STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 301, 12 March 1928, Page 14

STRAND

“SORRELL AND SON’’ “It’s deep, moving humanity will no doubt place “Sorrell and Son,” a picture of father love, next to the few really lasting films,” says an American critic of the adaptation of Warwick keeping’s well-known novel, now enjoying a most triumphant season at the Strand Theatre. Father-and-son love is the theme of the story. 11. F>. Warner plays Stephen Sorrell, an Englishman broken in health by the war and bruised in spirit by the desertion of his young wife. Stephen is cursed with sensitiveness as only an Englishman of his breeding can be. This makes it the more poignant when he swallows his pride and polishes boots and carries trunks in a provincial hotel. He is enabled to do this only through his great love for young Kit Sorrell. Stephen is determined that Kit shall not lose caste or neglect his schooling through his father’s misfortunes.

The younger Sorrell is played by Mickey Mcßann, and by Nils Asther as Kit in his manhood years. An unusual cast supports Warner. Anna Q. Nilsson is Sorrell’s frivolous wife, who leaves him for a richer man and returns in later years to scoff at Stephen’s menial job and try to win the boy away from him. Carmel Myers, as the libidinous Flo Palfrey, Norman Trevor as Thomas Roland, Mary Nolan as as Molly Roland, and Louis Wolheim as Sergeant Buck are the other principals. A special prologue precedes the screening of “Sorrell and Son,” while a special musical score is contributed by the Strand Symphony Orchestra, which plays a well-known English suite, “The Rose,” as an overture. An interesting New Zealand scenic showing the life of the gannets at Cape Kidnappers concludes a notable programme.