AMUSEMENTS

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 161, 22 March 1939, Page 1

AMUSEMENTS

“BLOCKADE” • Perhaps the timeliest of the season’s iiultion pictures, and certainly the orife . the most tensely dramatic sjpijdn., is “Blockade” which the filar hritSii of Reynolds London, refforts “worthy of ranking greatest, dramas that the screen has produced”. This Walter Wahger production starring Madeleine Carroll and .Henry Fonda comes to the -fie * JLuxewTheatre. on Thursday and' Fri Say, . Matinee Thursdayi The background cf this stirring photoplay is the Spanish Civil War, though t|ie central theme of the story i.s the fdmanc© of Miss Carroll and Fonda, both caught in the seething maelstrom -of the conflict. The events of the story* lose none of their exciting quality through the fact that the production preserves a strictly neutral attitude- and does. not. identify any character as a member of one faction or the. other.

The story of “Blockade” opens with Norma (Madeleine Carroll) arriving in Spain to discover her father and associate have been, active in helping to fomeptj a civil war. War breaks out and Marco (Henry Fonda), a farmer whom the girl has met and fallen in love with, soldier, kills Normals a. spy and is obliged to arrest her. suspect. Released through a. Iplttnoiis alliance between her father’s former associate and a Spanish general, she is forced to become their aide in espionage work and is sent to Oastelmaro as the bearer of a message to spies intent upon the destruction of a ship laden with food for the relief of the blockaded city. The trusted men are engaged in secretly selling their services to the other side. The plot is discovered by < Marco as Norlna, with a sudden revulsion of fooling over the plight of the starving townspeople, attempts to rectify the wrong she lias dene.

After a series of dangerous adventures, the pair confess their love when.' they find themselves lacing death, at the hands of a group of mjr raged soldiers. .An unexpected: happening in the high command brings, the story to a thrilling climax. > “Blockade” was directed by Wil-

Jiam Dietmpe, who gained fame when the Motion 'Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences acclaimed hi.s most recent picture ‘ ‘The Life of Kindle Zola” as the greatest production of 1937. The exceptional cast supporting Miss Carroll and Fonda is headed by Leo. Carrillo and also includes John Halliday, Reginald Denny, yiadimir Solioloff, Robert Warwick and Katherine DeMille,. “Blockade” is an or-, iginnl screen story by John Howard Lawson. The production is released through United Artists.