AMUSEMENTS

Grey River Argus, 7 November 1942, Page 6

AMUSEMENTS

Ogera House Now Showing: “Hudson’s Bay,” starring Paul Muni. “HUDSON’S BAY” 20th Century-Fox takes moviegoers down the paths of pulse-ting-nng adventure in its newest production, “Hudson’s Bay,” now showing at the Opera House. A two-fisted drama of ’ the frozen north and empire building, the film stars Paul Muni in a role unlike any he’s ever had —as Pierre Radisson, colourful and daring renegade who saved a new world for the King who ordered him hanged. Seen in the brilliant cast are lovely Gene Tierney, Laird Cregar, John Sutton, Virginia Field, Vincent Price and Nigel Bruce.

Although “Hudson’s Bay” is primarily a story of daring adventure, it has a historical basis too. The story it depicts starts in England during the reign of Charles 11. Playing Lord Crewe, John Sutton is banished from the kingdom for his drunken pranks and is exiled to Canada. When Sutton reaches Quebec he meets two rough and tumble French-Canadian fur trappers, who induce him to finance their scheme for the building of a commercial empire in the region of Hudson Bay. The following year they go to England with a fortune in pelts and organise a fur-trading company under the sponsorship of the King. The- three adventurers return to America, bringing with them Morton Lowry, brother of Gene Tiernev, Sutton’S fiance. The spoiled boy incites Indian warfare by distributing liquor among the savages. In order to prevent an Indian massacre Muni orders the young man executed by a firing squad. Then, through raging rapids and across frozen wastes of the north, Mupi leads a new expedition to final, lasting triumph at Hudson’s Bay.

Regent Theatre

Now Showing: “Smilin’ Through,” brilliant Technicolour starring the World’s Queen of Song, Jeanette MacDonald, with Brian Aherne and Gene Raymond.

Because this romantic story is the most beloved of our time, . Metrq-Goldwyn-Mayer set it to music, glorified it in brilliant technicolour and now presents it as one of their greatest productions. Any review might well be prefaced by. special comment regarding the picture’s musical, background. Nine ballads are interpreted bY Jeanette MacDonald, who, photographed in Technicolour in the romantic setting of old England, has never been seen to better advantage. Jeanette is the hauntingly beautiful Irish maiden, Moonleen, while Aherne has the role of the faithful, persevering Sir John Carteret, who cherishes the love of his lost sweetheart for a half century. Appearing opposite his wife for the first time on the screen, Gene Raymond scores heavily in the early sequences of the play as the jealous Jeremy Wayne, and again as the young soldier-lover, Kenneth Wayne. The love scenes between Miss MacDonald and Raymond are done with deft and convincing touch, carrying the onlooker along without a single emotional drop, while the by-play of tragedy, humour and pathos carries conviction and will wring a response from the most cynical. Aherne’s characterisation of Sir John,is one of the screen’s highlights. His mannerisms as a man of seventy are realistic enough to make the onlooker forget, the actor’s normal dashing self, and his sequences with Jeanette in the early parts of the film unquestionably take their place among the screen’s most poignant lovescenes.