STRAND THEATRE

Evening Star, Issue 20130, 21 March 1929, Page 7

STRAND THEATRE

PROGRAMME FOR TO-MORROW As many laughs as can be crammed into 7,000 ft of film; romance, suspense, thrills—these are some of the elements which go to make up the year’s surprise _ comedy, ‘Steamboat Bill, Jim.,’ starring Buster Keaton, which commences at the Strand Theatie to-mor-row. The story of river life shows Keaton at his funniest and Torrence in his most interesting role. Photoplay-goers who invariably associate the noted character actor with villainous parts arc due for a shock when they see him sharing laughs in his portrayal of Bustor’s hard-boiled swashbuckling dad, a modern river pilot with a hatred tor mollycoddles, and with a penchant for getting into trouble. How his son, ‘‘Steamboat Bill, Jim.,” as played by Keaton, turns from sap to hero, wins the town belle, defeats a gang of river rowdies intent upon mining him, and finally rescues the entire community from a tornado and flood make scores of mirthful situations. One of the biggest laughs of the picture is the scene in which Keaton, by a ruse, liberates his father from the town bastille. The settings in the big comedy are as spectacular as the action itself. A typical lower Mississippi Ilivcr town suddenly given a new lease of life by a bitter war between rival steamboat owners; thousands of townspeople taking sides in the lend; buildings swept into the river by a cyclone—these are only a few of lie many thrilling episodes.