STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 December 1939, Page 2

STATE THEATRE

"THE FOUR FEATHERS.” The drama-packed story of Harry Faversham, who is accused of cowardice by his closest friends when he resigns from his regiment on the eve of its departure to join Kitchener’s Army in the Sudan, and who redeems himself by some of the most daredevil feats on record, is unfolded in the gripping tale of “The Four Feathers,” Alexander Korda’s new technicolour feature which will commence a season at the State Theatre tonight. Heading the cast of “The Four Feathers." which was directed by Zoltan Korda and adapted from A. E. W. Mason’s popular novel, are Ralph Richardson. John Clements, C. Aubrey Smith, and June Duprez, 20-year-old brunette who was discovered by Alexander Korda and awarded the leading feminine role. All the outdoor scenes and the big battle sequences for “The Four Feathers” were photographed in the Anglo-Egyp-tian Sudan, the actual locale of the story. When Zoltan Korda arrived in the Sudan, "The Four Feathers” company proceeded to the East Nile and with a company of engineers of the Sudan Defence Corps completed a camp that extended for two miles along the east Nile back to South Sabolauka Gorge. Here, almost on the very site once occupied by the Dervishes, was photographed Lord Kitchener's greatest battle, showing his gunboats being hauled up the cataracts. The filming ] of this battle took 4,000 native troops, a battalion of the East Surrey Regiment, a regiment of the Sudan Horse, hundreds of Dervishes and "FuzzyWuzzies” —the only native troops ever to break a British square —and hundreds of horses and camels. This dramatic scene also shows the natives pulling the English Army on flat-boats over the dangerous cataracts. Filming in the Sudan, on the sun-baked fastnesses, was carried on under the most difficult circumstances. When the temperature drops, it drops to 110 degrees. To avoid sunstroke, work began at six in the morning and continued until eleven, after which work had to stop because of the intense heat. After a long siesta, filming was again undertaken at four o’clock in the afternoon for only one hour, because after that the sun disappeared very quickly.