AMUSEMENTS

Grey River Argus, 21 April 1945, Page 6

AMUSEMENTS

Opera House Now Showing: “China Girl,” starring George Montgomery, Gene Tierney and Lynn Bari. “CHINA GIRL.” One of the most powerful pictures to come out of the present times is now showing at the Opera House. Tensely dramatic, tightly woven together against a world teeming with fury and flame, 20th. Century-Fox’s “China Girl” commands attention from the first startling scene to its clamatic closing. Gene Tierney and George Montgomery, teamed for the first time, are co-starred with Lynn Bari, 115 pounds of curves, crookedness and kisses caught in, the battle-scarred East. Victor McLaglen, who tops the featured cast, has the rugged type of role that made his name synonymous with hot and heavy action. The burly veteran appears as a two-fisted soldier-of-fortune who peddles his loyalty to the highest bidder. Opening with a thrilling escape from a Japanese prison by Montgomery, an American newsreel cameraman, and McLaglen, the film takes in territory as newsworthy as to-mor-row’s headlines. Montgomery lams it to Burma, with the Japs, hot on his trail because he refused to photograph the Burma Road for them. Here George meets Gene Tierney, a patriotic Chinese girl, and falls in love. The exciting climactic sequences are said to have come of the most realistic bombing scenes ever filmed. Also featured in the film are Aian Baxter. Sig Rumann, Myron McCormick and Bobby Blake.

Regent Theatre Now Showing: “San Demetric. London.” One of the greatest sea stories yet filmed, “San Demetrio London” commences at the Regent Theatre today. If this extraordinary story of the pluck and endurance of the Merchant Navy had been a work of fiction, it might have been criticised on the grounds of improbability, but the facts are just as presented. All the dialogue and action are exactly as they occurred in the Atlantic, with pardonable omissions for the idiom of sailors. So this simple tale sai's into the epic class with a proud tradition and honourable cheers, in the Atfivmn of 1940 the 12,009-ton British tanker, “San Demetrio,'’ homeward bound from America in the “Jervois Bay” convoy was attacked by the “Von Scheer.” She was abandoned by her crew who took to the boats and drifted in heavy seas for two days. Sixteen men later returned to the blazing ship to fight the fire and make for home. Without compasses charts, radio or bridge, and with no comforts in the way of hot. food or drinks, the seamen brought their vessel with a cargo of 11,009 tons of petrol likely to explode at any moment safely to port after a voyage of terrible privation. “San Demetrio London,” is undoubtedly the greatest true adventure story which has graced any screen to date.