STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 July 1939, Page 2

STATE THEATRE

“SUBMARINE PATROL." Mention the term “Navy picture” and most movie-goers immediately think of super-dreadnaughts heaving in the ocean swells to the strains of “Anchors Aweigh.” They think of gold braid and'hallowed tradition and the splendid young men of the Naval Academy. All this is very fine; it is good dramatic material. But it is probably neither as fine nor as dramatic as the great story out of which 20th Century-Fox has fashioned “Submarine Patrol,” which will be shown at the State Theatre tonight. “Submarine Patrol,” while based on the most heroic chapter in rhe whole history of naval warfare, is no more a typical “Navy picture” than “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” was a typical mu-i sical. “Submarine Patrol” tells the ] incredible story, for some strange reason overlooked until now, that has lain neglected in the American navy’s archives for some twenty-odd years. It is the story of America’s wartime “Splinter Fleet” —those tiny, oft-ridi-culed, wooden patrol boats, designed to clear the U-boat infested lanes of the Atlantic, and some of them manned by the sorriest crews of civilian odds and ends ever to board a fighting ship. From every walk of life they came —taxi drivers, social registerites,. soda jerkers, farmers —expecting a soft berth aboard the sub-chasers, for no one thought the “Splinter Fleet” would see any real action. And then, suddenly, they were steaming out of Brooklyn Navy Yard under secret orders, to face an ordeal by fire such as men seldom encounter even in wartime. Richard Greene is seen in the role of the young social registerite who joins up as Chief Engineer, and who promptly falls in love with Nancy Kelly (a promising newcomer to films), whose father is the skipper of a munitions freighter which Greene’s ship is assigned to convoy across the Atlantic. Others in the cast are: Preston Foster, George Bancroft, Slim Summerville,* Joan Carradine, Joan Valerie, Henry Armetta, Warren Hymer, Douglas Fowley, J. Farrell MacDonald and Maxie Rosenbloom.