GRAND THEATRE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 243, 4 June 1932, Page 2

GRAND THEATRE

TO-NIGHT Bringing to the screen a hitherto ignored phase of war — the grim resignation and the futile amhitions of a lonely prison camp — Warner Baxter and Leila Hyams score a notable triumph in "Surrendel"," the attraction at the Grand Theatre. None of the glamour and pageantry of the actual fighting is seen in this unique film; only the aftermath — with the discouraged captives in their barren prison on tho desolate shores of the Baltic, desperately plotting an escape aeross icy wastes — with the old ruined castle, where the other prisoners find occupation and Baxter finds a shackled love and a repressed emotion that furnish the motive of this gripping tale. Alexander Kirkland and Ralph Bellamy distinguish themselves as Miss Hyams' sympathetic, lover and the prison camp commander, and C. Aubrey Smith gives a remarkable performance in th-e part of the testy general whose military achievements are all in the past. The work of an excellent supporting cust and the realistic settings all make this version of Pierre Benoit's "Axelle" a real achievement in picture annals.