MODERN MELODRAMA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 April 1938, Page 4

MODERN MELODRAMA

When Eugene O’Neil conceived the happy idea of substituting “Dat OF Debbil Sea” for a flesh-and-biood villain in his famous play “Anna Christie,” he unconsciously became the father of a new school of melodramatic play writing. A generation which found itself as unwilling to accept the entertainment standards of its fathers as it was to accept earlier methods of communication, transportation and things of that sort, cheered the O’Neil opus, and critics announced that melodrama had come of age. Though no one knew it then, “Anna Christie" was to have many descendants in following stories in which men's occupations served as background for the drama in then’ lives stories which were to create even greater spine chills than those in which the heroine was saved in the nick of time. Latest in this school is RKO Radio’s film “Danger Patrol,” a melodrama in the modern manner with nitroglycerine in the role of menace, the threat constantly hovering over the characters. It is a story of workers in a Texas oil field, the men who carry the “soup” for blasting

operations. Sally Eilers, heroine of the film, has a double hatred of the “villain,” as her father, Harry Carey, has kept her under a nervous strain during all the years he has been occupied' in the work, she is reluctant to follow her heart and marry John Beal a newcomer to the fields. The situation leads to tense drama and develops a climax that makes the well known scene of the hero paying off the mortgage at the crucial moment seem like child's play. Other players in the cast include Solly Ward, Frank M. Thomas, Ed. Gargan, Lee Patrick and Richard Lane. This attraction is scheduled to open at the State Theatre next Thursday.