SPECTACULAR FRONTIER DRAMA

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

SPECTACULAR FRONTIER DRAMA

THRILLING ACTION AND SUSPENSE Spectacular, realistic, and entertaining describes * Drums Along the Mohawk,’ the new feature attraction at the State. It is a glittering drama of American frontier days, and the entrancing value of the picture is all the more enhanced because it has been photographed in natural colours. The title, the material and background of this all-absorbing film and the performing personnel warrant its coming into the class of a first-class production. The colour scheme makes the outdoor scenery extremely beautiful. There are some shots in it that awe those who love beautiful scenery. The story unfolds in the revolutionary days, and naturally there is fighting. The best part of the picture is in the last two reels, where there is action as a result of fighting and suspense. The story reveals that Lana, played by Claudette Colbert, and Gilbert Martin (Henry Fonda) become man and wife and set out for the rugged and perilous district of the lovely Mohawk valley, in upper New York State. Lana loses her home and first baby as the result of an Indian raid, Gilbert joins up with a backwoods army to oppose the English and their allies, the Indians. The ill-equipped force is defeated. The townsfolk are saved from a general massacre through the fleet feet of Gilbert, who eludes Indian pursuers to summon a company of the Continental army. The picture closes with the soldiers coming to the rescue of the settlers, whom the Indians have surrounded. Because of the realistic staging of the raid scenes, especially one sequence where a captured scout is in danger of being burned alive, the picture is all the more thrilling. Directed with commendable skill by John Ford of Twentieth Contnry-Fox, ‘ Drums Along the Mohawk ’ is thoroughly entertaining fare. A stirring example of stark realism in film production, ‘ Drums Along the Mohawk ’ is set against a background of colourful, romantic, and dramatic adventure, and heightened to breathtaking vividness by the technicolonr process. Claudette Colbert has a role of unusual power as the delicatelvreared girl who marries Henry Fonda and whom experience turns into a fearpioneer woman who fights painted Indians by the side of her young husThose in support of the principals_ include Edna May Oliver. Eddie Collins. John Carradine. Dorris Bowden, Jessie Ralph, and Roger Imhof. An excellent array of supporting films is also screened.