THE BIG FIGHT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 536, 20 May 1933, Page 7

THE BIG FIGHT

STAGE HIT TURNED INTO SENSATIONAL TALKIE. MONDAY AT THE GRAND. Belasco's stage hit, "The Big Fight," in which Jack Dempsey played the star role, has been transformed hy the magic touch of James Cruze into a sensationally gripping and entertaining talkie entitled "The Bdg Fight," which for sheer intensity and drama has rarely been equalled. This picture opens on Monday at the Grand Theatre. Cruze's sur-a hand and •Unfailing touch are mueh in evidence; the dramatic story of the prize-ring and underworld is told with a tense tempo and a drastic pruning" of everything not strictly essential to the plot, so

that what remains is aix excellent narrative, cumulative in effect, rising to a smashing climax in the sensational and realistic fight scenes that end the picture. So shrewdly is the story built that all the elements th'at go into its making must wait "for the outcome of the mythical championship hattle for their solution. "The Big Fight" concerns the dual love of a pretty manicurist for her wayward brother and for the Tiger, contender for the world's heavyweiight ciown. Both the girl and her brother are made pawns in an attempt of a notorious gang-leader to have the Tiger throw the impending big fight; the girl is confronted with the choice of aiding the gang-leader to achieve his purpose or having her brother "bumped off" by the gang. The happy ending is arrived at hy a' clever surPrise trick that leaves the spectators . gasping and pleased. Lola Lane makes an attractive portrayal of the girl, and reveals great dramatic talent. "Big Boy" Guinn Williams is the virile Tiger, an ef- ' fective pugilist and a fine actor; j Stepin Fetchit provides the comedy as a drawling negro handy-man;. IRalph Ince, Wheeler Oakman, James' Eagle, and Edna Bennett are others in a superh cast. The play was written by Max Marcian and Milton H. Gropper.

plete wreckage. The desperation following her disillusionment leads her, for nearly a year, in a mad igamble with money and men. This period of her stormy career is rudely broken into by the shock of a wire from Texas informing her that her mother, played by Estelle Taylor, is dying. Back on the ranch, amid the familiar surroundings of her girlhood, is revealed her mother's indiscretion responsible for [ the fiery temperament which causes { men and women to "Call Her Savage." I Others featured in important supI porting roles are Thelma Todd, as j Clara's blonde rival; Willard Robert- • son, as her stern father; Anthony Joj witt, as one of her weak willed suitors | and Weldon Heyburn as the Crow youth whom her mother had admired.