STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 November 1940, Page 2

STATE THEATRE

“SOUTH OF PAGO PAGO.’’ “South of Pago Pago,” which will be screened tonight at the State Theatre, is an exciting and dramatic tale of the white man’s rapacity in the South Seas. Bucko Larson (Victor McLaglen), owner and skipper of a pearling schooner, is an old friend of Ruby Taylor (Frances Farmer), a night-club “assistant” in Singapore, who is fed-up with small-town life and wishes to get back to the bright lights of civilisation. Neither of the pair is over-scrupulous, though in her own rather attractive, hard-bitten way, Ruby Taylor is both honest and kindhearted. She is also beautiful, which in the circumstances makes life even harder. They hear of a certain Portuguese who is supposed to know the whereabouts of a fabulously-rich pearloyster bed, in the South Pacific, and between them they persuade him to break the bargain he has already made which another skipper, and to sail with them. It turns out to be of little advantage to the little Portuguese, for he is thrown overboard as soon as he reveals his secret —but even that fate is better than the misery that Larsen and his piratical crew inflict on the happy little island of Manoa. When the islanders refuse to dive in deep water, they are forced to do so, with the result that a good many of them die. The young island chieftain puts a taboo on diving, but he is got out of the way by Ruby Taylor, who married him, not without some twinges of misgiving, and goes off on a honeymoon, native fashion. Ruby Taylor, as it happens, falls deeply in love with the young chief (Jon Hall), and is herself almost broken-hearted ■when she finds the horrors that have taken place during her idyllic absence. Bucko Larson and his gang have callously meted out death to others time and time again, but their turn comes in a dramatic battle with the Manoans in which Ruby Taylor is killed while trying to protect her “husband.” Peace comes to the island once more as the young chief and his native bride, who has already had her share of suffering, are feted by the islanders.