“Spitfire.”

Thames Star, Volume LXV, Issue 19247, 31 October 1934, Page 2

“Spitfire.”

‘MURDER ON THE BLACKBOARD' FEATURES AT KING'S THEATRE. A change of programme at the King’s ‘ Theatre to-night brings “Murder on the Blackboard” and “Spitfire.” Edna May Oliver, James Gleason, Regis Toomey and other R.K.O. artists are featured in “Murder on the Blackboard,” a comedy-drama in which a young school teacher is slain and her body burned in a furnace. Events move excitingly, involving several suspects. Weird escapes and hilarious comedy alternate to a thrilling climax in which the amateur sleuth reveals to the astonished police the murderer. Gleason and Edna May Oliver are excellent foils for each other, and with effortless technique make the most of a story which is rich in laughs, thrills and sentiment. Katherine Hepburn is. starred in “Spitfire,” the second attraction, and she is supported by Ralph Bellamy, Louis Mason and Robert Young. As Trigger Hicks, a seini-wild girl of the Carolina mountains, Miss Hepburns offers something new in characterisations and plays a dominant part in the unfolding of the story. An exciting series of events run through the picture, making the life of the girl a tempestuous one. Although the story, that of the love of two men for one girl, is old, its development and denouement is said to be entirely unique. One of the men loves the girl through his own selfishness, and the other for the sterling qualities of her heart and soul. It is on the girl’s misinterpretation of their respective motives that the romance of this drama is built. “Spitfire” is an adaptation of the popular stage play, “Trigger,” in vogue a few season’s ago.