“THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 268, 2 February 1928, Page 17

“THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS”

A BACKWOODS STORY Doris Kenyon returns to the screen opposite her husband. Milton Sills, in “The Valley of the Giants,”, Peter B. Kyne’s fine story of backwoods life and love. The story is set among the slant redwoods of Northern California, with the picturesque lumber camps as a colourful background. Mills’s portrayal of Bryce Cardigan, son of the Pioneer lumber magnate in First National’s thrilling version of this fine novel, is one that stamps him for the fine artist that he undoubtedly’is. Miss Kenyon gives her usual faultless pertormances. as Cardigan’s sweetheart, while the role of the bad man is convincingly played by Paul Hurst. Even if, however, the acting were not of >uch a high order, still, tlie wonderful atmosphere of the redwood forests that has been obtained would have provided novelty enoi gh to h-old the wrapt attention. The plot, as all readers of the book will renember, is based on the bitter fight of two lumber barons for supremacy. A real hand-to-hand fi*ht, however, is provided by a spirited hout between the villain and the hero, °ne of the most convincing ever filmed. A picture that will interest all theatregoers. as unique in its rugged drama and tender love, and real he-man twofisted courage. The wreck of the lumber train is one of the most sensa--tional sequences ever seen on the screen. Fifty cameras were used in photographing the big orphanage fire which °ccurs in “The Fire Brigade,” the spectacular epic of the fire-fighters which William Nigh directed for This scene was one of the most difficult ever filmed, itnd was carried out-without a hitch in co-operation with the firechiefs of Canada and the United States. The plavers include May McAvoy, Chares Ray. Tom O’Brien. I-.n'j.frti' Bessercr, Bert "Woodruff and * A> un Mason. —<