STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 June 1941, Page 8

STATE THEATRE

"THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED.” “They Knew What They Wanted,” which will be shown tonight at the State Theatre, co-stars Carole Lombard and Charles Laughton in a poignant romantic screen drama of the California grapelands. The story, told in forthright fashion, marches with its vividly human characters from heartwarming beginning to bitingly dramatic end; and it advances the art of screen story-telling a significantly long way in doing so. The plot itself is simple enough. Laughton, a happy-go-lucky Latin rancher, of Napa Valley, who has grown rich on his grapes, goes to San Francisco for a vacation and falls in love with a blonde waitress (Miss Lombard). Through his restless foreman, William Gargan, he opens a stilted correspondence with the girl, finally persuades her to come to Napa and marry him. But on the eve of the wedding the rancher breaks both legs in an accident and the marriage has to be postponed, while the girl stays on to nurse him. She, lonely and dissatisfied, finds herself attracted to the moody foreman. What happens as the three find their lives disrupted through one mis-step makes up the emotional conclusion of this truly great film. The two stars give superlative performances in their respective roles.