HIGHLY IMAGINATIVE

Evening Star, Issue 20422, 1 March 1930, Page 12

HIGHLY IMAGINATIVE

LIFE IN TEN YEARS’ TIME 1 HIGH TREASON 1 PICTURES THE FUTURE .Looking ten years ahead, ‘ High Treason ’ pictures the world as it is imagined it will be in 1940. ‘ High Treason ’ was privately screened over at the Octagon Theatre last night, when it was seen that a highly imaginative brain had been at work before the picture was finally produced. There is not one present-day touch about the film, which has advanced to the age of perfect television, of aeroplanes that rise straight off the ground, of one-man orchestras, and of a hundred ami one other nllra-modern devices. It is a cleverly conceived picture, and it is impossible to guess what will take place next, as everything is so entirely new. As i.s explained, the people of 1940 are more intellectual than wo are now, and for this reason the story becomes very deep, differing greatly from modern fiction. The American film concerns have turned out many pictures wherein the imagination has been drawn upon, but none has been quite so fantastic as ‘High Treason,’ which is a Gaumont British release, and a credit to an English picture producing company. Tho picture i.s based on a play by Pemberton Billing, and shows that the peace movement has grown to such an extent as to take militant action to prevent war. The representation of life ten years hence gives the producers plenty of scope for the spectacular and tho unique. London is seen as a much bigger city than at present, with aeroplanes flying above it almost as thick as motors on the street, and New York is pictured being destroyed by high explosive gas and liquid bombs—a. most extraordinary spectacle. There is also a Channel tunnel, with express trains, equipped with advanced comforts, travelling from one country to another under the English Channel. The clothing worn throughout is a complete change from that we are used to seeing. The women wear divided skirts with knee breeches, and the men in evening dress are seen in knee breeches and open silk shirts. A dance hall scene presents the unusual, for the hall is designed on entirely different lines to anything that now exists, while the dances introduce steps unthought.of by the average person. The instruments of a complete dance orchestra are arranged on the wall, and those are made to play by one man, who presses a series of buttons. If a person wishes to speak to another in some other part of the city he simply seats himself before an object that resembles a mirror, presses a button, and the vision of the person thus called appears in the mirror. Thera are dozens of surprises in the picture other than these mentioned, but they are too numerous to bo detailed. There are four principal players in the picture. These are Jameson Thomas, as Major Deane, Benita Hume, a girl fighting for peace, Humberston Wright, who is the father of the girl, and the man who eventually saves a world conflict that would have been far more disastrous than the war of 1914; and Basil Gill, president of the War Council. As the picture is an English one it is only natural that pure English should be spoken. There is nothing of an objectionable, nature in any of the speaking. _ It is ( clear and accurate, and the various sound effects recorded convey the right impression, maldng the picture most realistic. _ In a review of ‘ High Treason,’ which commences a season at the Octagon Theatre shortly, the ‘Daily Express’ states that it is “not only-the best talking film yet made, but it is the screen’s greatest achievement in imaginative construction.”