Romance, Adventure All-star Cast Highlight

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 113, 14 May 1941, Page 2

Romance, Adventure All-star Cast Highlight

“ROAD TO FRISCO” (Meteor: Coming on Saturday.) Romance, adventure and a starstudded cast are the unbeatable ingredients that make up Warner Bros.’ new film, “Road to Frisco,” which has is debut at the Meteor on Saturday. Featuring George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart in an all star cast, the swiftly paced film packs plenty of laughs, love and excitement. Joe Fabrini, played by George Raft, is a cold blooded guy who thinks there isn’t a girl in the world who can get him to fall for her. He laughs at his brother, played by Humphrey Bogart, when he tells how' he would like to have a job that allowed him to have his evenings free to spend with his wife (Gale Page’s role). Bogart is bitterly resentful of the fact that his work allows him to catch only occasional glimpses of his wife and is tortured when other girls remind him of her. Joe always claimed that he didn’t go in for that romantic stuff. At least he thought he didn’t until he met a i waitress, played by Ann Sheridan. Ann ' gives a deeply moving portrayal of a girl whose sentimentality is hidden behind flippant wisecracks. And Raft is great as the fellow who lets neither her wisecracks nor her love go unanswered. He asks her to marry him but the wedding is postponed when Paul crashes over an embankment and loses his right arm. Joe is then forced to ask a friend of his, played by Alan Hale, a job. The picture builds to one of the screen’s greatest climaxes when Ida Lupino, as Hale’s wife, falls in love with Joe and goes through with her scheme to win him.

The entire cast give stirring, realistic performances. In addition to the imcomparable array of talent in the leading roles, the supporting cast includes such popular players as Roscoe Karns, John Litel and Joyce Compton. ** i Director Rauol Walsh did a splendid job in keeping the film moving at a clip 'as fast as the streamlined caravans of the highway portrayed in the picture. Jerry Wald and Richard Macaulay whose brilliant dialogue will be remembered for many a year wrote the scenario. “Road to Frisco” was adapted from a novel by A. L. Bezzeridcs.