OPERA HOUSE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 258, 1 November 1939, Page 9

OPERA HOUSE

"THE THREE MUSKETEERS” Those inimitable clowns o£ I .ie screen, the Hitz brothers, have playi'i many character parts in their productions to date, but their performance in “The Three Musketeers," a 20th Century-Fox presentation of Alexandre Dumas’ immortal novel, commencing to-day at the Opera House, prWnises to be the best of their careers. Although the -story is too well known’to bear repea.in;, tlie film is given an amusing twist by the change in its characterisation ci the King's Musketeers. Don Arneche gives an admirable portrayal of the daring, reckless D’Artagnan, and Binnie Barnes makes a crafty Countess de Winter.

“Five Came Bad;” One of the most unusual pictures in years is "Five Came Back," a new dramatic offering, which heads Friday's programme at the Opera House, with an all-star cast headed by Chester Morris, Lucille Ball and Wendy Barrie. The film deals with the plight of a group of aeroplane travellers forced down in a tropical jungle. While head-hunting natives threaten to wipe out the whole party, romance and adventure and jealousy and heroism flourish among them, as the two pilots labour to repair the craft and fly it out to civilisation. And when the survivors are ready to go, they discover that the crippled plane can carry only five of them—the otheis must stay behind and face certain death. Around this stark situation the film’s cast and technical staff have woven a brilliantly developed piece of screen-fare, grim, colourful, realistic, tender and memorable.