REGENT THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 November 1940, Page 2

REGENT THEATRE

“BLACKMAIL.” Against a spectacular background of oil well fires, in a tensely dramatic theme, Edward G. Robinson is said to play one of the greatest roles of his career in “Blackmail,” which will be shown tonight at the Regent Theatre. It is a vital, different, sympathetic role, one that, when coupled • with Robinson’s portrayals of racketeering gang leaders and ruthless gunmen, finds him emerging one of the most versatile actors on the screen today. Although he is once more on. the wrong side of prison bars he is there for a crime he did not commit. The heavy is Gene Lockhart, curiously enough nearly as well known for his kindly or comic roles as Robinson, is as a killer. Robinson. is cast as an oil well shooter who nine years before had escaped from a prison caifnp after being sent there for a crime committed by Lockhart. Seeing Robinson’s picture in a newsreel, Lockhart'shows up in town, professes friendship, worms his way into Robinson’s confidence, then blackmailshim for 25,000 dollars in exchange for a confession to the crime. By a ruse, Lockhart receives his confession back, destroys it, and turns Robinson over to the police. Robinson is returned to prison, escapes from a road gang camp in the swamps when he learns that Lockhart has secured all his property, and in a dramatic climax threatens to burn Lockhart alive in an oil well fire. Lockhart screams his confession so that Robinson’s friends may hear. The featurettes include the latest Air Mail News, giving thrilling shots of the London attacks, convoy raids and the work of the R.A.F. Plans are at the shop of Messrs Steele and Bull and the theatre.