"THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY."

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19813, 28 December 1929, Page 6

"THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY. "

* THORNTON WILDEB'S BOOK. AT EVERYBODY'S, MONDAY. The film of Thornton Wilder's book, "The Bridge of San Luis Key," will be presented at Everybody's Theatre next week, and it is one of the best pictures screened at Everybody's Theatre during its long history as a first-class house. "The Bridge of San Luis Key," published in 1927, was awarded the coveted Pulitzer Prize of 1928, and has already run through sixteen editions. Based on the breaking of the Peruvian bridge of Saint Louis the King in the eighteenth century, this catastrophe plunging five human beings to their deaths below, the story is unfolded as a result of the fear and clamour set up by the superstitious populace. For the bridge had been built by the Aztecs before the coming of the Spanish Christians, and had been blessed by Xavier himself; the people regarded it as a symbol of God's love, _ and •when it crashed, terror entered their simple hearts. Father Juniper addresses himself to the faith of his flock by enquiring diligently into the lives of the deceased, and then preaching to them a sermon showing that it ■was Providence who took these lives to a ■world where strife and pain no longer bruise the soul. From a -wonderful atmospheric interior of the cathedral. Father Juniper's dramatic stroy dissolves into the real lives led by the fire dead, heartfelt force being given to the sinister Camile (Lily Damita), as it is around this creature that the web of fate, involving five lives, is woven. Each unforgettable character and incident in the story the director has touched with the realism of genius, every foot is seething with some sort of drama, whether it is laughter, or tears, or love, or sorrow. Extreme care was exercised in the selection of appropriate types for the cast. Lily Damita gives a portrayal that is super-charged with her own extraordinary vitality, and the dancer's glorious art. As her eccentric "Uncle Pio," Ernest Torrence is superb. The "Viceroy, the elderly diplomat enslaved by Camile, is played by Mikhail "Vavitch, the Marquessa by Emily Fitzroy, Pepita by Raqael Torres, Father Juniper by Henry B. Walthall, and the tragic, letter-writing Twins by Don Alvarsdo and Duncan Rinaldo. The second film is "The One Woman Idea, ' an Anglo-Persian romance, with Marceline Day and Rod La Rocque in the leads. Following are some of the musical numbers to be played by Mr Bidgood's Select Orchestra, "la a Persian Garden," "Angelas," "Eastern Romance," "Deep Night." "Morenay Sevillana," "Peer Gynt," "Capriccio Egpagnol," "From India." "La Parandola," "Stars and Stripes." The box plans are at The Bristol Piano Company, and during the closed days will be at the theatre.