“ARROWSMITH.”

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 600, 2 November 1932, Page 3

“ARROWSMITH.”

Ronald Colman’s Latest and Best Talkie.

“The Misleading Lady” (with Claudette Colbert and Edmund Lowe) will be shown at the Theatre Royal for the last time on Friday night. “ Arrowsmith,” the much-heralded masterpiece of Sinclair Lewis, who is admitted to be one of the best novelists of the present day, comes to the Theatre Royal on Saturday in a great production by Samuel Goldwyn, with Ronald Colman playing the title role of the crusading young doctor. Critics all over the world have already hailed “ Arrowsmith ” as one of the most important pictures of the year, and Sinclair Lewis himself, after witnessing its premiere, acknowledged publicly that it had succeeded in doing everything he had tried to do in his book. The distinction of its story, the importance of its cast, and the acclaim with which it has been received, combine to make the screening of “ Arrowsmith ” a noteworthy event.

“ Arrowsmith ” as a novel is acknowledged by most critics to be the finest work of Sinclair Lewis. It won a Pulitzer Prize on publication, only to have Sinclair Lewis refuse to accept the award as not representing his work. Last year his eminence as an inter-nationally-important writer was recognised by the award of the Nobel Prize for literature, the greatest such award in the world. “ Arrowsmith ” records the thrilling, tragic story of what fearless scientists done to stamp out the great plagues which have always been the worst enemies of mankind.

In the role of its crusading doctorhero, Ronald Colman goes down to a savage island in the West Indies to risk his life against bubonic plague, the historic Black i Death, in hopes of | proving that he has discovered its cure. Helen Hayes, the | stage star who recently triumphed in 1 her first screen appearance, in •• The Sin of Madelon Claudet,” plays opposite Ronald Col-

man in the role of the devoted wife who risks her life for her husband’s career. Richard Bennett, the stormy petrel of the stage and father of Constance, Joan and Barbara Bennett, has a major role as Sondelius, the plaguefighting Swede, and A. E. Anson, an eminent stage figure, making his motion picture debut, has another rich character role. Myrna Loy, Florence Britton, Claude King and Alec B. Francis take important parts.