"THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY."

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19814, 30 December 1929, Page 6

"THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY."

THORNTON WILDER'S BOOK

AT EVERYBODY'S. TO-DAY. The Dim of Thornton Wilder s book, 4 The Bridge of b-.tn Luis Key," wi'l be presented 8 t liWrvbodv*. Theatre to-day. and it :s one of the best pictures screened at Everyimdv's Theatre during it' long history as a first"cia,s house. "The Bridge o£ San Luis Rev " published in l?-~. was awarded the rov-'ted Pulitzer Prize of m2g. and has »:- -read-- run through sistcen editions. Based on the breaking of the Peruvian bridge of SaintLouis the King in the eighteenth ceutury, this (-•it;-strophe plunging five human beings to t'h'e'r" deaths below, the story is unfolded as a of the fear and clamour set up by •he superstitious populace. For the bridge had been built by the Aztecs before tne coming of the Spanish Christians, and had been hv Xavicr himself: the people regarded it* as a symbol of God's love, and when it crasned. terror entered their simple hearts. Father Juniper addresses himself to the faith of his flc-k by enquiring diligently into the live? of the deceased, and then preaching to them a sermon showing that it was Providence who took these lives to a world where strife aud 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 five dead, heartfelt force being given to the sinister Camiie (Lily Damita), as it is around this creature- that the web of fate involving fi\e lives, is woven. Each unforgettable character and incident in the gtorv 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 portraval that is super-charged with her own extraordinary vitality, and the daucer's glorious art. As her eccentric. •'L'ucle Pio," Ernest Torrence is superb. The Viceroy, the elderlv diplomat enslaved by Camiie, is played by Mikftai! Vavitch, the Marquessa by Emily Fi'tzrov, Pepita by Raquel Torres, Father Juniper by Henry B. Walthall, and the tragic. letter-wriHng Twins by Dou Alvarado and Duncan Rinaldo. The second film is "The One Woman Idea, an Anslo-Porsian romance, with Marceline Day and Rod La Rocque in the lends. Following are some of-the musical numbers to be plaved by Mr Bidgood's Select Orchestra, "In a* Persian Garden," "Angelus." "Eastern Romance." "Deep Night." "More-nay Sevillana," "Peer Gynt," "Capriccio Espagnol," "From India," "La Farandola," "Stars and Stripes." The box plans are at The Bristol Piano Company, and during the closed days will be at the theatre