GRAND THEATRE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 146, 12 February 1932, Page 2

GRAND THEATRE

. TO-NIGHT | There is just one definition of "The ' Bad Man," which opened yesterday ; at the Grand Theatre : It is "grand \ entertainment !" I Seldom has a picture come to the ] talking screen which brings a laugh j in almost every line — yet that is j what "The Bad Man" does. Further- I more the real melodrama of the story — and there is plenty of it — is not at all hindered hy the humour. The story deals with a group at an AvizonaSanch. A young man and his crippled uncle, are about to lose their rahch to the local money lender because handits have driven away their cattle. As visitors they have a girll and her husband, a wealthy Walll Street speculator. It turns out that the liero, James Rennie, was in love v/ith the girl, Dorothy Revier, before she married her husband, sauve, cold, and a heavy drinker. He suspects her of renewing her romance, and he perceives that her love for him is lost. Mean while he has discovered traces of oil on the ranch, and decides to tiy to buy it. The crochety old uncle tries to fix things up by having his nepliew marry the daughter of the money lender', played by Marion "Peanuts" Byron. Of course he gets everything all wrong. 1 It is then that "The Bad Man" appears, a gay, witty, but dangerous bandit. He had come to rob the ranch. Instead he stays to settle things and make everyone happy in his own direct way, which envisages kidnapping and killing, and making love "myself per-sonnel." Walter Huston walks off with honours, of course, in the role of the bandit, giving a performance which ranks with the greatest roles he has played on stage or screen.