AMUSEMENTS.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20234, 12 May 1931, Page 12

AMUSEMENTS.

EVERYBODY'S THEATRE. "HOUSE OF THE ARROW." Among modern detective thrillers, A. E. W. Mason's stories take a high place, and "The House of the Arrow" is one of the best of them. The film version of the novel, appearing at Everybody's Theatre this week, is an admirable adaptation, calculated to hold the interest through a sequence of well-con-nected though mystifying incidents, satisfying from ttie quality of the acting, and entertaining from the admixture of some really first-class humour. The story has lost nothing in the transfer from the written to the film medium —it retains the closely-knit structure that is essential to Any detective plot, and at the same time the characters are so well individualised, so satisfying in their mannerisms and speeoh, that none who sees the picture should go .away, disappointed. Most satisfying of all is. the representation of the famous French detective, M. Hanau. His manner is so suave, lit by a sly humour that has a really Gallic quality, while his methods of bringing clues to light are a . right admixture of mystification and enlightenment. The story concerns a wealthy woman in a country house who is murdered in the night. Several people are suspected, including a very pretty girl who is loved by an Englishmen, and for a time every bit of evidence seems to point the wrong way. In the end tho detective sets things right in the most dramatic way possible. The supports include a cartoon and a comedy.