STARK DRAMA

Evening Star, Issue 23699, 5 October 1940, Page 8

STARK DRAMA

EDWARD G. ROBINSON EfIC Stark drama at ,a fast pace through Edward G. Robinson's first great sympathetic role, as vivid and as tense as anything he has ever done, makes a noteworthy contribution to film entertainment at the St. James, where ‘ Blackmail ’ opened yesterday. It is an entirely different Robinson that comes to the screen in this picture. There is a distinctive new quality to hk performance as he plays_ the sympathetic role of an honest citizen who is uprooted from his family, thrown into a prison damp for a crime he did not commit, and who gradually changes from a man whose strongest emotion is love for his wife to one whose bloodlust and only motivating desire is to wreak some terrible vengeance on the betrayer whose duplicity placed him behind prison bars. Ruth Hussey, who plaved the lead in ‘ Within the Law ’ •and took a prominent part in ‘ Maude,’ makes a notable step forward as one of the most capable young actresses in Hollywood. Bobs Watson, the eight-year-dkl star of 1 On Borrowed Time,’ gives another vivid performance as Robinson’s son. Guinn (Big Boy) Williams as Robinson’s partner, John Wray as his convict pal, Arthur Hohl as a prison camp guard, and Esther Dale complete the list of principals. Ono of the liveliest and funniest bits of film entertainment is the supporting feature. It is ‘ Block-heads,’ new Hal Iloach-M.G.M. production, starring the evcr-popular Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. In this new comedy the comedians revert to their former formula—an abundance of new gags, familiar mannerisms, devastating situations, and a dizzy tempo. Their side-splitting antics are. pot deterred by spectacular backgrounds or musical interludes. They have free scope for the kind of humour their fans expect and Laurel and Hardy reciprocate with the host mirthquake they have had in many months. Stan is a front-page newspaper celebrity in ‘ Block-heads,’ not through his own initiative, but through one of the funniest introductions that the screen has reflected. Although he tolls Hardy that he is not so dumb as he used to he, fortunately fop the comedians’ legion of fans his actions belie his words.