NEW PRODUCTION ART

Evening Star, Issue 20784, 5 May 1931, Page 7

NEW PRODUCTION ART

1 MOROCCO ' SUPER PICTURE At infrequent intervals the motion picture industry produces a super-pic-ture —-one achievin'' the rare combination of power, sweep, artistry, and universal appeal that marks every big production in screen history. Paramount has produced such a picture. It is ‘ Morocco,’ the story of a turbulent, fierce, all-consuming love; the story of a man and a woman. There is another man in the story, a polished sophisticate. For these three characters Paramount has picked three outstanding actors —(jury Cooper, happy-go-lucky soldier of fortune, private in the French Foreign Legion, where every man’s past is bis ow.i secret; Marlene Dietrich, ravishingly beautiful, (ho toast of the Continent, playing her (irst American screen role; ami Adolphe Mcnjou, known and admired by screen “ fans ” everywhere. ‘ Morocco ’ is an unforgettable love story, not (he inconsequential scntinicutaliiy of boy-and-girl courtship, but lovo that is vital, soul-stirring, real. It is the story of a ruthless, unreasoning, magnificent fervour, dwarfing all other emotions. «

Every great production is more than a,' lumian drama told in picture. Back of that draiml is an intangible fascination of locale, an amazing realism of setting, a. fusing of the forces of Nature and of life to lift a picture to groat ness ‘ Morocco ’ has those things. Its surging romance is portrayed against the sensuous, colourful background of North Africa, in Morocco, a city of weird masonry, twisted, uneven streets, veiled women, swaggering Legionairos; seething with un rest and hate; peopled by a cosmopolitan collection of humans—tnrhaned tribesmen, smartly-tailored officials, richly-gowned women, tipsy soldiers, the wealth and scum of the world. Hack of it all lies the cruel, relentless. mysterious Sahara, its parched, searing breath all hut felt.