THE WET PARADE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 414, 24 December 1932, Page 7

THE WET PARADE

1 PiRESENTS GIGANTIC PANORAMA ' OF A NATION'S TURMOIL OUTSTANDING CAST The chaos, f ervid exeitement and intense drama of modern times provides a sensational background for "The 1 Wet Parade," opening on Wednesday at the Majestic Theatre as one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's most important releases. The picture covers three periods, the pre-war era, the war years of America during which the prohibition enactment was passed, and the modern period in which flagrant disregard of the law has given rise to innumerable dramatic confiicts and has resulted in such typically waves, political corruption kidnapping rings, speak-easies and graft in hundreds of forms. The picture strikes the pulse of life as it is lived in the United States today. Its episodes are such as may be read ahout in the daily news columns and editorial pages, but as was the caso of such M-G-M hits as "The Big Parade" and the "Big House" its great theme mersly serves as a background ' to the intimate and stirring love

| story of the plot. ' This story concerns the daughter of - a Southern aristocrat who attempt to live up to the reputation of Southern gentlemen as great drinkers results in the impovishment of his family and eventually causes him to com- ( mit suicide. As a consequenee the daughter has a horror of seeing her , brother fall into the same error and J makes every effort to keep him in the straight and narrow path. She runs into difficulties when th'ey I both come to New York and the brother gets in with a fast, drinking crowd of modern sophisticates. But here she meets the son of a ward politician who shares her hatred for drinking because of the tragsdy in which his own family is involved through the father's intemp>erate habits. The two join forces and their fight to win happiness for themselves and others is won only after participation i in a series of amazing and thrilling circumstances. Dorothy Jordan, as the heroine, plays her most diffieult and ambitous role in this picture, a portrayal which carries her far from the lighter roles of such early films as "Shipmates" and "Hell Dives." Rohert 1 Young, who scored as the son in "The | Sin of Madelon Claudet," also is given far greater opportunities here as the politician's son who falls in love with |

Miss Jordan. The film's outstanding character portrayals are in the hands of .such experts as Lewis Stone, who plays the Southern aristocrat, and Walter Houston, as the ward politician. The unusually strong cast also includes Neil Hamilton, as Miss Jordan', s brother; the amusing Jimmy Durante, who, as a revenue agent, contrihutes numerous laughs to various episodes Wallace Ford remembered for his exeellent worlc opposite Joan Grawford in "Possessed"; Myrna Loy,Joan Marsh, John Miljan, Emma Durin Frederick Burton, Clarence Muse Blandick, Reginald Barlow, John Larkin, Gertrude Howard, Forrester Haxvey and John Beck. The production was filmed under the direction1 of Victor Fleming.