FILM ENTERTAINMENT

Taranaki Daily News, 11 April 1935, Page 7

FILM ENTERTAINMENT

NEW PLYMOUTH OPERA HOUSE. “MY OLD DUTCH.” A convincing picture of a cross section of English life is presented in “My Old Dutch,” which started its season at the New Plymouth Opera House last night. Forty years of Cockney London life passes before the audience in a series of characteristic London settings. We see the Costers of pre-war London on the Epsom Road going to the Derby and on Hampstead Heath on August Bank Holiday. During the war one dramatic setting represents a tube railway stairway during an air raid, and another the canteen at Victoria station on the arrival of a troop train. Post-war incidents of the general strike form kaleidoscopic backgrounds for the human story of the presentation. This involves the joys and sorrows and struggles of three generations of simple Londoners. A fine impression of the unfailing good humour and the great imperturbability of English character is conveyed, especially by the acting of Gordon Harker and Miss Betty Balfour. Although not obviously propagandist, and althdugh well balanced as regards the grandeur of war, it throws into vivid relief war’s miseries and leaves no doubt that the war game is not worth the candle. The supports are particularly interesting, and the whole screening well deserves the_patronage that it is receiving.