FINE DEEPING STORY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 678, 1 June 1929, Page 14

FINE DEEPING STORY

“KITTY” AT MAJESTIC DELIGHTFUL ACTING With all the simplicity of Warwick Deeping’s famous novel, “Sorrell and Son,” the film of the Deeping novel, “Kitty” was told beautifully at the Majestic Theatre last evening. A tale of devotion and perseverance, lof war-time anxieties, and of the crumbling of rigid prejudice, “Kitty” 'as a film bears all the truths of the book.

“Kitty” may be taken as illustrative of the rebirth of the British film industry in work stamped with artistry. It is well played, excellently told, conveying all the Deeping meaning, and, further, has? views of delightful English countryside. An old cottage nestling on the wooded bank of the Thames — the real English atmosphere has been caught.

London in wartime —the insane hastening of the crowds, the surge to France. Alex St. George, afraid of being afraid, was one of those caught in the swirl. Dominated by a wealthy, i disciplinary mother, he was alone in ; the crowds which laughed at strife. : Then he met Kitty. In a shabby, middle-class London street, he found a woman’s encouragement. They were married. In France, Alex wrote to tell his mother of his marriage. Then began an amazing sequence of events in which the mother did her best to wreck the marriage. Sickened by one of his mother’s letters, Alex fell in the rigours of war, and returned to England, paralysed. Here, Kitty’s determination to protect her husband met the opposition of the mother’s antagonism. Kitty’s ingenuity triumphed in a typical Deeping climax, and agreement between the mother and Kitty, with Alex restored to health, was reached in a small Thames village. As Kitty, Estelle Brody gives an unusually genuine performance. She is all that Deeping intended to represent. John Stuart acts cleverly in the role of Alex St. George, and Dorothy Cummings, as the mother, undoubtedly too human in her inhumanity, carries out a difficult part efficiently.

Marie Ault, as Kitty’s mother, is a thoroughly determined owner of a tobacconist’s shop, with a highly developed sense of righteousness, and a penchant for mothering soldiers on leave. One other performance, that of the New Zealander, Winter Hall, as a genial lawyer, is deserving of praise. A clever comedy, telling of a man who did his best to evade the suspicions of an exceptionally watchful wife; Eve’s Review; and the Majestic Magazine, are excellent supports. The views of the funeral of Marshal Foch in Paris are impressive, and an interesting feature is the photography in connection with the recent Scandinavian Royal marriage. Delightful play on the xylophone by Reno and Arta as a divertissement is an important part of the programme. The “Light Cavalry” overture is played brightly, and another number is a medley of “Sonny Boy,” “Among My Souvenirs,” and “Moonlight and Roses.”

The musical programme presented by Mr J. Whiteford Waugh, and the Majestic Orchestra, is notable for quality and variety.