STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 September 1939, Page 2

STATE THEATRE

“CRACKERJACK.” The current programme at the State Theatre, headed by “Crackerjack” and “Mr Moto in Danger Island,” will be finally shown tonight.

“WUTHERING HEIGHTS.” A Classic of the Screen.

The grey moors of Yorkshire, an ancient house rendered spectral by a love tragedy, a glimpse in the eerie darkness of the ghostlike form of a woman—and out into the night, never to return, rushes the gaunt lover, in pursuit of the wraith of the woman for whom he has waited. Divided between loyalty to her husband and the weird fascination of the other man, she ■had died years before in the latter’s arms, whereupon he himself had proclaimed that he was the cause of her death, and he had invited her to come back from the after-life and to haunt him. Much more than that is found in the story of “Wuthering Heights,” but enough has been said to indicate a complex of mysticism, of personal magnetism on its sex side, or perhaps of pre-ordained fate. The heroine of “Wuthering Heights” is two women alternately, and sometimes almost at once. She (Merle Oberon) is the dutiful wife of her husband in home and in drawing-room, but out on the Yorkshire moors the witchcraft of wild, grey places lays hold of her and she is the passionate adorer of her; baseborn lover (Laurence Olivier). This problem of a woman’s divided soul ■is very old and ever new. Emily Bronte, herself one of the most mystic features of the Bronte tradition, created the novel “Wuthering Heights,” and Samuel Goldwyn created the picture of the same name which was previewed on Sunday evening by a satisfied audiehce. The film will be shown tomorrow night at the State Theatre. The two principals, Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, are the pivot of the story, but the picture owes much to a strong supporting cast. Today, just as for the last eighty years, critics regard the novel as an enigma, and Emily Bronte herself is regarded as the most enigmatic of the three literary Bronte sisters. She had had mystic experiences before her death, at thirty years, in 1848. Add to this background of mystery, of tragedy, and of borderline life the haunting greyness of the Yorkshire moors, and the result is a problem picture full of subtle charm. There is ghostliness but no ghastliness. Passion is displayed, not torn to tatters. It is a picture to be remembered.