WORLD'S PICTURES

Patea Mail, Volume L, 8 April 1929, Page 2

WORLD'S PICTURES

“FOUJ! BOX'S "—TO-XJGHT AMD TO-AIOMMOW. ‘‘Four Sons," Fox’s screen version or Aliss I. A. It. Wylie’s story, ‘‘Grandma Decide Learns Her Letters," holds the screen at the Town Hall to-uig'h! ami to-,morrow. ‘ ‘Four ‘Sons" has been acclaimed throughout Xew /lealaud as one of the linest iilins ever produced, and it is entitled to its clasrii float ion at a ''masterpiece, it is crowded with all the. elements that go toward making up superb screen enter tainment. It tells of a mother’s abiding faith in her four sons and in the woi'ldi. Their home, happy ati first, is clouded with the coming of the war. The old mother is torn between her sous in the German army and her one son in the American army. With (Ik; exception of one scene on the battJeuehl, in which brother lights brother, the war itself is not projected into the story, except as an off-screen background. Rather, it is the tale of a mother the sons leave behind, her struggles and her heartaches, told witli honesty ami simplicity ami at all times with the utmost dramatic effect. John Ford, noted director of ‘‘Afo--1 her Afachree, ’ ’ ‘‘The Iron Horse,’’ and many oilier screen triumphs, also directed ‘‘Four Dons." Included in the cast are Margaret Mann, playing the mother; James Hall, Charles AFortou, George AFeeker, and Francis X. Bushman, jun., son of the celebrated screen star, playing the sons; Earle Foxe and June Collyer. All give remarkable performances. ‘‘.LOST IX THE ATJCTIC”—WEDNESDAY -A N D THUMB DA Y “Lost in tlie Arctic,’’ which will be shown ou Wednesday and Thursday, is a surprise—a. pleasant surprise, it is an amazing mixture of tragedy, of lights with wild animals and scenic grandeur. Ft even has its comic moments. There are no actors. Humans and creatures of the region struggle for life ami food .with starvation hanging in the background as a dramtic menace. It is in no sense a travelogue. It begins moving with thrills while the motor schooner Herman is battling through heavy seas northward. It contains an amazing pictorial record of a fight with a school of whales. This reaches a dramatic climax .when one whale trios to protect another. Lives must have been risked in securing close-up pictures of the capture of a polar bear. Tins is awo-inspiriug in spots, and comic, too. The lingo brute struggles with a, wire iassoo and star fa after its captors while being towed to the ship. Views of walrus and seal and bird life and reindeer arc almost intimate. Drama is built up naturally when the expedition comes upon the dead -members of the Stcfansson expedition whose fate had been a mystery for 10 years. ACute souvenirs arc uncovered one by one, bones arc collected. It is elemental and gripping and overwhelms the audience, with a feeling of the vast silent menace of the Arctic regions.