GRAND

Evening Star, Issue 22414, 11 August 1936, Page 6

GRAND

The moral which Charles Dickens so cleverly expounded in his immortal story, ‘ A Christmas Carol,’ literally springs to life on the _ screen in 1 Scrooge/ concluding to-night at the Grand. As the miser Sir Seymour Hicks gives a brilliant characterisation, and translates with understanding all the subtle touches so beloved by readers of Dickens. Tn support is ‘My Marriage/ featuring Claire Trevor and Kent Taylor in dramatic roles. ‘THE TUNNEL.’ Never has such enthusiasm or such an ovation been accorded any picture in Auckland, Wellington, or Christchurch as that which greeted the Gau-mont-British production entitled ‘ The Tunnel.’ ‘ The Tunnel/ which will commence a season at the Grand tomorrow, features a largo cast, including Richard Dix, Leslie Banks, Madge Evans, Helen Vinson, C. Aubrey Smith, George Arliss. and Walter Hus ton. The story has for its central character M‘Allan (Richard Dix), idealistic engineer, who conceives the plan of a giant sub-Atlantic tunnel, linking Britain with America. Backed by a syndicate of_ millionaires, he eventually succeeds in completing the project, in the face of almost insuperable odds. Appealing human interest angles are supplied by a subsidiary development depicting _ M'Allan’s estrangement from his wife, Ruth (Madge Evans), when he neglects her for his wofik on the tunnel. No praise can be too high for the graphic way in which the construction of the tunnel is presented. Armies of workmen in grotesque gas-helmets man the great radium drill that bores into solid rock, reducing it to a lava which they use to line the walls. Strikingly modernistic streamlined cars dash along completed sections at alarming speeds, their velocity being almost unlimited, by the creation of a vacuum. Television keeps the supervisors in touch with every aspect of the work, enabling them to cope with any eventuality.