DE LUXE THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 19, 17 October 1942, Page 10

DE LUXE THEATRE

“Wo thought we were educated because we had spent quite a few years at college, but, after we had been here a while, we discovered we didn’t even talk tile King's English—our eating habits were funny, too. The New Zealanders ealled-us the knifeless wonders. We had shocking mariners—we sprinkled the salt over our food instead of putting it in a heap on the side of tile plate. But we are learning.” So said an American in comic-seriousness at a meeting in Wellington the ether evening. But these are superficial differ-ences—-British or American, we are all brothers under the skin. That is why Wellington will take kindly to “Joe Smith, American,” the interesting new film winch has begun at -the De Luxe. The star is one of M.G.lM.’s biggest—Robert Young, and he epitomises the vast unsung army: the man behind the man behind the gun. Robert Young in frothy comedy is a sure guarantee of queues at the box-office; Robert Young in a workman’s overalls, as he appears m "Joe Smith, American,” is an inspiration to a nation which is crying aloud for every ounce of manpower for its enormouslyexpanding war production. Others in the cast include Hollywood’s white hope, Marsha Hunt, a young actress with plenty of talent, Darryl Hickman, Jonathan Hate anil Noel-Madison. (Is the latter the son of the late Maurice Moscovitch?) Portraying the -days when the principal dangers associated with Alaska were snow and not enemy planes, gold-prospecting and not invasion, “Girl from .Alaska,” also on the programme, is one of those pleasant, guileless pictures which puts more strain on the credulity than on the intelligence. Jean Parker is the girl who battles her way through “the vast, illimitable snows,” and Ray Middleton is the hero who makes the battle worth while. Also in the film are Jerome Cowan, Robert H. Barrat and Ray Mala.