REGENT THEATRE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 306, 28 December 1936, Page 9

REGENT THEATRE

“DODSWORTH." I "Dodsworth,” the dramatisation by I Sidney Howard of Sinclair Lewis’ I famous novel screening to-day at the Regent Theatre, is characterised by acting of an exceptionally high standard, and of a type essentially distinct from that of the usual Hollywood variety. Walter Huston's jortrayal of the part of a tyjflcal American good business man, in many ways a laudable type, though often caricatured, entitles him to a place among the great American character actors. Ruth Chatterton is also outstanding in the unpopular role of his vain and selfish wife, out for a good time and seeking perennial youth. There is not a trace of melodrama or self-consciousness in Huston’s rendering of Dodsworth, a successful producer of motor-cars, who after 20 years, starts off for Europe with his young wife for his education in leisure, leaving their newly-married daughter at home. His wife yearns for gaiety in the form of flirtations and superficial love affairs. She is terrified of growing old. and the contentment with which Dodsworth accepts his years turns her from him to younger men. Supporting Huston and Ruth Chatterton are Mary Astor, Paul Lukas, and David Niven. The excellent supports include an enlightening “March of Time” newsreel on Albania and one of the best Mickey Mouse cartoons yet produced, "Mickey's Grand Opera."