STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 June 1939, Page 2

STATE THEATRE

“GUNGA DIN.” The packed audience at the State Theatre last night had a treat presented to them in the great picture, “Gunga Din.” Keen critics voted it an outstanding film and thoroughly enjoyed each moment of it. Kipling's dusky character, “Gunga Din,” has already made himself a familiar figure wherever elocutionists face the public. The R.K.0.-Radio studios have surrounded him with light-hearted characters: They have set him marching through magnificent scenery: and finally, in one grandiose stroke of drama, they have caused him to save from destruction the flower of the British Army. This has been set forth in the most lavish manner. Infantry and cavalry go sweeping across the screen in thousands. Sergeants Cutter, McChesney and Ballantine —Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen and young Doug. Fairbanks respectively —are inseparables and born soldiers. They fight their own men when there is no one else to fight. They fall into traps and battle their way out with fists, bullets and dynamite. They get captured,by the Thugs, coun-ter-attack with the aid of their watercarrier, Gunga Din; and finally see their regiment, warned in the- last second by Din’s bugle, march in and turn an ambush into a rois, to provide a spectacular and thrilling climax. Grant’s Cutter is the perfect Cockney soldier; always goodnatured, pugnacious, optimistic. It is a great, overwhelmingly likeable performance. McLaglen, showing a keener sense of humour than usual, is excellent, too; and young Fairbanks is also effective. San Jaffe makes Gunga Din. in Grant’s words, “a very regimental sort of bloke.” He plays him humorously, but gets full dramatic punch into his self-sacrificing scene. There is a very strong supporting cast and the picture should not be missed by those who appreciate spectacular scenes and outstanding acting. There is a splendid supporting programme.