REGENT THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 November 1939, Page 2

REGENT THEATRE

"THE OUTSIDER.” Lines of dialogue that are as arresting as the crack of a whip abound in “The Outsider,” which will be shown at the Regent Theatre tonight, starring Mary Maguire and George Sanders. Here are a few samples. Sanders, the quack to a famous surgeon, “My degree is A.F.D. —After Doctors Fail.” And again, on the subject of his outrageous fees, “The are only two fees—nothing and too much.” To a sympathetic listener he says of his unpopularity—“l’m not ethical and I’m not English—that’s the whole trouble.” A poor patient, dragooned into touting patients for him, says “he may be a crook and a swine, but he can cure people.” There is the crux of this brilliant story by Dorothy Brandon. Ragatzy, the bonesetter, appals the medical profession by his manners and methods but he does cure people. When the daughter of a famous surgeon leaves her father’s house for Ragatzy’s to try his cure, drama rises to fever heat, particularly when affections and loyalties complicate the medical ethics of the situation. Add to that George Sanders’s portrayal of the bonesetter as a handsome, blatantly cocksure foreigner who is nearly always infuriatingly correct in his judgments and who falls in love with his patient and drama of terrific proportions result. Mary Maguire's characterisation of the artistic girl, apparently doomed to eternal lameness, is a flawless performance. Few artists could retain that limp in scene after scene without a hint of artificiality, but she succeeds. Definitely this production stands out as a classic example of English art and polish at its very peak.