THRILLS & ACTION

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3150, 29 July 1942, Page 5

THRILLS & ACTION

TRIDE OF THE BLUE GRASS’

PROGRAMME AT REGENT “DOOMED CARAVAN” ALSO There have been many motion pictures in the past about horses, but there has never before been one so engrossing, so touching and so inspiring as “Pride of the Bluegrass,” the Warner Bros, production which will show at the Regent Theatre on Thursday and Friday.

For the hero of “Pride of the Bluegrass” is probably the most remarkable horse that ever lived. He is Elmer Gantry, the blind horse which can jump as surely and over steeplechase hurdles as any welltrained hunter with keenest eyesight. The screen play by Vincent Sherman correlates the life of its equine hero to the humans with whom it comes into contact. The cast of human actors is headed by two accomplished juvenile players, Edith Fellows and James McCallion, and it also includes Granville Bates, Aldrich Bowker and de, Wolf Hopper. It is naturally, however/.the . courageous and intelligent horse. 1 ; which captures the major share of the audience's interest, for there is no. trickery- involved in the almost uncanny skill with which the blind animal displays on the screen the accomplishments which have for several years of exhibition at fairs and horse shows in America gained him a steadily increasing fame.

In the story, young McCallion is the boy who owned, trained and rode Gantry to fame. Barred from the track when Gantry pulls up and loses the Kentucky Derby, McCallion discovers the horse has gone blind. However, with him on his back, Gantry wilL-mof .only ■ run with sure-footed confidence, * but will even jump Obstacles. It is then that the boy plots with ’his girl ‘friend, Edith Fellows, to train the horse as a steeplechaser, ship the animal to England and run him in the Aintree Grand National.

There’s trouble in the high sierras again, and “Hopalong” Cassidy rides to action and adventure' in straightening it out in the latest of the popu- / lar Cassidy series of outdoor action romances “Doomed Caravan,” which will also show at the Regent Theatre on Thursday and Friday.

Taking for its theme the famous wagon trains of the old west which did all the freighting on the plains before the arrival of the iron horse, “Doomed Caravan 0 tells the story of a frontierswoman, played by Minna Gombell, who owns a freighting business and who intends to keep it running despite the ambitions of a rival who stops at nothing to run her out of business.

She overcomes the rival, with the aid of “Cassidy,” portrayed by ’the inimitable William Boyd, and his boys from “Bar 20,” who include “Lucky” Jenkins played by Russell Hayden, and “California” Jack, who is Andy Clyde in -real life. ~ “DUMBO” FINALLY TO-NIGHT “Dumbo,” Walt Disney’S latest feature in glorious technicolour will show at the Regent Theatre finally to-night.