MYSTERY AND LOVE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18968, 5 April 1927, Page 13

MYSTERY AND LOVE.

"THE MAN UPSTAIRS" AND "COMPROMISE." AT LIBERTY THEATRE. Ghostly shapes, haunted castles, and skeletons have all been mixed up with youth, love, and romance in "Tho Mun Upstairs," the Warner Brothers' screen classic, which entertained a large audience at tho Liberty Theatre last night. Many months have passed since such an eerie comedy-drama has been thrown on the screen at this picture house. Monte Blue is starred,, and ho is given worthy support by the lovable and fascinating Dorothy Devore. The tale has been adapted to the screen from the famous novel "The Agony Column," and none of its tenseness or wholesome humour has been lost in transferring it to the screen. It features the novel manner in which a young adventurer became acquainted with a charming girl through the personal columns of a London daily. Until Geoffrey West, the handsome and wealthy traveller, espied Marion Larnnrd, a daughter of the sun-loved islands of the south who was visiting England's capital with Aunt Hattie. he indulged iris passion in strawberries and cream religiouslv every morning. But when she, seated daintily at the opposite table, ordered "luscious grapefruit," he began to consider if his choice of fruit was as good as it might have been. So he dnred ask her through the personal column (sometimes called "agony" column because the least said about it'in a charabanc the better) of the morning paper, if she would debate the question in a secluded spot. But she answered, through tho same medium, that first ho must intrigue her interest by writing her not fewer than five letters, embodying love, romance, and mystery. .And so he be. gan. In the end he became so hopelessly muddled that he believed all he had written and was locked up in a deserted castle for tho murder of on officer of the Air Force! The way in which the tangle is unravelled is most enthralling. . . To prove that lifo is compromise, is the aim of another good picture from the studios of the well-known Warner Brothers. Entitled "Compromise," it features Irene Rich and Clive Brook, with Pauline Gnron. Raymond' McKee, and Winter Hall. Hilda Trevore (Irene Rich) and Allan Tnvore (Clive Brook) were on the eve of marriage, when "the other girl," Joan, fresh from Paris divorce Courts, stepped into their midst. With the intrusion of pleasure-crazed vouth, and the blare of jazz, misunderstanding came. It tells how a wife lost the love of her husband and yet was unafraid to fight to win it back. Pictures in support of the featured two are excellent, -including a cartoon, comedy, and a gazette. Under the conductarship of Mr hrnest Jamieson, the Liberty; Concert Orchestra plaved an admirable musical score. The entr'acte was Myers' delightful tune, Tonight's My Night with Baby." As the overture, "King Cotton" (Sousa) was a popular old favourite.