ENTERTAINMENTS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 49, Issue 198, 7 June 1929, Page 2

ENTERTAINMENTS

MAJESTIC THEATRE.

"I Will Repay," from the novel by Baroness Orczy, will be the chief attraction for to-night and to-morrow night. This is a tale of the -reign of terror that swept France during the revolution, and deals particularly with the part played by the mysterious Englishman, Sir Percy Blakeney, in rescuing from the shadow of the guillotine, large numbers of condemned aristocrat's. It is an elaborate production. For the matinee to-morrow and again at night there will be "The Glorious Trail," which is a romantic story of the first telegraph wires strung from the east to the west, and the hardships and adventures encountered while completing this historical fact.

"THE STUDENT PRINCE." The film version of the play, "The Student Prince," will be shown on Monday and Tuesday. "THE MIDNIGHT MYSTERY."

The "Victor Prince Company entertained a very small audience at the Majestic Theatre last night, when they presented "The Midnight , Mystery." There were many laughs in the jokes put over the footlights, but not everyone' in the Theatre laughed. Victor Prince carried the show, but "his humour was stale where it was not crude —and worse. He took the part of Private Detective Mcintosh, second in command of the Mcintosh Inquiry Bureau. He was ably supported by Miss Vernon, who made quite an imposing queen of the underworld in the role of Cora Diamond.

The theme of the play was the mysterious (?) murder at midnight of Edward Blake, an English millionaire: Detective Mcintosh, a most winsome young lady, and her jovial brother, formerly a sailor, and not by any stretch "of imagination a likely inquiry agent, follow up the case. Young Blake, known to the underworld as "Cocaine Jimmy," a drug addict, is accused of the murder. In the course of interrogation, he falls in love with the charming lady detective, undergoes complete reformation, and eventually is cleared of the crime when a gentleman, rejoicing in the name of "Jack the Ripper," confesses to having murdered Blake senior, and all ends happily when the young couple are free to marry. The bold queen of the underworld also decides to embark on the sea of matrimony with the sailor-detective.

The company was a small one, and not quite so "talented" as patrons had been led to believe.