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Show Charles Laughton And Maureen O'Hara In "This Land Is Mine" With the advance reputation of being one of the hardest-hitting romantic dramas ever filmed, "This Land Is Mine" stars Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara at the head of a distinguished cast of screen favorites in an overwhelming overwhelm-ing story of Nazi occupation. It comes to the Rivoli Theater Thursday, Thurs-day, Friday and Saturday. Dudley Nichols, noted author and scenarist, and Jean Renoir, outstanding French director, collaborated col-laborated on the details of writing, writ-ing, producing and directing this' brilliant film. Said to give the first authentic picture of conditions condi-tions in the occupied countries today, to-day, the film presents its realistic story in a village that is obviously European but with English street names and shop signs a deliberate deliber-ate effort to avoid naming the precise pre-cise locale, which might be anywhere any-where in France or Belgium or Denmark. A school teacher of the village is the central character, a timid, brow-beaten man, dominated by a shrewish mother. He is secretly in love with a pretty girl teacher who in turn is engaged to the local railway superintendent. When the Nazis take over the area their commander, the pleasant but determined de-termined Major von Keller, does his best to keep things peaceful, out of a sincere wish to avoid reprisals re-prisals and bloodshed. Many of the villagers collaborate collabo-rate with him, among them the Mayor and the railway man. But trouble comes to a head when a secret newspaper stirs up resistance, resis-tance, and two Nazi soldiers are killed by a bomb. The Major takes hostages, among them the timid school teacher, Lory. To save her son from the firing squad, Lory's mother betrays the bomb thrower; but this action leads to a series of connected events which fateful-ly fateful-ly bring Lory to trial on a murder charge. The teacher's spirited efforts to win his freedom from the unjust accusation, however, prove a surprise sur-prise to everyone. When the hostages hos-tages are executed, a flame of patriotism pa-triotism burns away the man's fears and in a memorable fashion he leads the plot to its unforgettable unforget-table climax with one of the most dramatic portrayals in screen his-tory. his-tory. Laughton's work as the inspired teacher is said to be sensational, and Miss O'Hara has a powerful part in the romantic lead opposite him. Una O'Connor as Laughton's mother, George Sanders as the luckless railway superintendent, Walter Slezak as the Nazi Major and Kent Smith as a young patri-ot-sabouteur have the principal supporting roles, with such noted players as George Coulouris Phil-fp Phil-fp Merivale, Thurston Hall, Nancy |