AMUSEMENTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20000, 7 January 1935, Page 2

AMUSEMENTS

“ONE MORE RIVER” DIANA WYNYARD AT REGENT John Galsworthy’s latest and greatest novel, “One More River,” has been picturised with great success, and the film version, starring Diana Wynyard, was well received by large houses at the Regent on Saturday. Diana Wynyard is exceptionally good starred in the role of Clare Corven. She proves beyond doubt that she is an outstanding emotional actress. Her control is admirable both in the tense scenes when her husband makes his attempts to take her back and in the court scenes. One feature of the film is the remarkably fine team conprising the supportingcast. It includes Colin Clive, Lionel Atwill, Frank Lawton, Mrs Patrick Campbell, Jane Wyatt, Reginald Denny, Alan Mowbray, Gilbert Erfiery, C. Aubrey Smith a,nd Henry Stephenson. It is a cast worthy of the story. The settings are splendid, suiting the playing which is in strict keeping with the quiet restraint and English charm of Galsworthy’s novels. Great credit is due to R. C. Sherriff, author of “Journey’s End,” and James Whale, who directed this film. The story has been handled brilliantly, and it is obvious —especially in the court scene and in some of the scenes in London and Oxford, that the directors have taken great care to make the settings sufficiently good quality to ensure success. Some of the scenes, too, have had to be greatly elaborated from their form in the book but no elaboration has been more helpful. This film is a singularly successgul production. “GREAT EXPECTATIONS” 'DICKENS’ CLASSIC At MAJESTIC Charles Dickens’s immortal classic, “Great Expectations,” provided something refreshing in screen entertainment at the Majestic on Saturday, where it opened to appreciative audiences. Dickens wrote for a younger and differently credulous world. His readers enjoyed meeting in his books eccentric—laughable or terrifying—people. In this they were much like the people of to-day, but with the difference that they preferred their characters to show their eccentricity in features, clothing, and everyday behaviour. Dickens wrote about people living in the sort of environment his readers knew, but he gave to it a strange light of his own. He seems to have seen his characters in a distorting mirror, but however queer or unusual they were, they were always human. There are such scenes as the one in which Magwitch comes back from Australia to tell Pip that he was his unknown guardian; and his death in prison after Pip had told him that his daughter is alive. To those who have read “Great Expectations,” the picture will be a vivid recreation of the book, while those who have not read it will realise the incomparable genius of Dickens as a weaver of plots. The acting in this picture is outstanding and every Dickens character comes to startling and vivid life. Honours go to Henry Hull, one of America’s leading interpretative actors, as Magwitch, and Florence Reed as Miss Havisham, but the acting of Phillips Holmes as Pip and Jane Wyatt as Estella is of an equally high standard. Brilliant performances are also contributed by Alan Hale as Joe Gargery, and Francis L. j Sullivan as Jaggers. THE ROYAL j DOUBLE-FEATURE BILL Another popular double-feature bill was provided for patrons of the Royal on Saturday, when the houses were large and appreciative. The dashing F lmund Lowe was seen to great advantage in “Her Bodyguard,” an exciting drama of the gay places on Broadway, an appealing story being punctuated liberally with pleasing humour. Lowe is supported by Wynne Gibson and a cast of well-known players, who make the picture bright entertainment. An intimate glimpse into the lives of men and women who seek love and advanture through the columns of a newspaper, is given in “Strictly serine

Rambeau, which is the other feature. The picture bristles with comedy and romance and has all the ingredients to make it of general appeal. With a further episode of “The Peril of. Pauline,” the programme is well in keeping with the standard seen at the Royal each week.