STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 June 1939, Page 2

STATE THEATRE

“PACIFIC LINER.” The new programme tonight will be headed by “Pacific Liner” and “Arizona Legion.” A terrific clash of wills between a belligerent chief engineer on a vessel and a determined ship’s physician, provides the motive for an exciting plot in “Pacific Liner,” which serves as a starring vehicle for Victor McLaglen and Chester Morris. With its action transpiring on board an ocean steamer, the story presents McLaglen as the masterful chief of the ship’s engine and fire rooms, Morris as the vessel’s doctor and Wendy Barrie as a nurse. The hard-boiled chief engineer resents the doctor’s daily inspection of the stokehold crew, as well as his more than professional interest in the pretty nurse, and a bitter conflict develops between the two men. This condition is further aggravated when a deadly epidemic breaks, out below the decks and the engineer’s steel-walked domain is put under quarantine by the physician. The domineering engineer's efforts to keep the engines running at top speed with a slowly diminishing crew, his final succumbing to the dread malady himself, the doctor's struggle to save him, and the unusual romantic triangle provide suspense-laden events which are said to bring about one of the most gripping climaxes seen on the screen in many months.

George O’Brien, who frequently plays the part of a sheriff or other lawenforcement officers, is seen in a camouflaged type role in “Arizona Legion.” The popular outdoor star plays a patriotic young Arizonian who organises a secret group of Rangers under equally secret state authority to combat a rising tide of banditry. The role affords O'Brien more than his usual dramatic opportunities, and an unusual amount of action to thrill screen audiences.