Palmerston Picture Programmes

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 194, 19 August 1935, Page 10

Palmerston Picture Programmes

REGENT THEATRE - BRILLIANT PERIOD DRAMA "THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL" "When any of us have done some startling and notable deed before the eyes of our fellows, we are almost in honour bound to do something more of the kind lest we become, as the Irish novelist said, "the . . . relic of a nine days’ wonder!” No such fate can overtake the maker of ‘‘The Scarlet Pimpernel."- The great director-producer who two years ago sot the world agog for historical pictures has followed tip his playfully and pictorialiy splendid “Private Life of Henry VIII” with a period drama which must rival the world-famed comedy both in popularity and artistic finish. Very few stories have had a wider public than "The Scarlet Pimpernel.” The book has been translated into most'European languages, and some Asian, including Tamil and Chinese. The fact suggests—and I say this with apologies to Kipling—that in matters of vital human concern, there is neither East nor West. Yellow men and brown men can appreciate a story of the rescue of fellow mortals from the fury of the mob, even as we can at times appreciate Eastern philosophies. It would be very interesting to know how these Eastern enthusiasts havo visualised the fashionable Sir Percy Blakeney with his foppish, lazy, meandering outward life, and his inwai'd daring spirit, and how they would reckon up his secret band of gallants in every kind of disguise, helping their leader to snatch the doomed nobles of old France from the guillotine. Would they regard him, or do any of us regard him as merely fiction? The Baroness Orczy has made him so believable, and has so filled his story with the spirit of high adventure, that we can never quite feel he is a character of fiction. We feel he must indeed have plied his strange cralt between Boulogne and Dover, have changed from ono or other of his numerous disguises, and reappeared to drawl his faint witticisms among the admiring ladies of the court and the infuriated gentlemen of the clubs. We cannot believe that the Prince of Wales of “The Regency” had no such adviser on the cut of his collar and the length of his sleeve ruffles. The impression of reality is immeasurably deepened by the presentation in the screen version of this famous charactei of fiction. My enthusiasm for the performance runs so high that I have visions of our handing' down pictures of "Leslie Howard as the Scarlet Pimpernel” even as an earlier generation handed down to us recollections of Sir Henry Irving as Hamlet. Leslie Howard is already a notable figure of the London stage and in any screen play in which he chooses to accept a part, but bis presentation of Sir Percy Blakeney must surely, top the best of his stage performances: even as it outruns his uncannily brilliant interpretation in his picture "Berkeley Square.” In “The Scarlet Pimpernel” we cannot analyse his play—we can just admire it. He glides from the engagingly fatuous to the quietly dramatic and the finely subtle, so that the character of the Pimpernel, with all its facets invisibly welded, stands before us. Opposed to him in all the sinister grimness of the-part \s Chauveiin “the Butcher” of the Revolution. Massey Raymond Massey is just the perfect villain. His face is his fortune! Dark distinguished aud intensely mobile as to features ho makes it grirnlj menacing at will. In the duel of wits severally between tlie Pimpernel and Himself ar.d the resourceful Lady Blakeney, the sinister presence sends shivers down the spine. Theso men are actors! Of the rest of the long and finely chosen cast Nigel Bruce as the Prince of Wales and Anthonv Bushel as the Pimpernel’s heutenant both excel themselves. Then lastmentioned but srst among them all is Merle Oberon as Lady Blakeney! Reigning queen of London society, and wife of the Prince’s favourite, the lovely Merle does a wonderful piece of acting aud seems fairly to stand shoulder to shoulder with L.eslio Howard. The lovely young wile, under a cloud of suspicion, she has or immediate sympathy and holds our intense interest, not alone with her unusual grace and beauty and her perfect diction, but with her real dramatic power. And when the mystery is all cleared up she makes a wholly satisfying affair of the happy ending. Exquisite outdoor scenes characterise the picture and Vincent Korda “lots himself go” on the settings for the brilliant interiors at the court of (he Regency in London. With all theso elements mingled Alexander Korda has made ono of the great pic-

tures of the year. No one chooses his network of incident more delicately aiid deliberately than he. It is this gift of discrimination that has made half his fame but there are other things besides his discerning choice of incidents and players. Look deeply into every one of his pictures, satire, drama or comedy. There is always something to think about. It is this faculty of screening thought that gives him the reputation of "gathering in both tho highbrows and tho lowbrows.” The screen version is now showing tl*' tho Regent -