JUBILEE FILM

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20108, 15 May 1935, Page 14

JUBILEE FILM

EVENTS IN THE KING’S REIGN

“THE ROYAL CAVALCADE’’ His Majesty King George V. has been on the throne of Great Britain through the most critical quarter of a century In the history of civilisation. Socially and scientifically his reign has seen revolutionary changes. Dealing faithfully with every phase of His Majesty's reign throughout the bounds of the Empire, British International Pictures’ epic production. “The Royal Cavalcade,” it a fitting tribute to such a glorious occasion. At the opening of the story, King George’s speech to his first Privy Council leads us into a vast survey of his Royal inheritance—the throne of Great Britain and the vast Empire it represents. We visit the Mint and see millions of new coins being stamped with the head of the new King. One of these coins, a bright new penny, is used as a connecting link right through the film. Against an ever changing background, supplied by the current tunes and catch-words and newsitems that have characterised each phase of this eventful period in turn, we follow the fortunes of this penny of the year 1911 right through the reign up to the present day. It buys a programme of the Coronation, is given by a girl to the boy she loves, is picked up during the War by a corporal whose baby buys a balloon with it on Armistice Day. It is dropped into an unemployed miner’s collection box, purchases a newspaper containing the pictures of Princess Mary’s wedding, buys some wire for a lad’s home-made wireless set, purchases a ticket from

an amateur bus-driver during the days of the General Strike, and yet another • newspaper at a time of grave anxiety during the King’s illness. It symbolises national stability at the time of the financial crisis, and it is among the coins which pay for admission to the Regalia Room in the Tower of London, from which point we look backwards into England’s past, and visualise our King’s great ancestry through pictures of his predecessors. Our final glimpses of the 1911 penny shows it being contributed in response to the Prince of Wales’ appeal for “pennies as well as pounds” to the King George Jubilee Trust. Many interesting scenes have been filmed. One of the first to be shot was that of Captain Scott’s Antarctic Expedition arriving at the South Pole to find that Amundsen has beaten them. Other scenes will show the growth of the cinema, telephone, aeroplane, wireless. motor-cars, and other means of transport. The remarkable scenes of festivity such as the Coronation of His Majesty the King, his first Privy Council at Buckingham Palace, the first Command Performance at which the incomparable Pavlova danced the ‘ Dying Swan,” scenes at Goodwood and Cowes, the famous Victory Ball at Albert Hall, all these are included in th 3 picture which has been made to commemorate the reign of His Most Gracious Majesty, King George V. The “Daily Mail.” London, refers to “The Royal Cavalcade” as a film splendidly conceived and magnificently produced. A picture which should be a triumphant success wherever it is shown and which should be seen in every cinema throughout the Bitish Empire. The featured players in “The Royal Cavalcade” number over one hundred, and include most of the well known screen players in England. This wonderful picture will commence its Timaru season on Saturday next at the Majestic. “Clive of India” One of the most dramatic events in world history—the trial of Robert ' Clive in the English House of Commons—is reproduced as accurately as research experts could reconstruct the scene in Darryl Zanuck’s million-dollar 20th Century production, “Clive of India,” starring Ronald Colman and released through United Artists. It is the scene at which Lord Clive of Plassy, conqueror of India, was accused of accepting a bribe from a potentate of India. Clive started as a poor clerk of the British East India Company. Although not a soldier, he became the most brilliant of all military generals, and was made a peer of the realm before he was 30. His enemies, however, publicly accused him of corruption—and he was hailed before Parliament and disgraced. Richard Day, who designed the sets for “Clive of India” has duplicated to the smallest detail England’s historic House of Commons, that venerable chamber in which some of the most stirring drama in world history has been enacted. Stars as Extras Two stars of the silent screen who entered the era of talking pictures top favourites, slipped from the pinnacle during the rise of sound, and now as the motion picture enters into its third great phase, colour, are filling small roles, not high above the ranks of extra. Creighton Hale and Gaston Glass are to be seen in the ballroom sequence of “Becky Sharp” RKO Radio all-colour picture. Glass received his stage training with Sarah Bernhardt. He was with her both in America and abroad. He was in silent pictures for 11 years. He played the violinist in “Humorusque.” Creighton Hale, lovable young Irishman, will be remembered for his part in "Way Down East” and more recently in “The Great Divide.”