MAJESTIC THEATRE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 569, 28 June 1933, Page 3

MAJESTIC THEATRE

TO-DAY AND TO-NIGHT. Modern family life, its comedies ind tragedies, told in intimate style, 'urnishes the basis for one of the most Iramatic stories of -the screen in 'Emma," which is now at the Majestic rheatre. The story deals with an engrossing phase of the "stepmoth'er problem," with Miss Dressler playing the role of a devoted family servant who mothers the children of a rich inventor as though they were her own. Her subsequent transition from h'ousekeeper to stepmother gives rise to a number of dramatic problems, which reach a climax in a sensatiorial courtroom sequence. Miss Dressler, whose peerless talents in the straight dramatic field were first made apparent when she playeci the drunken hag in "Anna Christie," which' was succeeded by her remarkable perforimance as the disreptable waterfront w-oman in "Min and Bill," is reported to have an even more forecful and stirring role in "Emma." Her scene in the courtroom episode is the finest piece of acting in her entire career. The picture is not devoid of hilarious incidents in the family life in which moviegoers may enjoy the familiar Dressler humour. A scene in which the inventor proposes to Emma in a crowded railroad staticm, an episode in which tfie star attempts to manipulate a pair of rowhoat oars, and on incident at an airport in which Miss Dressler gets mixed up with a machine which tests for dizziness, are said to keep audiences in a constant uproar. The story was written by Frances Marion, author of "Min and Bill," which won Miss Dressler the 193-1 Academy award for the year's best performance by an actress, and it was directed by Clarence Brown, who directed Miss Dressler in "Anna Christie" and recently scored with "Possessed" and "A Free Soul." Richard Cromwell and Jean Hersholt head the supporting cast, which also includes Myrna Loy, John Miljan, Purnell B. Pratt, Leila Bennett, Barbara Kent and Kathryn Crawford.