NORMA SHEARER FILM.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 379, 22 March 1932, Page 3

NORMA SHEARER FILM.

In “ Their Own Desire,” which opened a return season at Everybody's Theatre last evening, Norma Shearer has another of the unusual roles for which she has gained such a well-de-served reputation and as usual she gives a perfect representation. The story is a strong one and with a strong

cast, including Lewis Stone, Robert Montgomery and Belle Bennett, as well as Miss Shearer, it is a really good production.

Norma Shearer is cast as the daughter of parents who have lived happily together for twenty-three years and then with the entrance of another woman into the life of the father have discovered a strange incompatability. They separate, the daughter going with the mother. Complications enter -with the meeting of the daughter with a young man, Robert Montgomery, with whom she eventually falls in love. The mother has objection in that she does not wish to lose the daughter as well as the husband and the final complication comes when it is discovered that the young man is the son of the woman with whom the father has left. There are emotional scenes and partings, but the matter is not let rest. A storm capsizes the boat in which the young people have gone out for the last time together, and for three days they are lost. The fears of a tragedy bring all parties together again and the circle is completed, when the pair are discovered and rescued. The picture has not the emotional climax of Miss Shearer’s last picture, “A Free Soul,” but the actress gives an equally splendid performance. Robert Montgomery has made several fine films since he played in “ Their Own Desire,” his third big picture, but he has not surpassed the performance he gives in that picture. The supports are of a high standard, with an excellent news reel, a revue in tochnicolour, and a really good Laurel and Hardy comedy, “ The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case.” The duo stayed the night in the house of a murdered man and the thrills they experienced left the audience helpless with laughter.