry which help the Army win the Battle of Omdurman, and which save his friends from death at the hands of the Mahdi's soldiers. Certainly no more spectacular and brilliant offering than "Four Feathers" has yet been presented by Mr. Korda, for ft dramatises a stirring story of heroism against atithentic desert backgrounds superbly photographed in brilliant colour. The vast crowds of Arabs, Dervishes, and Fuzzy-Wuzzies, not to mention the English regiments—numbering all told nearly 4000—were handled remarkably by the director. The film is further notable for outstanding shots of the Nile cataracts over which are hauled Kitchener's gunboats as they were 40 years ago.