Cotton Pickers in Southern U.S.A.

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 211, 7 September 1938, Page 11

Cotton Pickers in Southern U.S.A.

4 ‘WHITE BONDAGE” SIMPLE YET POWERFUL MELODRAMA (Mayfair: Screening Saturday.) Tile white bondage referred to is the bondage which holds some of the so-called “share-croppers” in certain parts of the extreme Southern States of the U.S.A. —those humble whites and blacks who grow and pick cotton for the large landhold— Jean Muir, a perfect type for an unsophisticated typo of role, plays Betsy Ann Craig, grand-daughter of Old “Pap” Craig, a cotton share-cropper who, like many others, is being cheated by Trent Talcott, n not over-hone*t plantation storekeeper. Harry Davenport plays this scoundrelly part so well that good, old-time hisses from the audi-

lietsy Ann, her grandfather and het sweetheart Cal .Sanders—the latter notably done by Howard Phillips—know of the cheating, but there’s nothing they can do about it. Talcott is too powerful.

But along comes Gordon Oliver, co* starred with Miss Muir in 4 4 White Bondage,” in the guise of a man-of-all-work, David Gray don. Ho discovers the tricky device by which Btorekeepet Talcott's scales have made lighter by hundreds of pounds the bales of cotton brought to him by the share-croppers. But Talcott learns of these discoveries and manoeuvres Graydon into a false position where the croppers believe he is their enemy, not their friend. Talcott infuriates the croppers into a lynching mood, and they get as far as fixing their rope around Craydon's neck just before Betsy Ann, in a thrilling climax, saves him.