"THE COSSACKS."

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19480, 29 November 1928, Page 5

"THE COSSACKS."

JOHN GILBERT IN THE TOLSTOY STORY. It seems to be, lately, the fashion for the screen to resort to no less an author than Leo Tolstoy for material for pictures. Provided that the screen continues its policy of recruiting none but the best players for his stories, and producing the »ta\ resulting in tho best possible manner, it will be difficult indeed to find better pictures than those "adapted from the brilliant Russian The latest Tolstoy picturo to hand is ine uossacks," whioh will bo screened for a season at the Grand Theatre, commencing next Monday. In the two principal roles are John Gilbert and Ernest Torrence, Lukashka, and his father Ivan the Ataman. Eenee Adoree, possessed.of a charming personally and considerable talent, is the Cossack, girl, the prize of the warrior who will vanquish tho hereditary enemies, the Turks, and Mis Asther is the Russian prince of the blood, who is orderod to wed a Cossack woman for policy, and who selects Maryana, who herself loves Lukashka, the coward. . There is a profoundly moving plot to "The Cossacks." No< all a study of the Russian, the Tartar, the Mogul, the Cossack. Not all sociology and a treatise on the lot or the peasant and the soldier. Tho old boarded author, wise in his years and loving his fellow-man and woman more tor_ their wanties and stupidities than for their brilliance and their gentle mercy, old Tolstoy could write as glowing a romance, as captivating a piece of hard, virile drama, as the youngest and most innocent of his confreres, in ine Cossacks" he does not concentrate on such serious things as ho did in "Resurrection, and his greater works. Tho story moves with a brisk tempo: thero is action, translated in terms of lighting and loving, and the capture by Turkish hordes of some Cossacks, and their appalling treatment of them. And, in the background, there >s Lukashka cured of his cowardice; and the Imperial I prince, ordering the Cossack gir t°_ ma "7 him before the return of her soldiers. All very thrilling, in the best sense of that abused word. The outstanding features of this production are the real y acting of the principals, and the authentic, portraving of Cossack customs. • A second picture next week will be My Lady of Victories," a really gorgeous techmcolour production, the romance of Na>oleon «nd Josephine. This story is one of the most piquing in history, ahd. here is a new revelation of the Man-of Destmy »»£*»&•* of hope. The b« plans open at The Bristol Piano Company this morning, and seats may be reserved there. _