THE FILM "BLOCKADE"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23149, 22 September 1938, Page 18

THE FILM "BLOCKADE"

? DRAMA FOR THE CIVIC Tensely dramatic action is embodied in "Blockade," tho topical film to be presented lor tlio first time afc the Civic Theatre to-morrow. Tlio background of this stirring photoplay is the Spanish civil war, though the central theme of the story is tho romance of two young people caught in the seething maelstrom of the conflict, These leading romantic roles arc played bv Madeleine Carroll and Henry Fonda. I'he events of the story lose none of their exciting quality through the fact that tho production preserves a strictly neutral attitude and does not identify any character as a member of one faction or tho other. Tho story opens with Norma (Miss Carroll) arriving in Spain to discover that her father and his companions have been directing their actions to inciting a civil war. After a period war breaks out and Marco, a part played by Fonda,, a farmer whom tho girl has met and fallen in love with, becomes a soltlier.-11l an exciting scene lie kills Norma's father as a spy and is forced to arrest her as a suspect. A traitorous alliance between her father's former associate and a Spanish general is responsible for her release, but slio is forced to assist them in espionage work. She is sent as tlio bearer of a message to spies intent upon the destruction of a ship carrying food lor the relief of a blockaded city. The plot is discovered by Marco as Xorma, with a sudden revulsion of feeling over the plight of the starving townspeople, attempts to right tile wrong she has done. After a series of dangerous adventures, the pair confess their love when tpey find, themselves facing death at . the hands of a group of enraged soldiers An unexpected happening in tai " 8 ' * tory to