STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 July 1940, Page 2

STATE THEATRE

“THE RAINS CAME.” No producer could without immense care, preparation and the most thorough organisation attempt to transfer to the screen the story, the atmosphere, and the meaning and message of so compelling a narrative as Louis Bromfield’s great novel, “The Rains Came.” The prospect must have been almost forbidding, yet, nothing less than justice has been done. The film, 'The Rains Came,” which will be shown for a return season tonight by special request of many patrons, is all in celluloid that so notable a book can be said to warrant; and, because it matches on the screen what Louis Bromfield achieved in writing, the picture must rank as a triumph of production. “The Rains Came” is an immense picture; it presents human emotions, human hopes and motives on a scale no less vast than that of the forces of nature which it likewise so sweepingly portrays. And it is, too, a brilliant picture. It is acted with polished artistry by a notable cast. Faithful in mood and detail to the book, “The Rains Camo” preserves all of Bromfield’s characters. Myrna Loy 'breaks with the “perfect wife” tradition to play the amorous Lady Edwina Esketh; Tyrone Power has his most romantic role as the highcaste Hindu surgeon, Major Rama Safti, who proven the one great love of Lady Esketh’s life; and George Brent is seen as the worldly Tom Ransome, a ghost out of the lady’s romance strewn past. Brenda Joyce, discovered by starmaker Zanuck as the climax of a nation-wide search, heads a brilliant supporting cast in the role of Fern Simon, the fresh, young beauty whose love gives the world-weary Ransome a new lease of life.

The supporting feature will be that brilliant picture, “20,000 Men a Year,” telling a thrilling story and a pretty romance.