Deer and Lion Share Honours With Actress

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 54, 6 March 1935, Page 5

Deer and Lion Share Honours With Actress

MOST UNUSUAL PRODUCTION RECOMMENDED AFTER REVIEW.

(Regent: Screening To-day.)

The most startling innovation in screen entertainment since motion pictures were first discovered is offered in “Sequoia,” M.G.M.’s nature drama featuring Jean Parker. A human romance is blended into a story of animal life containing such unheard of scenes as a mountain lion and a deer, nature’ A most deadly enemies, playing together like lamhs, and intimate records of the daily life of such wild animals as coyotes, bears, raccoons, eagles, rattlesnakes, baby fawns and small lion cubs.

Photography that brings gjsps to audiences was obtained by months of “stalking” behind trees and in brush shelters. Pack trains of mules carried equipment to the world’s highest lakes at an elevation of II,OOQ feet, where scenic beauties never seen except by forest ranger patrols, were * captured by the camera.

The pagan beauty of Jean Parker has never been brought out to better advantage than? during her scenes as a “girl of the forest,” who finds adventure and love while helping her naturalist father. Her portrayal sparkles with charm and evident interest in the many animals of tho picture.

Russell Hardio is virile and convincing as tho young . forest raider who finds love with the “forest girl” amid the grandeurs of Sequoia National Park, America’s wonderland of giant trees.

Supporting roles are, capably filled by Paul Hurst, as Bergman, killer of deer, Samuel Hinds as, the naturalist, Edward Brophy as a ranger, and Willio Fung as the oriental house servant, who lives in terror of all wild animals.

The story was adapted from the widely read book-" Malibu,” by Vance Hoyt, world famous lecturer on American wild-life.

Much credit should be given to Producer John Considino and Director Chester Franklin for their courage and extreme patience in filming the most un-

usual outdoor picture of the year. The most amazing revelation of nature’s intimate secrets ever attempted for the serccn is to be seen in “Sequoia’' (pronounced “ Sce-Quo-Yah”). Nearly two years in the filming, the picture deals with a friendship between a deer and a mountain lion, two of nature's most deadly enemies. Raised together from the “bottle feeding'' age, the two animals are shown fighting'the. wilds together. In addition many other species of American wild life were “stalked” with a eamera. Miss Parker and Russell Hardie provide a human theme to the plot of two young people who find love amid the breathtaking beauty of Sequoia National Patk, world’s largest forest of giant trees.