STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 July 1939, Page 2

STATE THEATRE

' "THE DUKE OF WEST POINT." The programme now showing- at the State Theatre is one of all-round excellence and was greatly enjoyed by last night’s audience. It is headed by a great picture, "The Duke of West Point” and this alone provides fare that is more than satisfying. Besides this brilliant presentation there was "Everybody’s Baby,” in which the famous Jones family are seen in the greatest scream yet produced by them. The acting in “The Duke of West Point” is of a very high order and the subject matter provides a picture that makes an immediate appeal. Those who miss seeing this picture will be poorer thereby for it stands out as one of the best of its kind ever presented on the screen. Joan Fontaine, who was recruited to play the feminine lead after she completed an important role in “Gunga Din,”, is the attractive lady who causes collective fluttering of hearts among the young cadets. Partnered at the beginning of the story with Alan Curtis, she becomes the "heart interest” of Louis Hayward, when carrying a mattress, he stumbles on the curb, does a dizzy spin, falls flat on his face at the feet of the lovely heroine, and is thus unconventionally introduced. In addition to the cast of starring players, headed by Louis Hayward, Tom Brown and Joan Fontaine, the film also features such notable favourites as Charles D. Brown, Jed Prouty, Marjorie Gateson, Emma Dunn, George McKay, Nick Lukats and William Bakewell. Hundreds of Hollywood extras were hired for the large crowd scenes depicting accurately and authentically the life of cadets at West Point. These extras were put through a regular course of training by military and athletic experts, and for several weeks their life exactly paralleled in Hollywood the life of the plebe who enrolls at the Academy. "The Duke of West Point” is generally acknowledged to be England's perfect answer to "A Yank at Oxford."