"WEST OF ZANZIBAR."

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19669, 12 July 1929, Page 15

"WEST OF ZANZIBAR."

LON CHANEY IN FAMOUS PLAY. CRYSTAL PALACE, MONDAY. "West of Zanzibar" will be presented at Crystal Palace Theatre next week, and in it Lon Chaney heada a east of distinguished players, including Lionel Barrymore, Warner Baxter, and Mary Nolan. It ia a drama based on "The Shanghai Gesture." It is difficult to say whether Chaney, as the father, or Lionel Barrymore, as his dead wife's lover, gives the best performance. Lon Chaney requires bat little just sufficient to make him middle-aged, bitter, and evil They are real people, all of them, and the story they play out is as dramatic and strange as anything one could wish for from fiction or the theatre, 'Parhaps quite the most masterly stroke of the picture ia the characterisation given by Mary Nolan. Id most plays of this nature, the daughter of the vicious father comes home from school, sweet and innocent and trusting. Not so the Maisie of Miss Nolan. The whole picture is life-like, and the production aspects, the African jungles and landscapes, are likewise excellent. The second picture is a comedy, "On To Reno," and Marie Provost has the role of the typical modern divorcee Reno is where everybody can get a divorce for the asking, and the comedy evolved out of this Valhalla is human, penetrating, and caustic. Mr Alfred Buns has a special musical score arranged for the Symphony Orchestra, and the box plans are now open at The Bristol Piano Company.