AMUSEMENTS

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 201, 30 June 1939, Page 4

AMUSEMENTS

“SPAWN OF THE NORTE!” •ALASKAN SAGA m.>- p. E SCREEN EPIC' \ 'v " I A smashing story of four inhabitants of the Alaskan frontier region .whose lifelong friendship is ...broken icndal warfare and revi\m\,jn ; ; i y>,>br(i”.gh +he terrific sacrifice o'-fiken by ti,u. a ; told in “Spawn of the Nul" '• xaramouut’s panoramic drama of the North country, which screens Saturday and Monday at ' the Cogent Theatre. A vital plotj the ■"esomo setting of America’s lafet fiontu. and an able- performance by an all-star cast coinbine to make this adaptation of Barrett Willoughby’s famous novel A-l screen fare. Heading the east is George. Raft in a role which will .please his fans to aT! It is similar to the one lie played so successfully in “Souls at Sea,” tlie one which marked a turning p.oint in iiis career and-an end to the gangster roles which had previously “trade-marked” him. in “Spawn of the North” lie is a clashing and. heroic figure as the Arctic fisherman who defies every law and custom of the Northland but sacrifices everything for his friend in the end. The- role of his sea-companion is played sensitively by Henry Fonda, who turns in a moving performance as the young man who is torn between loyalty to his life-long friend a mil tlie duties imposed upon; him by his position as guardian of the Jaw. The- story opens with tlie return to its home port of an Alaskan fishing fleet which has been working me Northern seas. The return marks the re-union of three pals of the region, Raft and Fonda, both fishermen, and Dorothy Lamour, the owner of the town’s hotel. Although all three have been together for years, there is an air of impending breakup, which increases when Raft announces that lie lias enough money to go in business for himself if Fonda will go partners with him in the purchase of a schooner. Fonda, however, is unable to join him, as he has inherited a small cannery from his father and must stick close to Ill's traps. When the fishermen aiidl canners of the district, fed up with the fish piracy that ba.s been mining their business, decide to band together and crush the pirates, Fonda realises that he must at last come into open conflict with Raft, who is 'beginning to engage in piratical activities with a notorious outlaw of the region, played by Aidin'! Tamiroff. . The'two men go their separate ways, and later in a battle between the fishermen aud the pirates Fonda shoots Raft, wounding him seriously. 4