British Films

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 30, 1 February 1935, Page 15

British Films

AUSTRALIA: Has Not AprgeEp HoLLYywoop oe "Grandad Rudd" Maintains Atmosphere of the Book ROM time to time it has been said of British-made pictures that their direction too often has been inspired in Hollywood-that they are unnecessarily Americanised. Objection has been taken to American types, American slang and American characteristics of treatment. Such criticism certainly

cannot be levelled against rhe Australian production, "Grandad Rudd," due for release at the Auckland Regent next week. Whatever else the critics may say about this all-Australian picture, they will have to admit that it is without foreign "taint" of any kind. Steele Rudd’s characters have been played as these typical Australians were originally described in story by the. man who lived with them and knew them thoroughly. This was «nly to be expected in the cases of Bert Bailey, Fred MacDonald and Lillias Adeson (who have been playing the same parts for over 20 years), but the new people, too, are quite in character. After viewing a preliminary screening, it can be said that "Grandad Rudd" does not pretend to be more than it is-a homely, clean, robust comedy, thoroughly Australian in character, atmosphere and. direction. The humour, thorgh robust, is not farcical, and the laughs are almost continuous. There is a narra‘tive interest, too, with dramatic and sentimental touches. The animal scenes have been cleverly hardiled, and the Camden scenery has heen photographed splendidly.

IN ENGLAND AND AT HoLLywoop Dickens Comes to Life on Both Sides of Atlantic RITISH International Pictures has just finished the film of "The Old Curiosity Shop," says the film. critic of "The Observer’ (London). They

fal have been able to do something that was certainly not done in the American version of "Great Expectations"’-they hive not confined themselves to a few characters, but have handled a multitude of them, and have made something vivid and individual ou of each. Miss Margaret Kennedy did the filmtranscript of the story, and it was made by Mr. Thomas Bentley, who is himself a great Dickens man. Dickens characters shoulé certainly be suitable for film characters. They are always a little "larger than life’-as are people on the screen. And so many of them are in the nature of caricature-on the fine side of cari‘ecature. Dickens should also be suitable for the screen for another reason -he always worked on a large and crowded canvas. The medium of ‘the film can give him this-where che stage, of course, can’t. The American "Great Expectations" seemed to me, with minor faults, to be very good. It is easy

to pick smal] holes in anything-especi-_ally when it is one’s own subject. The lawyer Jagger's is a wonderful character, and was played by the. ideal actor for it, Mr. Francis Sullivan, and one wanted to know why more was not made of him. But, on the whole, a great deal of the fine drama of the book comes through. I think, too, that Hollywoud is really going to give us a fine picture in "David Copperfield." Of course, they will not be able to get anything like the whole of the novel in, unless they, after all, adopt the idea-which was at one time dis-cussed-of doing it in two parts-or as a serial. "If they took four evenings for it, then they could really do the novel ag Dickens wrote it. If they keep it to one evening, I. believe they are concentrating largely on the early part of the story; and the actual boyhood of David takes up a lot of the time. .