RAFFLES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 135, 30 January 1932, Page 7

RAFFLES

RONALD COLMAN IN FAMOUS ENGLISH "CROOK" DRAMA. WELL KNOWN ROLE. , Ronald Colman plays a smooth and ' polished English gentleman, a society favourite and popular athlete in his third and latest talking picture, "Raffles," the mystery thriller which is coming to the Majestic Theatre on February 1. Refined and suave though he may be, Raffles finds the lure of criminal adventure more than he can resist. In consequence his many distinguished associates are victimised time and again without the faintest suspicion of who the malefactor can be. Being parallel in theme, "Raffles" is a fit suecessor to Colman's two previous. talkie successes. "Bulldog Drummond" and "Condemned!" A new force has come into Raffles' life at the time this modernised version of the famous melodrama opens. The famous Amateur Craeksman has given up his obliquities in favour of love. But his resolution to reform is short-lived and again he is shoved head on into his last and greatest adventure, for this time the stakes are the honour of his best friend and the heart of the girl he adores. It is this great role, made famous on the stage in America by Kyrle Bellew and in England by Sir Gerald DuMaurier, and in silent pictures, by

John Barrymore and House Peters, that Colman is to be seen. Goldwyn claims that even though the part has come to be rigidly set by tradition, Colman gives a startling original interpretation that not only differs from any earlier portrayal of the role but also from anything Colman has yet attempted. Kay Francis, who gave so fine a performance opposite_ Colman's friend, William Powell* in "Street of Chance," is the Gwen of the story. She and Colman play out a touching romance that is an essential part of the play's high adventure.