BRILLIANTLY ACTED

Evening Star, Issue 21721, 16 May 1934, Page 10

BRILLIANTLY ACTED

1 ONLY YESTERDAY ’ FOR REGENT ‘ Only Yesterday,’ which opens at the Regent Theatre on Friday, is a truly outstanding picture, both in the excellence of the acting and in the absorbing nature of the plot.- Thpse who witnessed the preview this morning were unanimous regarding the film’s brilliancy, and there is not the slightest doubt that it will be a rave amongst picture followers during its run in Dunedin. * The claims made concerning that newcomer to the screen, Margaret Sullavan, were by no means extravagant, and it is as a polished actress of unusual charm that she appears in her first picture. Her role is a long and difficult one, being the portrayal of the character or Mary Lane over a period of eleven years. Nevertheless, she carries it off splendidly, and her performance, with its sincerity and conviction, is’ deserving of the highest praise. Although Miss Sullavan is very well known on the American stage, she has persistently refused offers of lucrative employment in talking pictures, ns she considered that the stage was the ideal medium for her art. At one time she refused an offer of l.oOOdo! a week in films in order to take up a position at SOclol a week with a stock stage company. Finally, however, she yielded to insistent requests to make screen tests for the part of Mary Lane in ‘ Only Yesterday,’ and the tests showed that she was even greater {is a screen actress than on the stage. In spite of the fact that 250 players desired the role, including some of the best-known players in Hollywood, the director. John M. Stahl, refused to make the picture unless Miss Suliavan appeared. Her role is a difficult one, but nothing better could have be’en chosen to prove her abilities as an' actress. It demands that the player must be capable of expressing practically every human emotion, for she must live through thirteen years of her life.

The producers have wisely avoided the temptation to make this a " onewoman ” picture, and the cast comprises ninety-three players of note. John Boles, popular principal of ‘ The Desert Song ’ and other films, makes a splendid leading man. Another new player who has made a great impression on overseas critics is Jimmy Butler, a boy who appears as a model son. Among other members of the cast are Billie Burke, of ‘ Dinner at Eight Bcnita Hume, who was seen recently in ‘ The Worst Woman in Paris ’; Edna May Oliver, and Reginald Denny. The story starts in 1917, when a war-time romance springs up between Mary pane, a girl of nineteen,, and Jim Emerson, a young lieutenant. He is sent to the front without notice, and, when he returns on the signing of the armistice, he seems to have forgotten his former sweetheart. Later be marries a society lady (Benita Hume), and Mary Lane is left to bring up her child, with the assistance of Aunt Julia (Billie Burke). How she does so, and her future encounters with Jim Emerson (with whom she is still in love), form a story- which produces drama of the highest order. ‘ Only Yesterday ‘ is a film which should not be missed on any account.