GRAND THEATRE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 114, 6 January 1932, Page 6

GRAND THEATRE

TO-NIGHT "The Public Defender." He is a man of deep mystery, a public avenger, sworn to right wrong, not matter what the cost. 'The innocent have cause to admire him because he is a modern impersonation of Robin Hood — romantically mysterious — the thief and absconder hate him murderously; and the police, jealous of his activities, are after him. This is the novel characterisation portrayed by Richard Dix in his new starring vehicle, "The Public Defender," now showing at the Grand Theatre. Though the role is of a different type from the star's previous successes, "Cimarron" and "Young Donovan's Kid," Dix is again vigorously cast as a fighting, romantic man of ideals. The film is based on the supposition that there are two kinds of laws, one for the poor man and another for the rich. , To equalise this law and to prevent rich swindlers from mulcting the public, Dix assumes the character of a private enforcer of the basic law which declares all men equal under the Constitution. He is remorseless in his solo bampaign against crime. A beautiful romance has been woven through the story in which Dix rescues a girl from the shame of her father who has been accused of a bank crime which he did not commit. Others in the cast of "The Public Defender ' are Shirley Grey, Purnell Pratt, Alan Roscoe, Nella Walker, Ruth Weston, Boris Karloff, Paul Hurst and Edmund Breese,