REGENT THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 November 1939, Page 2

REGENT THEATRE

"VALLEY OF THE GIANTS." Despite counter-attractions there was a good house at the Regent Theatre on Saturday night when "Valley of the Giants," a magnificent technicolour production, commenced a screening which will extend until Tuesday next. Based on the well known novel. "Valley of the Giants” by Peter B. Kyne, the picture portrayed in vivid pictorial fashion the majestic grandeur of the Californian redwood terrain. Already twice picturised, the story abounded with dramatic thrills and exquisite camera shots of mighty redwoods standing hundreds of feet high. The star studded cast included Wayne Morris, as a lusty lumber-jack who fights to preserve his valuable forests, Clair Trevor as the feminine lead and Charles Bickford. Jack La Rue, Dick “Purcell, Alan Hale, and Frank McHugh. A perfect subject for a colour film —the redwood forests and the lumbering industry—the picture followed close in the wake of “Heart of the North.” The story opens with the efforts of the lumber barons to make legal "steals” in the vast redwood forests. Under cover of a legal loophole thousands of psuedo claims are filed by hirelings, who sell back their claims to the timber gangsters. Threatened with eviction the homesteaders fight. Vividly effective scenes include the burning down of the Land Claims Office, the felling of tremendous forest giants, a dramatic rescue from a runaway freight train, and the subsequent awe-inspiring sequel as a laden timber waggon crashes down a deep ravine. A glorious “free-for-all” and the dynamiting of a huge dam provides the climax to screen entertainment of a high order.

An outstanding first-half included an all-colour “Popular Science,” a good comedy, a bright cartoon, and latest Airmail war newsreels. The programme can be recommended.