MAJESTIC

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 111, 13 May 1931, Page 11

MAJESTIC

“OLD ENGLISH” f •’ VESTIGIA NULLA RETRORSUM ’ ’ Owing to numerous requests “Old English” will be screened again , to-day at the Majestic Theatre. ; There is little wonder at George , Arliss, that mastc of characterisation, declaring that he liked this play better than “Disraeli.” “Old English” calls upon him for his very best. Based on the famous play of John Galsworthy, the central character has to fill a role that occupies the full focus erf public attention right through the piece. There is a plot in the story it is true, a very deep laid plot, wherein men quarrel over ships, over debts* and things of that kind. But it is upon the central figure of Sylvanus Heythorpe, played by George Arliss, that the whole trend of the play is dependent. He gives so realistic a characterisation of Galsworthy’s strong-brained English man with crippled legs, that one can almost see the living image. Every facial expression counts in the tone boats of the play. Every little action, every muttered word/ To write one’s signature | may be a commonplace thing, but when j George Arliss appended his to a letter | when his mind war. in a state of determined strength, then signature writing ' became an art. The wrathful dip of j the quill in ink. The hurried scrawl of | the writing. Then, finally, the rip of the pen on the underline—it was an action which only an actor like Arliss could charge so appealingly with life. And Arliss can make pleasurable eating a work of ar* too. On the fateful final night, when, for the sake of a grandchild who was “fresh as April” he makes the last break to cheat a pressing creditor of blackmail, his meal j was an undertaking so realistical, so typical of the man that Galsworthy created that the audience could not fail to sense the power of the actor. Strong in brain, 3ouragcous in spirit, independent in action. Arliss "portrays all these fundamentals in his characterisation of “Old English” and in his spirit of determination it is of significance to note that he uses the motto of the Wanganui Collegiate School —“Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum,” no footsteps backward. No truer description of the man could be applied. He had had his day, ho had had his youth. Now his legs wore crippled and his brain he used to sec that others got their d«y too. Ho liked the freshness of spring. He liked, also, power. But above all things his courage and a love one could sense deep down underneath, shone from a