MEREDITH SPRINGS A SURPRISE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 April 1938, Page 4

MEREDITH SPRINGS A SURPRISE

They hailed him as the “outstanding young actor of the American stage.” They called him the “Hamlet of 1910” and cried for more of him in such tensely dramatic productions as “Winterset” and “High Tor.” So, with characteristic unpredictability, Burgess Meredith abandons sombre drama temporarily and turns to light, airy comedy for his second cinema effort with a deftness that promises to further delight and astound the critics.

In RKO Radio’s “There . Goes the Groom,” which opens at the State Theatre on Thursday next, in conjunction with “Danger Patrol,” Meredith is co-starred with lovely Ann Southern and Mary Boland and plays the role of an erratic young man who, very much in love, is disappointed by the first object of his affections and becomes almost manoeuvred into marrying his first love’s sister. In a desperate effort to escape he pretends amnesia and “forgets” his matrimonial date with his fiancee, goes to a sanitarium for treatment, where the discovery of his hoax leads to violent and rather weird treatment from the medical staff which he has driven half crazy with his antics. Beautiful Ann' Sothern makes quite plausible his sudden change of heart which gives rise to the film’s novel denouement. Onslow Stevens, William Brisbane, Louise Henry and Roger Imhof and others round out the admirably chosen cast for a comedy which reveals a new and wholly madcap, amusing Meredith.