New Films In London Entertainments Miss Daphne du Maurier's story of wreckers on the Cornish coast, " Jamaica Inn," which appears on the London screen this week, neither adds to nor greatly detracts from ihe reputations of Mr. Charles Laughton and Mr. Alfred Hitchcock. Mr. Laughton's playing is effective along familiar theatrical lines, and Mr. Hitchcock's production is rather painstaking than inspired. Midnight brings Miss Claudette Colbert in sophisticated comedy, Huckleberry Finn Mr. Mickey Rooney as "Huck," and Tlhe Little Princess Miss Shirley Temple as the pathetic child in an adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett. REGAL Jamnaica Init.-In the midst of a story which appears to have bcen made for schoolboys- the film is adapted from a novel by Miss Daphne du Maurier-there appears one curious and picturesque character, the character who is played by Mr. Charles Laughton. For the most part the film is a conventional tale of Cornish wreckers haunt- ing an unnecessarily sinister inn, with a Government man (Mr. Robert Neewton) dis- gutised- as a member of the gang, and a heroiie (Miss Maureen O'Hara) w%hose business it is to be incessantly kidnapped. The wind blows nearly always, the nights seem to be very long and the scenes in daylight few, the waves are spectacular, and there is a great deal of light- ing, riding, hiding, pursuit, and escape. In fact the director, Mr. Alfred Hitchcock, seems for the moment to have given up his method of slow and deliberate tension; it is a film of downright and in no way subtle action. But the personage represented by Mr. Laughton is little more than conventionally picturesque; he is the squire who directs the wreckers, a fantastic and inordinate gentleman of the Regency period, megalomaniac, flighty, and uncontrollable. Even so it is apparently thought necessary to apologize for this curious ligure by calling him, quite unnecessarily, a lunatic; Mr. Laughton makes him quite intelligible without going to such extremes and he gives a fascinating sketch of vanity run to seed and of the manners of a dandy cbang- ing in exile to hysterical flourishes. But it is surely a mistake to exaggerate the dandy's accent until, as happens continually, he becomes inaudible in the theatre. There are several minor parts very capably played, and Mr. Emlyn Williams is particularly good as a sinister pedlar, Miss Marie Ncy as the downtrodden wife of an innkeeper (Mr. Leslie Banks). PLAZA Mfidnight.-This is an amusing and sophisti- cated comedy, very much after the style of Herr Ernst Lubitsch btut in fact directed by Mr. Mitchell Leisen. The dialogue is pleasantly flecked with caustic wit, and the action takes place in the wealthiest of Parisian circles and thus allows Miss Claudette Colbert, as Eve Peabody, to appear with grace and elegance while hoodwinking the bluest blood of France into thinking she is a baroness instead of an American chorus girl. Arriving in Paris with her only asset the Monte Carlo pawn ticket she has in her bag, Eve is befriended by a taxi- driver, Tibor (Mr. Don Ameche), whom she hastily leaves when romance threatens to wreck her ambitious schemes. By sweeping into the first house she comes to-with the help of the pawn ticket, judiciously passed as an invitation card-she discovers herself at a fashionable gathering where her gambling instincts lead to bridge for high stakes and further disaster. To her rescue comes Georges Flammarion (Mr. John Barrymore), who sees in her an admirable counter-attraction for his wife's lover, Jacques (Mr. Francis Lederer). From then on com- plications hastily follow one upon another. Eve adopts the name of the taxi-driver as being the first she can think of, adds a title to it, and then visits the ancestral home of the Flam- marions. The romantic Jacques is by her side, making love, her eccentric host is behind her, egging her on. and the impetuous Tibor is soon in hot pursuit, determined to make a scene. Arriving at the crucial moment when Eve is about to be exposed, he announces himself to be the baron, her husband, whom she is then forced to divorce in order to placate the ardent Jact4ues. Finally she decides to marry Tibor after all, to the justifiable annoyance of the judge who has just divorced them. Miss Colbert makes a delightful impostor, outwardly calm but inwardly aghast at her own rashness, and Mr. Barrymore presents aristocratic eccen- tricity in the grand manner. EMPIRE The Adv entuares of Hutckleberry Finn.-Tom Sawyer has disappeared from the film version of this story, and " Huck " and the negro, Jim, float down the river on their raft without hitm. The director has used Mark Twain's knowledge of the Mississippi to good advantage. It flows majestically along, placid and wide, between its wooded banks, and lends a fine background to this tale of the adventures and misfortunes which " Huck " encounters after he has run away from home. The adaptation might well have been bettered, for the story has become somewhat disjointed and episodic, but the more serious note which the author struck has not altogether been ignored, and " Huck " airs his views on the abolition of slavery while poor Jim dreams of his escape to one of the States where the neFro is free. Mr. Mickey Rooney is " 1uck,' and the director has been careful to see that he shall not overplay the part; he smokes his famous pipe, goes barefoot, plays truant, and tells lies with acceptable bravado, but is suitably im. pressed when the " King " and the " Duke " appear upon the scene-boarding the raft after they have been unceremoniously thrown over- board by the captain of a passing river steamer. These two admirable rogues are well enough played by Mr. Walter Connolly and *Mr.: William Frawley, though without quite that air;of showmanly deceit which Mr. W. C.- Fields could so well have imparted to their nefarious schemes. The attempted lynching of Jim, to whom Mr. Rex Ingram imparts a sirr'ple and moving sincerity, and " Huck's " despetate race in a river boat to save him provide the film with an exciting climax. NEW GALLERY The Little Princess.-This is one of those masterpieces of American sentimentality which compel one's extremely reluctant admiration. It is adapted from a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and it is as if a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett had a distressing but irresistible force which for once made it impossible to resist the seediest platitudes and the most excruciating heart-throbs of rank melodrama. Is it perhaps the combination of an exact reconstruction of the part with extremely efficient and quite unrestrained acting which in American films of this kind gives a new fire to the cold ashes of "Little Lord Fauntleroy " or " Lady Audley's Secret " ? At any rate the effect is undeniable, and the film should not be missed if one really wishes to be compelled to follow a story of a little girl whose father is apparently killed and bank- rupt in the Boer War, so that she is banished to an altic in her expensive school, starved, frozen, and overworked, vet still with un- daunted courage searches the hospitals every day to find at last, with the kind assistance of, Queen Victoria,. a father, who has lost his memory, It is* certainly i film.-which suits Miss Shirley Temple, who: plays the pari of the little girl, *and even her capacity for sentiment and pathos sometimes appears scarcely adequate for the inventions of Frances Hodgson Burnett. Mr. Arthur Treacher provides the comic relief, a genuinely comic reconstruction of a music-hall entertainer of the period, which is a genuine relief. The film is in colour. Broadcasting will be found on page 8 NEW FILMS IN LONDON "JAMAICA INN"
