JUNGLE THRILLS

Evening Star, Issue 23693, 28 September 1940, Page 19

JUNGLE THRILLS

EXCITEMENT AND DRAMA There is plenty of fast moving action and excitement throughout ‘ Zanzibar,’ the Universal jungle melodrama featured on the new programme at the Strand. Made patently for absorbing entertainment, the picture has wild animal fights, .hordes of savages about to make a human sacrifice, a volcanic eruption, a shipwreck, hand-to-hand fighting, and about everything else needed to> keep an audience in rapt attention from the opening scene to the last. Action-loving audiences will thoroughly enjoy it. Spectators should be, thrilled by the animal fights, and by encounters between the men and the animals. Further cause for exciteme.nt are the closing scenes, in which white' people are captured by the natives, who plan to torture and kill them. Lola Lane and James Craig enact the leading roles. Miss Lane is a woman explorer seeking the missing:. skull of an East African ruler which, in enemy

hands, would cause the natives to revolt against British rule. Described as an ideal theme for thrilling action drama, the story presents .Miss Bane as a noted woman explorer veekiug to lind the skull in Africa and restore the religious symbol to its rightful tribe and bring an end to savage uprisings. Although in real life the skull has nevei' been round, the film shows it being located hv Miss Bane with the help of Craig, who portrays a voung American adventurer. Cianelli has the role of a foreign sny. and others in the east include Tom Faddon, Henry Victor, Samuel S. Hinds, and Clarence Muse. Action highlights in the picture include battles between whites and natives, adventures among wild animals in the juii'de. a big game hunt and the escape of the whites ns a volcano ergots and destroys a native village. The closing scenes find the explorers escaping with the cherished skull in their possession. The picture was directed bv Harold Schuster.

The other picture is ‘ Hlondie,’ one of the series based on the famous comic strip. 11 is a homely story of family life. Babv Dumpling and the dog. Daisy, providing- nlenly of laughs.