NEW REGENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1047, 11 August 1930, Page 15

NEW REGENT

“JOURNEY’S END” “Journey’s End,” the brilliant talkie of a brilliant play, which is now at the New ( Regent Theatre, is made by an English cast under the direction of the original London producer. There is probably no one who knows his “Journey’s End” better—and no j one, certainly, could have surpassed or ! probably even equalled his direction of j the picture. Every tone of voice, every j word, gesture and expression is ; freighted with a meaning that goes deeper than the surface. When Stanhope, for instance, regrets his too well-exercised imagination and wishes that he, too, like the phlegmatic, easy-going Trotter, could look at the dug-out wall and see only mud and not all the worms wriggling their way around. “How does a worm know when lie’s going down?” Stanhope asks Osborne and then ponders on how rotten if a worm went on going down when it thought it was going up. “Wo can think of no choice as wise as Colin Clive for the role of Captain Stanhope, idol of his men, indefatigable in the work of war, courting danger and death at every turn, yet a coward in his own knowledge, with. courage kept up on quantities of whisky. Clive makes you love Stanhope even when he is most hateful and makes you pity and understand him always. David Manners is appealing as young Lieutenant who accepts the rebuffs of his idol with dazed wonder but never loses his love for him as a hero. lan Maclaren makes kindly old Osborne a dignified, beautiful character. Anthony Bushell gave a splendid performance as the coward, Hibbert. Tie never lets his hysteria get put of bounds. Billy Bevan and Charles Gerrard provide some quiet humour. The other members of the cast are of equal excellence. No one’s theatrical education is complete without at least one visit to “Journey’s End”—it is the only drama of its kind.