PLAZA THEATRE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 305, 30 December 1935, Page 10

PLAZA THEATRE

“ESCAPE ME NEVER.” No more appealing picture has ever been presented on the screen in "Wanganui than Elizabeth Bergner’s “Escape Me Never,” which continues a season at the Plaza Theatre to-day. One expects great things of the little •Austrian actress, who has been named by many of the most famous critics as the finest actress on either the stage or the screen at the present time, but it is delightful when one finds those expectations more than justified. Her Gemma Jones will live, as her “Catherine the Great’’ has lived, a character undimmed by passing time and unsurpassed. There is almost a relationship between the .two characters, so widely separated in type and circumstance, but one kn'ows as one watches that the relationship is the Bergner. She gives to them both the same heroic quality that is part of her own personality. Elfishly elusive, she dances through the picture, gurgling with laughter at one mowent as a child will gurgle in sheer contentment, the next flashing away in impish mischief; but with it all is the woman, a ring of know.edge in her voce, a depth of feeling in her grief. What a grand character she makes of Gemma Jones! Technically the film is and the casting and .the direction are- equally of first-class standard. Aerially, in story “Escape Me Never” is slight. It is really ihe story of Gemma Janes, illegitimate young daughter of a suicide mother, world wanderer and widowed mother. Against that background of history one would not expect to find such a character. It is doubtful if any other actress —excepting possibly Margaret Sullavan — could have attempted it and none could have achieved such success. Gemma breaks into the calmness of a Venetian tyome like a tornado and in the upheaval that follows—the smashing and rebuilding of a romance, the regeneration of a wastrel and the death of her child—she has the same disturbing quality. And always she is lovable, with the frank honesty and devilry of a child contrasting with the understanding, worldly woman. Hugh Sinclair, an English actor, making his first picture after years of success on the American stage, gives a fine characterisation as the heartless wastrel in whom Gemma finds the man, while Griffith Jones and Penelope Ward are also notable in their roles. A good shorts programme includes a newsreel of the Melbourne -Cup and a good pictorial review. George Arliss Film. In “The Guv’nor,” a Gaumont British film, coming to the Plaza Theatre at the midnight matinee to-mor-row, George Arliss, the first gentleman of the screen, plays the title role, that of a genial tramp with a genuine love of the open air. His constant companion and fellow nomad, played by Gene Gerrard, the comedian, is a quickwitted fellow, always ready to seize an opportunity to obtain maximum comfort with the minimum of physical effort. Discovering that the “Guv’nor’s” real name is also that of an internationally famous financier, he cunningly contrives to exploit the coincidence and to cover up the “Gov’nor’s” errors when impersonation projects both into all sorts of embarrassing predicaments.