Coming Pictures and Movie Notes

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIII, Issue 285, 17 November 1923, Page 12

Coming Pictures and Movie Notes

J HASTINGS THEATRES. Saturday, Monday and Tuesday Cosy “Grandma’s Boy.(Paramount). Cosy “Face of the World. ’(Sclzmck). Municipal “ The World’s Applause- “-(Paramount) Municipal “ Crossed Wires. ’ ’—(Univcrsal). Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Cosy “Trapped in the Air. ’ ’—(Fox). Cosy “The Fighting Guide.”—(FilmHouse). Municipal “Monte Cristo. ’’ —(Fox).

EVERYBODY’S NAPIER. Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. William Duncan in “Steel Heart.” George Larkin in “Flames of Passion.” Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Wellcsly Barry in “From Rags to Riches. ’ ’ All-star cast in “Trimmed in Scarlet.”

“Round the World in Eighteen Days” is based on Jules Verne's idea m “Round the World in Eighty Davs,” modern conditions being replaced for the old. This picture serves to show the strides made by civilisation in the last hundred years. Every type of vehicle and mode of conveyance is used to travel “round the world in eighteen days,” and, with a huge wager to make the risk worth while, this aim is practically aiid realistically achieved. * * * Miss Vera James, our New Zealand movie star, has her chance in “Know Thy Child.” This is an Australian production, and proves that Australia can make pictures as well as other countries. Australian scenery, characters, and customs are a delightful change from America, and give an accurate representation of colonial life. •®*®*®*®*®*®>*®*®®*®*®>

THE FUN IN HUMAN NATURE. “Grandma’s Boy” is Harold Lloyd’s greatest comedy, but that is not all. For, underlying its unbroken sequence of humour is a story that plays all round the heart. It has been said that Lloyd takes the simplicity of life, in natural surroundings, and with it makes superb comedy. It is proved in “Grandma’s Boy.” The picture concerns a boy who, though they arc packed tightly away, has the qualities of a hero. He has believed all through his youth that he is a coward and has suffered accords ingly at the hands of his associates, Even when it appears that, through his lack of nerve, he will lose his girl, he cannot rise to the occasion. Then Grandma takes a hand, works a miracle and turns a milksop into a fire-eater. Every dog has his day and this is Harold’s. Even the intense humour of what .'ollowa cannot quite eliminate the beautiful human note of the production. The cast, as usual, is excellent. Dainty Mildred Davis is charming, Anna Townsend as Grandma both appeals and delights and the other players are of the same high artistic standard. YVhen you have seen “Grandma’s Boy” at the Cosy Theatre to-night, Monday and Tuesday, you will know what lengthened its season into months at America’s greatest theatres. ® ® A RARE FEAST OF ENTERTAINMENT. A rare treat is promised patrons of the Cosy de Luxe Theatre. “The Face of the World,” Hodkinson’s newest production for Selznick’s, will be shown to-night, Monday and Tuesday. This great picture, which was adopted to the screen from the worldfamous novel of the same name by Johan Baier, deals with the adventures and misadventures of Dr. Harold Mark and Thora. his young bride, played by Edward Hearn and Barbara Bedford. There is a villain—naturally—and in this particular instance a most plausible and fascinating one—for this important. role has been entrusted to Lloyd Whitlock, one of the most popular actors appearing before the camera to-day. He does his best to win the beautiful Thora, and. for a while it looks as though he were going to succeed, but Fate intervenes, and in a singularly appealing climax sets everything write. Sorile of the big moments of the production are the wrecking of a highpowered racing car—the burning of a three-storey building and a rescue from the flames—which by the way. almost cost Edward Hearn his life when the scene was being photographed. “The Face of the World” is one production uhich the good people of Hastings simply cannot afford to miss. ® ® “THE WORLD S APPLAUSE.” Paramount. ,lkb. L . Daniels.- The- Le_ sire of a theatrical star for public appreciation has a bearing on th - title of the picture. Her craving to bo the talk of the town is an obsession, but there is a tin!'? when her notoriety becomes unenviable, and then it is she realises that, after all, too much recognition is not always advantageous. In the early stages of the story, the actress, Bebc Daniels, is advised bv her manager lover, to c?a e h?r craving for applause, and to devote more time to the question of her art. but the empty-head’d woman fails 1.0 realise this good advice, until well on towards the end of the picture fn th© interim, a dramatic series of events lead up to a murder, in which the girl is charged with the crime, hut later on the real culprit confesses, and everything ends satisfactorily. The narrative itself is very deftly handled by a strong cast, which includes Lewis Stone as the manager-lover, the imposing Kathlvn Williams as Elsa Town, send and Adolphe Menjou as the last mentioned’s husband. The picture i» one that will satisfy.

