KIPLING STORY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 274, 18 November 1937, Page 3

KIPLING STORY

MAJESTIC ATTRACTION. “CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS." The power of Rudyard Kipling’s saga of the sea, "Captains Courageous,” attains its greatest force in the dramatic picture which Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer has brought to the screen, and which will commence at the Majestic Theatre on Saturday. The characters are portrayed with rare artistry, and the medium of course, provides a scope far beyond that which the writer is permitted. M.G.M., with characteristic vigour, has omitted no detail that would bring into visual and audible play the genius of the master writer. They bought a Gloucester schooner and sailed her down through the Canal to the Pacific, there to make some of the gorgeous scenes. Others were shot along the Atlantic seaboard from Newfoundland south to the West Indies. Nothing was overlooked. Freddie Bartholomew, as the boy who is swept from the deck of a liner to be rescued by the Gloucester crew of a fishing schooner, performs his first American role, and unquestionably it is equal, if not superior, to anything he has ever done in his distinguished young career. Spencer Tracy scores as Manuel, the Portuguese fisherman, as do Lionel Barrymore as the picturesque Captain Disko, skipper of the schooner "We're Here,” and Melvyn Douglas as Freddie’s father. In the large supporting cast distinguished work is contributed by Charley Grapewin, Mickey Rooney, Jack Larue, John Carradine, Walter Kingsford, Donald Briggs, Sam McDaniels, Dave Thursby, and numerous others, as well as the actual crew of the Gloucester schooner which was sailed to the Pacific coast for the picture. Just as Kipling knew and respected the sea, so has the picture caught and reflected its majestic moods and lhe beauty of calm and storm, sulight and fog. The players, individually and collectively, have grasped their respective parts with a remarkable depth of understanding.

West End Successes. Recent West End successes in London were one-act plays, two of which were presented for the first time. They were Pirandello's "Sicilian Limes,” a •playlet on a more or Jess straightforward subject, and H. F. Rubinstein's “To the Poets of Australia.” Another that kept audiences of the Players’ Theatre at Covent Garden interested was Philip Jo’.nson’s "Out Goes She.” Clifford Odet's play, "Waiting for Lefty,” which deals with the American working classes, was also presented. The casts ncluded Leonard Sachs, Alexander Sarna, Clelia Matania, and Ambrosine Phillpotts, a niece of Eden Phillpotts.