Fine Tribute Paid To Nursing Profession

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

Fine Tribute Paid To Nursing Profession

“WHITE PARADE” UNDOUBTEDLY MAKES FINE ENTERTAINMENT (State: Screening Saturday.) One of tho most human, compelling and dramatic screen narratives in years, Jesse L. Lasky’s lb® White Parade,” is recommended as superlative entertainment. It is a story with a soul- “The White .Parade” may safely be described as an extrairdinary picture. Extra-

ordinary not only in its material, but in the approach of Director

Irving Cummings and Producer Lasky to the telling of their story.

It is a gripping and poignant drama, and the manner of its presentation buoyant, easy, skillful —is a distinct contribution to screen history.

Loretta Young offers a masterly performance as tho young student nurse who is the heroine. The film shows her schooling from the day of her enrollment, until just graduated, she has to make her choice between the man she loves, John Boles, and the service whose true meaning lias become every day more clear to her.

John Boles contributes a splendid characterisation as the rich young suitor who, baffled by the elusive secret of these girl nurses, seeks to persuade her that her life lies with him. There are memorable performances also by Dorothy Wilson, Muriel Kirkland and Astrid Allwyn, among the heroine’s comrades, and by Jane Darwell and Sara Hadcn, as veteran nurses who arc their superiors. “The White Parade” has been adapted by jSonya Levieu and IJrnest Pascal froni a screen story by ‘Ji-Rian James and Jesse Lasky, Jnr. This last in turn was based on Rian Jamc's novel of tho same title.

Jesso L. Lasky has always been a, pioneer. His own career parallels in many respects the history of the motion picture industry. It was Lasky who gave such a picture as “Tile Covered Wagon,” the iirse great picture of the West, and “Wings,” the first great picture of the air.

Now, in “White Parade,”he has created a picture which for originality and drama will, wc think, stand unsurpassed when it is as old as “The Covered Wagon.” A tribute paid to the nursing profession by the late President Tiieodore Roosevelt, following a siege in a hospital, provides the inspiration and theme. It is the first film to glorify “young ladies in white.” In keeping with tho theme and spirit of tho production, “The Whito Parade” is dedicator to the memory of the immortal Florence Nightingale, founder of modern nursing, and the idol and pattern of those who pursue this profession. In his tribute to nurses, Roosevelt said in part: “It is almost -worth while to be sick, to meet such people and see the splendid, work they are doing in the hospitals. Take the nurses—clean, healthy, young women, full of life and spirit. At an age when their thoughts might be devoted to pleasure, they do the hardest kind of work, much of it unpleasant, nearly all of it depressing—and not for pay, but because they want to fit themselves for service.

“Thank God I always respectei American womanhood—and if anyone asks you what I think of the nursing profession, tell them I said—no, they are not angels—they are too practical for that —but they are trumps, every one of them.”

Leading organisations of nurses, including the American Nurses’ Association, have praised the work of Producer Lasky and his staff in bringing “The White Parade” to the screen.