THE THEATRES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 911, 4 November 1933, Page 24 (Supplement)

THE THEATRES.

“THE WORKING MAN.” George Arliss Triumph in Third Week. The Arliss who lias become a byword in the motion picture world as a brilliant character actor, loses none or his popularity with the passing- of time. In " Tin' Working Man,'* which entered Its third week at the Plaza Theatre to-day, George Arliss again achieves the excellence ot performance which won him such renown in “Disraeli** and “The Man Who Played Clod.’* As a typo, however, the character he plays In the present picture is radically different from the others mentioned. Yet It lias a purpose; one of those Arliss purposes in life which are always associated with his productions. It is not too much to say that to take part in a Him which hail no purpose to fulfil, or object lesson to give. would be foreign to the Arliss convention. In '• The Working Man " he succeeds once more in driving a moral home. On this occasion he is a shoo manufacturer (Reeves) on the large scale, practically dictating footwear to America, and with but one real competitor—an old friend of his. Business is not flourishing as well as It might. Then suddenly the opponent (Hartland) flies and things are looking up for the Reeves’s side. Reeves, however, has a nephew, Benjamin, imbued with all the best in the Yankee conception of business psychology. Benjamin is running Reeves’s firm so well that the uncle decides to go fishing—and then the trouble starts. ” The Working Man ” must be seen, for it is the great character actor’s finest screen play. Excellent supports are 1 also screened.