REGENT THEATRE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 169, 22 July 1935, Page 9

REGENT THEATRE

“LORNA DOONE" The film version of ‘‘.Lorna Doone," screening again to-day at the Ke gent Theatre, is a triumph for the two principals, John Loder and Victoria Hooper, and for all concerned. As niu‘-h perhaps as the exciting story, it is the scenic atmosphere of K. D. Blackmore’s novel that has kept it among the best-beloved of all romances. And it is the pictorial beauty of the film, made among the authentic settings of broad Exmoor, that is its most notable feature. In all its essentials the story of the film is the “Lorna Doone” that Blackmore wrote. All the well-remembered incidents are here, and well portrayed—the meeting of “girt Jan” Ridd with Lorna, the growth of his love for her, nis invasion of the outlaw’s stronghold to carry her away from the villainous Carver Doone, the attack on the farmhouse, the extermination of the Doones, the coming the Jan and Lorna to the Court of James 11, and the final struggle whi’ch leads to the horrible death of Carver Doone. The film does not, of course, attempt to follow the intricacies of the original story; it selects the most striking incidents and presents them forcefully and vividly, leaving the rest to the imagination, or memory, of the audience. A quick impression is given of each event, and before it has faded away the next episode has begun. Not only are the country scenes well treated, but the episode at Court is also a well-handled pieve of acting and production. It is a delightfully satirical vignette of the Court of James 11. There is an excellent supporting programme. (Tn the supporting programme, "Pleasure Island” is a Warner Bros.’ musical comedy in Teehnicolour, while on the stage a special prologue is provided by the Hughes-Johnson-Hunter Studio in "Highsteppers.”