AMUSEMENTS, MEETINGS, ETC.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18973, 26 March 1924, Page 2

AMUSEMENTS, MEETINGS, ETC.

THE COVERED WAGON. If there had been “movie” cameras in 184,7, there eould not have been secured a more realistic picture of a trek by pioneers across the American prairies than is shown in “The Covered Wagon,” now running to crowded seats at the Opera House. “The Covered Wagon” is a great “draw.” It is crammed full of real good stuff. The true pioneer spirit pervades the whole film—the desire to plough and cultivate new lands and to build new homesteads for future generations. The eternal triangle is of course involved in the picture, and the three corners are protruding nearly all the time, though not too prominently. Anyhow, it is a bright, healthy love story. There are some splendid views of the long lines of covered wagons threading their way across the apparently endless “No Man’s Land.” It is a long slow trek, a test of the physical endurance and determination of even the hardiest. The difficulties are many, and some of the pioneers turn back and fade from the scene, probably to fall victims to marauding “Injuns.” Two notable scouts figure in the picture, and Indians there are in any number, painted and befeathered horsemen who advance behind a screen of bushes, and the spectators on their cushioned seats in the Opera House can almost imagine the blood-curdling yells as they charge to the attack on the wagons, behind which men load and fire with the >pe6d of desperation. Then the Indians break the cordon of wagons; there is a wild, mad melee of shrieking, shouting pale-faces and Indians with horses stampeding out of the enclosure. When it seems as if every girdle will wear a scalp that day, over the distant hills comes the relief party, led by the hero. But even then the course of true love does not run smoothly, for the villain is a persistent, heartless man. But Nemesis overtakes him in the end, as it should, with all good villains. What the spectators take away most from the film, are the impressions of the pioneering life of those days, its hardships and its dangers. It is one of the best and healthiest pictures seen here, despite the fact that a boy pioneer does “chaw terbacea” and the scouts have a jamboree, following on which the scouts go out into the courtyard of the fort and do some shooting tricks worthy of William Tell or Rifleman Simmonds.