AMUSEMENTS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19115, 26 September 1927, Page 6

AMUSEMENTS.

« LAND BEYOND THE LAW." KEN MAYNARD IN THRILLER.s LIBERTY THEATRE, TO-DAY. Ken Maynard, Btar in First National. pictures, has out-Mixed Mix, and it is as entertaining a mix-up as the ro'ving camera has ever, captured. ' Every city, every hamlet, every country, has its Land Beyond the Law —something mysterious, foreign, forbidding. But the land beyond American law is the coldeu West, where so many strange things Happen, and verify the contention that truth is stranger than fiction. Maynard, in his htest production, "The. Land Beyond the Law" which will be presented at the Liberty Theatre today has the colourful and adventurous spirit o£ the West, with its bad men, its cattle thieves, jts airy gun-play, its contorted humour, its essential drama, and he has made "Tho Land Beyond the Law" a picture o£ the West that will long bo remembered. His Westerns are as far removed from the usual Western as diamond is from paste. They present life as it is really lived in those still thrilling and romantic spots, and one does not see the screen glutted with cowboys in immense sombreros, amazing leathered garments, adorned with silver knives nd marcelled sheep's wool, in his pictures. And it seems to us that the "stunts" he indulges in are the last word in reckless daring, such as not many of the more famous stars would care to stage. One feat he performs in "The Land Beyond tho Law" has been banned from rodeos as "too dangerous," but Maynard uses it to add local colour and atmosphero into the film, and it is in such apparently indifferent touches that, Maynard productions go one further than other Westerns. A moiety of dramatic interest, some comedy, too, complete tho aroma of melodrama that pervades the story, and Dorothy Dwan, in support of the star, gives a charming peoformance in her role. Patsy Ruth Miller and Kenneth Harlan are the stars of "The Fighting Edge," from the novel by William McLeod Rame. The secret service, a smugglers' den on the Mexican border, mad adventure down among the Latins across the Rio Grande —these are the elements that go to make up the sum total of this Warner classic of the screen—colour, love, hate, jealousy—a generous pouritis: out of the novelist's genius. Patsy Ruth Miller gives a sterling portrayal of an extremely difficult part/demanding much emotional playing, and Kenneth Harlan, as Juan de • Dios O'Rourke, plavs well up to the Juan de Dios in the beginning, but succumbs, like a real O'Rourke, to the appeals of tho heroine m the final fade-out —a fascinating and thrilling picture. Mr Ernest Jamieson's concert orchestra will play next week's musical programme in their customary finished style, with gems of the south, and popular Irish melodies predominating. The box plans are now open at The Bristol Pjano Company, where seats may be reserved.