HUNTERVILLE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 185, 6 August 1936, Page 3

HUNTERVILLE

ST. JAMES’ THEATRE “TALE OF TWO CITIES” W’ith the amazing total of 112 speaking parts in the screen play, “A Tale of Two Cities.” starring Ronald Colman, sets an all-time record for size of a motion picture cast. It comes to the St. James’ Theatre on Saturday as one of the year’s greatest achievements. The scenario, according to David O. Selznick, who produced it for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, not only retains every major character in Dickens’ original novel—the most spectacular story of his distinguished career—but has amplified some of the incidental characters to major importance. The astonishing total of speaking parts in the story created a casting problem such as Hollywood never before had encountered. It far surpassed the problem of selecting actors for “David Copperfield,” which had the most pre-possessing cast of any picture up to that time. Ronald Colman, one of filmdon’s most distinguished stars, creates the immortal role of Sydney Carton, the wastrel who rises to heights of dramatic sacrifice. Elizabeth Allan, who scored decisively as the young mother in “Cupperfield,” has the hole of Lucie Manette, the tragic heroine.