1 Love that turned to hate is the sub. 1 ject of ‘‘Thorns and Orange Blos- ' soms,” the screen adaptation of Bertha Clay’s story of the same name. A floating island of derelict ships—the Sargasso Sea—furnishes the scene I of “The- Isle of Lost Ships.” “The. Truth About YVives,” Betty j Blythe’s latest film production pro- j l mises to be interesting. • * * “In order to make a film story seem ' real,” says Tom Moore, of the jolly ■ lile, “the actor has often to work | I ith his hands.” He has just com- ; '•'ted a course in ditch digging in ■ 1 I “From the Ground Up.” Indeed, he. ; 1 ' has lifted himself in this picture from j ■ ' that humble position to the superin- ; ! tendent’s office of a huee office build- ; i ing. Just how he did it with Helene ' Chadwick to help him, may Im? seen in 1 Rupert Hughes’s entertaining story.

TRAPPED IN THE AIR.” Lester Cuno is the star in this production. Jack Dexter, stunt .aviator, and veteran of the World War, is on his last trip for the Air Mail when he is attacked by Hoyt and Dutton, air pirates, and after a thrilling shooting affray Dexter is wouneded and his plane crashes. Nearby dwell Marion Gray and her father. They have seen the crashing plane and she makes her way and drags Jack clear just in time to save the precious mail bag frpm the wreck. She takes him home. Soon the bandits discover Dexter’s whereabouts, and under cover or t-aik-ness Hoyt leads his band to an attack on the cabin. In the meantime, Dex lev leaves, surprises one of the bandits, knocks linn out in a fight, and rides off on the bandit’s horse, litermined to go after the bandits singlehanded. After he had started Ylarion becomes apprehensive over ihe presence of the mail bag in the house. She hides it in the hillside, and immediately thereafter she is caught by Hoyt. They search the cabin; finding no trace of the bag, they tell her father she will be killed unless they get it.

Here are the characters in “Timothy’s /IQuest,” Kate Douglas YViggin’s story— Timothy and Rags. Lady Gaw. Vilely. Samanthv Hitty Tarbox, and Jake. The two biggest roles are played by children, two valiant beings .—Joseph Depew and Helen Rowland—- | who, wanting a mother, wandered into | Maine, and there laid seig© to an emI bittered spinster’s heart. It is a dainty, whimsical story, which finds an | echo in all hearts, and the children I prove more sympathetic actors than , manv of the so-called artists. This I picture will bo shown at Everybody’s i next week. * * # ! Florence Vidor is spending her va- ' cation in Honolulu with her four-vear-i old daughter. Thev will remain there i ' for two or three months. Miss V idor plays the leading part in “Main Street.”

1 While the gang of marauders is returning to tneir lair Dexter has 10. . cated it, and after a scuffle with the j wireless operator who has remained on guard, Remson, he is abqut to leave when he hears the gang returning. Immediately he climbs up to the attic; there he discovers the wireless outfit, and sends out a call for help to the Air Mail office, firing at every head that shows itself above the floor level. 1 When he runs out of ammunition he leaps through a window and escapes, returning to the cabin to find Marion’s father bound and gagged, From him Dexter learns of the girl’s capture. Determined to save the girl, Jack returns at once to the bandits’ lair. 1 A great free-for-all battle ensues, in which Dutton is wouneded. At the crucial moment Marion’s father arrives with the rescuing posse, sent by the Mail Service, and the surviving bandits arc load’away under arresv. Dexter’s father sees an aeroplane descending on his Out of it steps his son aim a beautiful young girl. “No. more flying for me, dad,” ■ says Jack, “she won’t let me. I want to introduce you to my wife, Marion Gray.”

® @» @» I DUNCAN TAKES CHANCE WITH BROKEN NECK. PERFORMS DAREDEVIL STUNT FOR SCENE LN PICTURE. William Duncan, who will be seen at the Cosy de Luxe Theatre in “The Fighting Guide” on Wednesday, took a two-to-orie change on a broken neck, and won. Ee is still congratulating himself on his escape with onh a badly sprained arm and shoulder. 1 Juncan refuses to substitute. When there is a dare-devil stunt in the script it goes for Duncan, if it can he done. In the plot of “The Fighting Guide,” New Lightning, north woods guide, two-fisted he-man and loyal friend, runs afoul of a contemptible plot involving aii old comrade. He undertakes the single-handed capture of a halfbreed Indian, wig) is an important link in the chain of action. After a .desperate horseback chase oyer rocky mountain trails he .comes up behind him on. a stjetch of level going. With both horses at a wild run, Duncan, coming up behind his prey, and at a distance of some six feet to the left and behind, he crouches in the saddle, and. with a spring like the strike of a rattler, bears the Indian from the back of the flying horse. Both meh. locked like two tarantulas, roll down the ditch together. There’s realism a-plenty in the scene, and it will make the average i man who can appreciate just what it means, grasp both sides of his seat.

