REGENT THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 May 1940, Page 2

REGENT THEATRE

“EACH DAWN I DIE.” At the Regent Theatre tonight will be seen one of the most sensational programmes ever shown in Masterton. The teaming of James Cagney and George Raft in “Each Dawn I Die,” brings together the screen’s two topmost portrayers of authentic modern bard “guys,” and the result is. a picture which achieves a brilliant reality - -far and away the strongest drama of this type*ever to reach the screen. Not only has each contributed a character portrayal that compares more than favourably with anything along the same line that he has ever clone before, but jointly they present a rarely achieved welding of great talents. Both are tough, both are hard, and yet both are distinctive. And that is just as it should be, for the story of the picture demands that they be entirely different types of persons. Cagney at the outset is anything but the almost animalistic convict that be becomes later on, whereas Raft is from the first a criminal, a cruel and callous killer and yet a man of principle, unsocial though his ideas may have been. Sent to gaol as the result of a frame-up, Cagney is naturally rebellious. His attitude is met with brutality by the prison authorities and that results in a degeneration which makes of him, on the surface at least, as tough and vicious a man as any convict in the place. After he saves Raft’s life, the latter gives him a loyalty which eventually results in Raft himself laying down his life to prove his friend’s innocence. Supporting the two stars is an extraordinary able cast. Playing opposite Cagney in her first lead in an important picture, Jane Eryan gives a rare picture of tender devotion, courage, and loyalty as the sweetheart of the wrongfully imprisoned man. The only other woman in the cast is Fmma Dunn, who gives an intensely moving performance as Cagney’s mother.

Splendid and varied supporting subjects include the latest Air Mail News, containing the notorious “Lord HawHaw” and his lying broadcasts. Plans are at Nimmo’s and the Theatre.