Regent Theatre To-morrow

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 80, 3 April 1941, Page 2

Regent Theatre To-morrow

NORMA SHEARER AND ROBERT TAYLOR IN “ESC3APE” “Escape/’ the Etlxel Vance best- ] seller which held thousands of readers ] enthralled by its suspense, conies to the j screen as one of the incst gripping ad- : venture stories of all time, its collective ’ I cast, headed by Norma Shearer and 1 Robert Taylor, reaching the peak of i their dramatic careers in masterful 1 characterizations. 1 | Miss Shearer has never done finer . work than as the world-wearv Countess < von Treck, who finds herself involved!] in the attempt of ex-actress Emmy < Ritter to escape a death sentence in a 'i concentration camp. Robert Taylor, as Emmy’s son, Mark Preysing, advances |: still further from the new stature he ' gained as an actor in “Waterloo Bridge.” Nazimova, returning to the screen for the first time in fifteen years as Emmv j Ritter, reestablishes herself as a name j still to conjure with in Hollywood. Tt is a portrayal which ranks her with I the outstanding character actresses of film history and proves that her absence has in no whit diminished her ability land that she is assured of a new place .in the Hollywood sun. I To place one principal above another I in this superblv knit drama is hard for there are at. least three names whi'di contribute almost equally to the fasrin ,atinrr unfoldulent of the plot: Conrad | Veldt, as the epitome of impatient militarism, the General, lover of the j Countess. • Dutch newcomer Philin Dorn Ins the concentration camp physician, lDr. Ditten, who refuses to lot the new [ideology of his country blind him to ihuman obligations and sympathy; Fclir jßressart as the stubborn yet loyal Ifnmilv retainer, Fritz. I The castin" Is inspired throughout: | Albert and Elsa Bnssermann a* the fearful Henning and his wife: Edgar Borriar as the sadistic Police Commissioned Bon’tn Granville as Ursula, student in the Countess’ finishing 'school; Blanche Yurka as the brutal hospital nurse are all superb, j The story of “Escape” scores its points in the very fact that it does not. 1 treat of concentration camn brutalities or physical terror but lavs bare the souls of those who are implicated in Emmv Ritter’s escaoe. Whether she is j successful or not depends wholly on

how thoso people react; whether, in a crisis, they have been sufficient! v brutalized to act as they have been told to act or whether they will revert to native humanitarianisra. And in hold ing this story to its essentials ani eliciting some of the finest performances ever projected, Director Mervyn Leßov has even surpassed the suspensefill qualities of his earlier “I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. M “Escape” is a convincing document <-hat will, keep audiences spellbound.