STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 September 1941, Page 8

STATE THEATRE

“DEAD MEN TELL." The double programme at the State Theatre headed by “Dead Men Tell” and “Maryland,” will be finally shown tonight. “OLD BILL AND SON.” In “Old Bill and Son,” which will be shown at the State Theatre tomorrow night, people have the opportunity of seeing how really timeless Bruce Bairnfather’s famous character really is. In this picture Old Bill still drives a taxi, libelled by a sarcastic policeman as a concrete-mixer. Young Bill, his son, suffers from that nervous itch that affected so many of the post-war generation; he cannot keep his jobs, and is forever borrowing “two quid off the old man,” to take him to a place where he really can make some money. In September, 1939, Young Bill i's, like a good many others of his age, very disillusioned about politics, and quite certain that he will never have anything to do with a war. But the invasion of Poland —and some very terse remarks from Old Bill —impel him to enlist. His uniform, “this newfangled battledress,” is a cause of mirth to Old Bill and his cronies, but the youngster is proud of it, and secretly the older man is, too. Old Bill does his best to enlist, but is turned' down on account of his age. But anyone who had been such a champion “swinger” as he had been in 1914-1918, could not be entirely beaten by officialdom, and before long he turns up in France in a Pioneer Battalion whose first job it is to dig Young Bill’s Brengun carrier out of the mud. The humour of this film is simple and wholesome. It is also very funny, and sharpened everywhere by real pathos.