OUTSTANDING FILM.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20233, 17 February 1934, Page 25 (Supplement)

OUTSTANDING FILM.

“Henry VIII.” in Third Week at Plaza. “ The Private Life of Henry VIII.,” began the third week of its extremely successful season at the Plaza Theatre to-day. Thanks to the acting genius of Charles Laughton, it is the most varied, vivid and amusing character sketch the “ talkies have yet revealed—a portrait to cherish. With its laughably pathetic story, “ Henry VIII.” gives a new aspect of the amorous activities of Bluff King Hal, for, although history bcoks treat him as rathei a scoundrel, and grudgingly admit that he was a great king, the picture shows Henry as a man whose life was ruled by love, or perhaps the want of it. It would be difficult to find an actor more suited to the role than Charles Laughton. In the first place he has the robust dimensions and hearty manner which earned the cognomen Bluff for King Hal. His make-up is a triumph; in fact, he is almost indistinguishable from the haughty monarch who graces Holbein’s famous canvas. Secondly, his genius for character-acting enables him to give a life portrait of the imperious monarch. The audience is introduced to Henry at the time of Anne Boleyn’s execution and his marriage to Jane Seymour on the same day. Then follows the parade of wives, lit by delicious humour, flashes of drama and thorough entertainment all the way through. The supports are first-class.