DICKENS NOW IN TALKIES

Evening Star, Issue 21091, 2 May 1932, Page 5

DICKENS NOW IN TALKIES

HIS ’ DOMBEY AND SON ' FOR EMPIRE George Bancroft has given no more dynamic portrayal of frustrated power than as the thunderbolt shipbuilder in ‘ Rich Man’s Folly,’ the drama which comes to the Empire on Friday. ‘ Rich Man’s Folly ’ was suggested by Charles Dickens’s Dombey and Son.’ A distinguished cast was chosen by Paramount for the production, George Bancroft playing the lead and Frances Dee, Robert Ames, and Juliette Compton being the other featured players. George Bancroft is an actor of an arresting type ; forceful and driving, who exults in victory and does not know the meaning of defeat. Of the others, Frances Dee is a young actress of vibrant beauty who has increased remarkably in ability and popularity with each picture. Robert Ames gained recognition as Ann Harding’s lead in ‘ Holiday,’ and Juliette Compton possesses three virtues in the eyes of her picture admirers—she is modern, beautiful, and talented. The theme of the story concerns a man who surrenders himself ruthlessly to the accomplishment. of two desires. He wants money and the power that money brings, and he wants to perpetuate the firm of Trumbull and Son, for six generations the builders of a fine fleet of ships. Also interwoven into the story is a glimpse of the life of a girl who finds no affection in her father because of his obsession for his son, and therefore turns to his rival in business, who, years before, was his rival in courtship. The son as a little bey is told by his father that some day he will make great sums of money and build ships, but he desires _ none of these acquisitions in his appreciation of other things in life. When Trumbull’s mad ambition for his son precipitates the child into a. situation | which is responsible for his death it is the daughter who enters into conflict with her own father, providing a climax of compelling dramatic intensity.