GRAND THEATRE.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18302, 9 February 1925, Page 5

GRAND THEATRE.

"THE TEN COMMANDMENTS." A STUPENDOUS PICTURE. As was to ho anticipated, great crowds of picture lovers attended tho first screenings of tho Cecil B. Do Millo screen masterpiece, "The Ten Commandments," which was shown at tho Grand Theatre on Saturday afternoon and evening, and will continue there throughout tho present week. Very early on Saturday evening the "houso full" sign was displayed at the cntranco of the theatre and 110 better proof of tho public's anticipation of the production could have been tendered.

Tho theme of this rcmarkablo film is that tho Ton Commandments besides being divine laws—always have been, and always will boj "The Law," which man must obey if he would livo in peaco and harmony with his follows. First is shown a scries of pictures of the Israelites in bondage in Egypt. Then one is taken inside Pharaoh's palace and see Moses solemnly warn Pharaoh of the fate which will betall his son and all the firstborn in Egypt if he refuses to let the Israelites go. The blow falls and Phuraoh'3 son is carried into his presence dead. Moses and his pcoplo are told to begone and Pharaoh turns to his own gods to restore bis son. When this fails, his wrath rises against the Israelites and he summons his chariot and pursues them to tho Red Sea. One is actually shown tho waters divide and the Children of Israel pass over on dry land between walls of living water. Then Pharaoh and his host following after them, aro engulfed. The Israelites enter the wilderness, and Moses goes up to tho mountain top to receive the Commandments amidst thunder and lightning. The people, however, lose heart during his forty days and nights' absence and persuade Aaron to manufacture a visible god in tho ohapo of a golden calf. This they set up and worship with a riotous abandon. Then Moses descends from the mountain with the tablet and calls down the wrath of God on the unfaithful people. The second part of tho film applies the Commandments to modern life. Mrs MrTavish is a humble woman with two sons, John, a carpenter, believing tho old laws still hold good, and Dan, deriding "all that stuff" and deliberately breaking them one by one. He marries a girl, Mary, whom John has befriended and sets out to make a fortune Ss a building contractor by every dishonest means he can 'get away with." Finally he builds a great church with rotten material, which collapses and kills his own mother. He has been unfaithful to his wife, and at his wits' end for money to bribo officials, tries to extract it from the woman, half French, half Chinese, upon whom ho had lavished his favours. She repulses and derides him, and in his fury he shoots her. Ho reaches home with the police hot on his track, and while they are in the house, escapes from his wife's bedroom window, reaches his motor launch and makes a dash for liberty. But Nemesis overtakes him: he is caught in a storm and drowned. His wife, overcome by horrcr, contemplates finding oblivion by suicide, out is rescued by John, and finds happiness at last with the man who is content to be just a carpenter. The'caste selected for the chief roles cou.d not bo surpassed. Theodore. Roberts as Moses gives of his best, while l!o<l La, Kocquc as Dan, brings out the susceptibilities of some modern business men to gain tneir objectives at all costs. In the principa. ; role of Mary Leigh, Leatrice Joy is as de--1 iightful a.s sho is a convincing aclress, and : Richard Dix as a business man with a con- ' .science, plays a role in which ho misses not I a isingle opportunity. A certain portion ot ; the film including the great mufs scenes j is picturesquely coloured, acd lends not a j little to the general attractiveness oi t.ha I production. The scenes depicting the Bibii- | cal part of the story are stupendous and j provide a permanent monument to one ot ! the greatest motion picture producers o{ the day. A large orchestra under the baton of Mr Howard Moody, provided the musical accompaniment on Saturday, and played no small part in the success 01" the programme. •As a prologue, the orchestia played the "Pilgrim's Chorus' 1 from Tanr.hau.-er (Wagner), a most appropriate composition which ■ succeeded, in putting; the audience 111 tho right mood fcr the picture. "The T;n Commandments" is accompanied by a special ■ score arranged by Hugo Beisenfield, who is an authority on photoplay music, and the score is magnificent, maintaining the atmos. phere throughout. Tho entr'acte was the ' "Song to the Evening Star" (Wagner), tho ' 'cello solo was tastefully played by Mr ! Keith Worry.