AMUSEMENTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20006, 3 August 1939, Page 3

AMUSEMENTS

KING'S THEATRE

“KING OF THE TURF”: EXCITING ■ RACING STORY Edward Small’s new .romantic film drama, ‘ Kin" of the Turf." which will conclude at the King’s Theatre tonight, not only stars Adolphe Menjou in one of his most important roles- to date, but also introduces a young newcomer, Roger Daniel, whose great pcrformanAe indicates that a new star hat been -born. "King of the Turf" is a story teeming with action and movement and. colour. Its background is the exciting world of racing “fans" and gambling tables. The story relates the adventures and misadventures of a small-timer whose luck makes him one of the most prodigious figures- of the smart turf set. —“Jesse James," Story of Outlaw. Filmed in Technieolour: To-morrow — The most notorious outlaw in the the history of America, the desperado whose daring colored a whole era and endowed it with the title of the "Serious Seventies" —the man who invented bank hold-ups and introduced train robberies —has been brought U) the screen at last in Darryl F. Zanuek’s production, "Jesse James," the 20th Centurv-Fox Technieolour film, starring Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda, Nancy Kelly and Randolph Scott, which opens at the King’s Theatre to-morrow. “Jesse James" opens with the introduction of the “Iron Horse” in its journey through the old West, cutting ruthlessly across the farms of the simple, hardy pioneers. It shows how Jesse James and his equally notorious brother, Frank (Henry Fonda), began their career of crime as a direct result of the murder of their mother by an unscrupulous hireling of the St. Louis Midland railroad, in the person of one Barshee, played by Brian Donlevy. Jesse shoots Barslice and swears to avenge his mother’s death. A murderer with a n everincreasing price on his head, he goes from raid to raid. Love comes .to Jesse in the person of Zerclda, better known as Zee, played b.v Nancy Kelly, a gently nurtured girl who gave up a life of ease to share the wild, reckless life of this hunted outlaw as his wife, and to bear bison alone in the hills. When Zee finally leaves him, Jesse becomes a cold and ruthless desperado, and the film follows his reckless deeds across five States, with the climax in his betrayal and death at the hands of Bob Ford, the "dirty little coward" of song and story, who sold him out to the law. Perhaps the best picture of this good bad man is contained in the Words of the Mayor Of his home town of Sedalia, uttered months after Jesse James had died in the arms of his beloved bride. The Occasion was the dedication of an obelisk on the old James farm. “Jesse was an outlaw., a bandit, a criminal," said the Mayor, "but we aren't ashamed of him. Maybe Us because we understand a .little that he was not to blame for what his times made him." Other players in the big cast include Henry I-lull, Slim Summerville, J. Edward Bromberg, John Carradine, Donald Meek. John Russell and Jane Darwell.