“SHANGHAI MADNESS.”

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 936, 5 December 1933, Page 3

“SHANGHAI MADNESS.”

Majestic’s New Picture is Full of Thrills. Those who like pictures crammed with action and leavened by a spice of romance will enjoy " Shanghai Madness.” starring: Spencer Tracy and Fay Wray, which opt ned at the Majestic Theatre yesterday. Films having the teeming East as a background have a big start on all other types as thev have colour and interest which necesown. “ Shanghai Madness ” has this atmosphere in plenty. It turns the spotlight on every section of a cosmopolitan city, from the forbidding dives and tortuous streets of the native quarter to the gaiety of the international olpbs and the bustle of the great waterfront. Fighting on a grand scale, with rifles, machine-guns and even a field gun, adds to the excitement of a film, which never stops for a breath, hut rushes on at express speed to a highly satisfactory climax. The lead is played by big. bluff Spencer Tracy, who appears as an American naval officer dismissed from the service for disobedience of orders. Disgraced in Shanghai and eyed askance by those from whom he seeks work, he falls in love with a girl (Fay Wray). She is the daughter of an influential American resident in Shanghai, and he meets her by rescuing her from a street riot. Realising the hopelessness of his dreams. Tracy ships as gunner with a crowd of picturesque ruffians on a river boat. The skipper of the boat is Eugene Palette, an old favourite. Another popular actor, Herbert Mundin, takes the part of the first officer on the boat, so there is plenty of comic relief. All manner of complications follow, and there is an exciting scene in which an American inland mission is besieged by savage Communists, who have routed the Government troops. The Communists are attacked by the old river boat. Her one gun bombards the squalid town, blowing Chinese houses asunder like so many paper dwellings. Then a landing party from the boat carries the attack ashore, and there is some thhilling hand-to-hand fighting. The director of the film must have put in a great deal of time training his Chinese “supers” for .in these scenes they fight like demons and the effect is thrilling and most realistic. The dramatic value, the breathless action and the clever comedy of “ Shanghai Madness ’ make it a film to be remembered. The strong supporting programme includes a clever English comedy which constructs the most delightful situations and then exploits them to the utmost limits of riotous amusement. It is a worthy forerunner to the featured attraction. A Fox Australian Xewsreel completes an excellent programme.