STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 November 1940, Page 2

STATE THEATRE

“THE WESTERNER.” Against the colourful and adventurefilled background of the Old West, in the days when justice was administered at the point of a gun and roistering Judge Roy Bean loomed as the "Law West of the Pecos,” “The West- . rner,” with Gary Cooper in the title role, will be shown tonight at the State Theatre. “The Westerner” features in the cast which supports Cooper such notable players as Walter Brennan. Fred Stone, Doris Davenport, Lilian Bond, Forrest Tucker and Paul Hurst. The setting of the story is Vinegarroon, Texas, in the roaring days of the eighties when there raged a bitter and long protracted battle between the cattlemen, original settlers of the land, and the homesteaders, who sought to till the land which they homesteaded under the law. Just when this battle is reaching a peak, the Westerner, a roving cowboy named Cole Harden, drifts into town and finds himself entangled in the vicious "Law West of the Pecos.” But the Westerner is a wily adventurer, fearless and bold, and when he comes to grips with wily Judge Bean, he proves a shrewd opponent. The story reaches a climax in the scene where the cattlemen and Bean’s henchmen set fire to the hundreds of homesteads and farms throughout the area. Cole follows the weatherbeaten, grimy old man to Fort Davis where Lily Langtry is to make her long-promised visit. How Cole waylays the Judge as the gorgeous actress is aborft to step before the footlights and what happens when guns are fired provides the story with a swift, action-filled ending.