AMUSEMENTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 June 1931, Page 3

AMUSEMENTS.

fVRRYBODYB PICTURES. "WAY FOR A SAILOR.” JOHN GILBERT GIVES UNPARALLELED PERFORMANCE. The' sometimes humorous, sometimes stirring but always dramatic , adventures of a group of hard-boiled seamen furnish the unslacking interest in "Way for a Sailor,” Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer epic of the British Mercantile Marine, which' opens to-night at the Princess Theatre.

John Gilbert, star of the picture, and Wallace Beery, who portrays his brawny mate on a British freighter, undoubtedly gives the best performances of their careers in the vivid picof Albert Richard Wetjen’s wdll-known sea yarn. Here is a picture that stamps out of drawing rooms, out of cities and pretty parks and shoves . right out into the middle of the ocean where men go down to the sea in ships and things ,we landlubbers only read about actually happen. It packs excitement from start to finish. It has you hanging on to your seat for : .dear life. When the waves begin to pound and the old deck lurches, you-instinctively lurch with it. It’s all too real, thrillingly so, and with a j dramatic story glorifying the traditions of the sea. And of wives and sweethearts who stay ashore and wait for, their men.

' Gilbert cuts' a rollicking figure as the hero; a reckless chap who takes his fun where he finds it until he meets the kind of a girl he doesn’t know anything about. She happens to be decent. The romancej .br conflict, if you must, motivates the gripping plot which is climaxed in a mid-ocean respue of the crew, of a foundering tramp steamer. Leila Hyams, as the leading lady, offers . a beautiful performance and lends charm against the sordid background we find in the Liverpool dock sbenes. A third member of the male shipboard fraternity turns out to be none other than Jim Tully, famous as the 7 author of "Jarnegan” and other popular works. It'was Tully who shared headlines with Gilbert after a now historic Hollywood cafe row. They niade up and, apparently to show there is no hard feeling, Tally turned actor to play in the, Gilbert picture, and managed to do a very good job of it at-that. Polly Moran and Doris Lloyd check-in capable performances in waterfront characterisations.