DRAMA OF YOUTH.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 471, 4 June 1932, Page 25 (Supplement)

DRAMA OF YOUTH.

All the diverse elements that enter into the lives of the younger generation have been utilised by the makers in presenting this gripping study of high school youth, “Are These Our Children?” which commenced at the Crystal Palace to-day. The picture is already being cited by critics as the most important film dealing with youth yet made. The production was directed by Wesley Ruggles, and it is said to be technically perfect and unblemished by an.y distortion of facts. There is a brilliant cast of young players, including Eric Linden, Ben Alexander, Arline Judge and Beryl Mercer. Gauged to a dramatic tempo, it “ bares the souls of high school children as calmly as a dissecting surgeon at work, and reveals an aweinspiring panorama of emotions — romance, greed and budding idealism.” Perhaps no picture of recent times has utilised a modern social problem as effectively and entertainingly as “ Are These Our Children?” The story concerns an intimate group of high school children—a cross section of any such group, anywhere—and focuses itself on them individually and collectively as

they are related to their environment. A boy, with all the benefits of a good family background, flirts with adventure, becomes involved in a tragedy of circumstance and emerges from that experience a super-egotist who jib'es at life, the law and traditions until the end finds him contrite and meek—but only when it is too late. Against this stern characterisation the director, Wesley Ruggles, whose original story this is, has interspersed oth'er facets of youthful experience. Good girls, bad girls, mere flappers and their male counterparts weave in and out of the tensely dramatic situations. Box plans at The Bristol.