STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 June 1940, Page 2

STATE THEATRE

“THE BARRICADE.” The change of programme tonight at the State Theatre is headed by that action-packed romantic drama “Barricade,” starring those great film artists, Alice Faye and Warner Baxter. It is a story which should make an appeal to picture patrons. On the night train out of Kalgan, in Northern China, Hank Topping (Warner Baxter), a top-flight but hard-drinking newspaper man, is greatly intrigued by a beautiful girl who .suddenly appears in his -compartment, speaking what clearly is a fake Russian accent. When he jokingly asks if she is from Brooklyn, she leaves his compartment in a hurry. At that instant, the train is stopped by terrified villagers who say that bandits are raiding the town ahead. The train officials decide to return to Kalgan, but not before the mysterious girl has gotten off, protesting that she has to go on toward Shanghai. The girl (Alice Faye) trudges into the bandit-ridden town, where there is a small American Consulate still bravely carrying on. The Consul, Samuel J. Cady (Charles Winninger), receives her cordially and apparently believes her story that she is the widow of an American citizen trying to return to her husband's home in America. But at dinner time, Topping turns up, having followed the girl. Ho makes her admit that she is not a Russian, but still readily “identifies” her to the Consul as the widow she claims to be, so that she can travel under an American passport. But when Topping tries to question the girl, she angrily tells him to mind his own business. A Colonel of the Chinese Nationalist Army offers to conduct the girl and Topping on to Shanghai in a truck. The girl is eager to go, but Topping forcibly restrains her. His good judgment is borne out when a few minutes later the truck is attacked by bandits and the occupants .killed. Meanwhile. Consul Cady has won the respect of the girl and of Topping for his simple faith in the inviolability of his American Consulate, with all that it stands for in thc-.way of liberty and decency. The rest of the story provides plenty of excitement and romance.