“SMILIN’ THROUGH."

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12438, 2 September 1933, Page 5

“SMILIN’ THROUGH."

NORMA SHEARER STARRED. Norma Shearer in “Smilin’ Through,’ directed for Metro-Gold-wyn-Mayer by Sidney Franklin, with a supporting cast headed by Fredrie March, Leslie Howard, O. P. Heggie and Ralph Eorbes, will open tonight at the King’s Theatre' and show again on Monday. In this lavish production Norma Shearer for the first time in her career plays a dual role. Miss Shearer portrays both the tragic Moonyeen in the hoop-.skirted Victorian sequences and Kathleen Sheridan in the modern sequences around which the happier romance qf the tale centres. It is Miss Shearer’s first venture into the unusual in drama. Her second departure will be “Strange Interlude,” in which she has the singular experience of both speaking and hearing her silent thoughts expressed audibly. In the speaking screen version of “Smilin’ Through,” Miss Shearer has an advantage which was not permitted in the stage production. First as the intended bride 'and then as the ward of Sir John Cartaret. the role which Leslie Howard plays, Miss Shearer is able to return in fantasy to the mind of her brooding lover —-in which moments of reverie she appears twice in a single scene. Thus, although the story covers a fifty years’ elapse of time, during which Leslie Howard grows from youth to whitehaired old age, Miss Shearer remains youthful throughout. It is, the star concedes, her severest dramatic test to date. Fredrie March and Leslie Howard, as heads of her dramatic east, also have unusual trials in characterisation. March, like Miss Shearer, has two roles in toe story. In the beginning he is Jeremy \\ ayne, rival of Leslie Howard for the hand of Moonyeen. Bater he portrays the sou of Jeremy Wayne, returning to England at tne time the country is preparing to enter the World War. The present cast is said to he the finest to leach the screen. Tn addition to R i ri ent,one £ above it includes Beryl Mercer, David Torrence, Margaret Sod don and Forrester Harvey.