“THE GORILLA”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 267, 1 February 1928, Page 17

“THE GORILLA”

TO-MORROW AT PRINCESS, TIVOLI AND EVERYBODY’S An all-stajr cast has been assembled for the screen version of Ralph Spence’s famoui mystery-comedy .sensation, which comes to the Princess, Tivoli and Everybody’s Theatres tomorrow. Charlie Murray andt Fred Kelsey head the cast in the roles of the two famous trick detectives, Mulligan and Garrity. Others in the cast are Claude Gillingwater, Tully Marshall, Alice Bay, Walter Pidgeon, Brooks Benedict, Aggie Hering and Syd. Crossly. In its screen version, “The Gorilla” is said to be more thrilling, wilder and funniet* than the stage presentation, for the plot has been widened. Edward Small, the producer, and Alfred Santell, the director, report having but one thing in mind when making “The Gorilla,” and that was to present something different and yet combine all the elements of mystery, comedy and thrills. The fast tempo of the picture is expected to keep one gasping and guessing from beginning to end. Those who saw “The Gorilla” as a stage play, are promised a fresh thrill in the screen version, for the ending has been changed so that the suspense *s maintained for all, until the final flicker of the last reel. The second feature on the programme will be “White Gold,” starring Jetta Goudal and Clyde Cook. The story, briefly, is of a girl, accustomed to the excitement of dance hall life, who falls in love with a sheep rancher and finds herself On his ranch in the middle of a terrible drought, her only company being her husband and his father. The father resents the marriage and hates the girl. The drought has brought the two men close to financial ruin. If rain does not come, their sheep will die. They have no other interest. They talk and dream sheep, and the girl is neglected and completely alone. Her nerves begin to quiver. The creaking of an unoiled “patent rocker.” the honing of a, knife, the bleating of the thirsty sheep, and, above all, the terrible, devastating monotony, the long days and nights of hearing only “sheep, sheep, sheep,” drive her almost mad. Another man comes to the ranch with stories of the cities. She is interested. The father successfully capitalises this interest to arouse suspicion of the huband. The other man is killed. There is an impasse—the husband’s suspicions, backed by the father, against the love for the wife.