“MONTE CRIBTO.” “A fine picture,” the “Morning Telegraph,” writing of the picture production at the Forty-fourth street Theatre, New York says: The Fox Company has really made a very fine v picture of the Dumas story. The c scenes of the Chateau d’lf and the a fishing village of Marseilles have been t reproduced with a faithfulness that leaves no room for criticism. Sketches c of the real Chateau d’lf furnished the Fox artists with a plan for its repic- h duction in Balboa, Cal., where the v picture was made. t Jam|es O’Neill’s qreation of Ed- | mund Dantes, the boy of 19, who was v incarcerated in the Chateau d’lf for ( fourteen long, weary years, has be- r come almost a tradition of the Ameri- j can stage. Never having seen Mr. O’Neill, I cannot compare his work t with that of John Gilbert, but one fc does not need any comparison so say s young Gilbert has created a character t that is in a class by itself. 1 What “The Three Musketeers” has t been to Douglas Fairbanks, “Monte t Cristo” should be to this young man t who plays the part with a dignity and fc a restraint that is delightful. In the i hands of a less capable actor the many dramatic climaxes might have been ’ easily overplayed. Gilbert never once < miscalculated, from the; time he was fc torn from the side of his bride-to-be, an innocent, persecuted youth, to the 1 day he leaves the prison, a saddned, ' broken man. There are many stages in the life of the unhappy Dantes, but Gilbert handles each one with an individuality that is worth a special mention. Miss Taylor Good. Estelle Taylor plays Mercedes, the girl who is from Dante’s arms when he is thrust into prison for a crime he has not committed- Miss Taylor, who is inclined to have mom-Ta-ylor, who is inclined to have moments of being a trifle theatrical, has toned down this desire in “Monte Cristo.” She gives the best w’ork of her career. Whether Mr. Flynn is responsible for this, one cannot say. William V. Mong, that sterling character actor, makes old Caderousse, the shifty-eyed drunken scoundrel. all that Dumis pictured him. Robert McKim, one of our prize screen villains, does not fall , down <»n the o.ib, as de Villefort. th I King's attorney, and he is ably as- ! Mated in hi s intamy by xtalph Vlonin- ■ ger as Fernand and Albert rnsco as Danglars. In fact, the entire cast is well chosen, even the small parts being entrusted to men and women who play them with a fine understanding. In this list one might mention Gaston Glass, Maude George, Sjnttiswood Aitken, Renee Adore, Virginia Faire and George Seigmann. Dante’s desire for revenge on the three men who were the cause of his incarceration in the prison, and his triumph over them and his final words, “Wait and hope,” have all been worked out with a fine regard for artistic effect and with excellent continuity of story. Bernard McConville, the scenario writer is responsible for this tatter accomplishment. “Monte Cristo,” when all has been said and done, belongs on the credit side of the Fox ledger. It is all it should be as a motion picture entertainment.

PARAMOUNT WEEK EXPLOITATION CONTEST—I 923.

RESULTS DENOTE COMPLETE ENTHUSIASM. Copied from “The Exhibitor” (Australia). The Exploitation Contest staged during Paramount Week, September 3rd. to Bth. last, resulted in a display of enthusiasm which completely outstripped that displayed during the contests of previous years. The number of entries received was far in excess of any others, and so the judging for the prizes was accordingly far more after the manner of being difficult. The last day for receiving entries was October 31st.. and the judgments were passed on the following day. The results are given below. In some cases there were submitted as many as 20 exhibits of stunts worked; and in every case the full possibilities of every entrant were taken into consideration. First Prize, £so—Phillip Appleby, Coliseum Theatre, Subiaco. W.A. Second Prize, £4O—J. R. Foot, Cosy-de-Luxe and Municipal Theatres, Hastings, N.Z. Third Prize, £3o—Westgarth Theatre, Northcote, Vic. Fourth Prize. £2o—James Hamilton, Strand Theatre, Orange, N.S.W. Fifth Prize, £lo—George Conson, Globe Theatre. Leeton, N.S.W. Sixth Prize. £lo—Horrie Peverill, Majestic Theatre, Launceston, Tas. Seventh Prize, £lo—Messrs. Ison and Thompson, Theatre Royal. Tamworth. N.S.W. Eighth Prize, £lO—G. Robinson. Taree Pictures, Taree, N.S.W. Ninth Prize. £lO—A. A. Ford, Ford’s Pictures, Kingaroy, Queensland. Tenth Prize. £lo—Returned Soldiers’ Association, Beilingen Pictures, Beilingen, N.S.W. Those were the winners. But the glory is not all theirs. They only won because there Were teii prizes offered, and the ten best entrants had to be picked. But there were many meritorious entries ; in fact, it was a point of considerable regret among the judges that there were not as many prizes as there were entrants.

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