‘MOTHER'S MILLIONS'

Evening Star, Issue 20989, 31 December 1931, Page 7

‘MOTHER'S MILLIONS'

STIRRING DRAMA FOR REGENT As Harriet Breen in ‘ Mother’s Millions,’ coming to the llegent to-mor-row, May Hobson, the Australian actress, is a fighting fury, brimming over with life and energy, and until the latter part of the film it is hard to see anything very lovable about her. But when you come to the end you realise just what a wonderful mother she has been; how she has fought her enemies not out of spite, but because their crooked dealings would bring misery to millions; and how she has been harsh to her children in order to be kind, and has plotted and planned everything for their ultimate happiness. And you realise, too, just how wonderful is the characterisation of May Robson. It is a part replete with vigour and sympathy and humour, especially the last-named quality. There arc many dramatic moments, but after each one comes the laughter, not as an anticlimax, however, but in the natural sequence of events. Before the acting of May Robson all the rest of the cast pales into comparative insignificance, for she dominates every moment, and there is war and laughter in the air whenever she approaches; but mention should bo made of Lillian Hamer as Maria Peppy, the down-trodden but faithful servant, and of Lawrence Gray, James Hall, and Frances Dade, the young people in the story. The theme of the story is that of a mother’s love hidden through fear of her enemies’ attempts to reach her and hurt her through her children. In doing this she must appear to treat her children with a coldness and aloofness that threatens to ruin their happiness and kill the romance that has come into their lives. How she eventually understands and rewards their loyalty gives to the picture its poignant sense of drama.