“MR ROBINSON CRUSOE”

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 757, 10 May 1933, Page 3

“MR ROBINSON CRUSOE”

Adventure and Romance in New Fairbanks Film.

“Trouble In Paradise,” the excellent talking picture starring Herbert Marshall, Kay Francis and Miriam Hopkins, will have its final screening at the

Theatre Royal on Friday night. Douglas Fairbanks’s latest talking picture, “ Mr Robinson Crusoe,” will be the headline attraction at the Theatre Royal on Saturday. It will give local admirers of the famous athletic star their first opportunity of seeing him in a modern version of the classic Defoe character, a character destined to become included in the gallery already composed of ” Robin Hood,” ” Don Q,” “The Three Musketeers” and other Fairbanks masterpieces. 44 Mr Robinson Crusoe ” is not a travelogue. It is an original story by Tom Geraghty, one based upon the famous classic, but it only draws upon certain adventures in the Defoe story. Moreover, it is brightened up and done with a sense of humour which is not one of the manifold features of the original. Douglas Fairbanks's Crusoe is a young sportsman who, for a wager, undertakes to duplicate the life of the famous story-book character. Xot only does he equal Crusoe’s accomplishments, but be also unearths many other complications, including a hand-to-hand fight with a head-hunter, battles with cannibals and. even more intriguing than these, the capture of a beautiful maiden in one of his game snares. Fairbanks made this picture in its entirety in the South Seas, photographing most of it on the island of Tahiti. With him went a complete production staff, a writer, a director and his three leading supporting players. Maria Alba has the leading feminine role. She portrays a South Sea siren, and the remaining belles In the picture were recruited from the beautiful natives. William Farnum plavs the so-called 44 heavy,” and Karle Browne has a principal role. Hundreds of natives appear in the supporting cast.