GREAT CRIME DRAMA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 708, 6 July 1929, Page 16

GREAT CRIME DRAMA

“THE FORGER’’ THRILLS AT MAJESTIC

During the past three or four years the crirf? drama of the indefatigable Edgar Wallace have delighted the sen-sation-seeking patrons of the legitimate theatre. Now, however, their circuit is being enlarged through screen adaptations, and the audience at the Majestic Theatre yesterday had a fine sample of the thrill that a great story can communicate through the screen. “The Forger,” an English production of a Wallace story, has all the elements that one would expect in a work by I this great crime specialist. As may be anticipated, “The Forger” is concerned with a man, or a number of men who are i-illian Rich . Pleasantly .engaged in flooding London with bad banknotes of high denomination. The active sleuths of Scotland Yard are unable to make much progress in their asiduous investigations. The plot “begins to thicken” when young Peter Clifton, a London social lion of incalculable wealth, marries the daughter of an amiable old artist. One of her former suitors tells her that her husband is the subject of hereditary insanity, and the husband, naturally enough, resentful of this, engages the informant in a fight. After the combat, the husband is doped, and on recovery of consciousness he is told that he murdered his opponent while suffering from a brain storm. From this stage the story develops rapidly, and the spectator’s mind is actively engaged sorting the innocent from the guilty, and as the climax shows, picking badly all the time. As a mystery play, “The Forger” is one of the best shown on the screen. The action is swift, bewilderingly so, but the plot is developed logically, and when “The Clever One” is at last revealed, there is an amazing revelation. The cast, headed by Lillian Rich and Winter Hall, is perfectly balanced, and all the characterisations are convincing. The principal supporting picture is a film version of “The Farmer’s Wife,” the popular play by Eden Phillpotts. It has a good English rural setting, and deals with the efforts of sturdy farmer Sweetland to contract a second marriage. it is a fresh, delightful story with a rich blending of comedy. Jameson Thomas plays the part of the farmer with excellent good humour, and Lillian Hall Davis, demure and attractive, is Minta, the lady who finally becomes second mistress of the farm. A novel part of the programme was the song-scena, “The Heart of a Flower,” presented by Yorke Gray. Original in conception, it had beauty, and a charming light-foot ballet did its work blithely. Miss Isabella Brook was the clever soloist. Incidental music was played by the Majestic Orchestra, under Mr. J. Whiteford Waugh.