THE PICTURE HOUSES.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVI, Issue 221, 4 September 1926, Page 4

THE PICTURE HOUSES.

MUNICIPAL. What is sard to be the most thrilling and tensely dramatic duel scene ever staged before a motion picture camera is that fought by John Charles Thomas and Captain Henry C. G. Mills, who won fame with the Australian Light Horse during the war, in “Under the Bed Robe,” which will be screened at the Hastings Municipal Theatre this evening. Thomas impersonates Gil de Berault, Captain Mills appears as a trooperThe duel, which is made doubly drama tic in that it is fought on horseback as well as on foot, was filmed at the Io4th Field Artillery Armory, New York. In the scene, Thomas, as Berault, is making an escapa through the village when he encounters the King’s troopers. He evades all but the lirst trooper( Mills), and the two engage in a sword tilt on horseback. Thomas finally slides from his horse, rushes to the rooftop of a dwelling, and when cornered there makes a dare devil swing on a rope straight through the window of a house on the opposite side of the street. There will be the usual supporting films. “Phantom of the Opera-’’

On Wednesday the management of the Hastings Municipal Theatre will have the pleasure of presenting Carl Laemmle’s masterpiece, “The Phantom of the Opera,” starring Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin and Norman Kerry. This picture is said to be the biggest ever produced by Univer sal, supassing even “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” Early booking is advised. COSY DE LUXE. Paramount’s big attraction this evening at the Cosy Theatre, Hastings, is titled “Seven Keys to Baldfiate, ” starring Douglas Mac Lean. In this comedy-drama, tho comedian plays the role of a young novelist who, for the love of a girl, attempts the almost impossible task of writing a complete novel in twenty-four hours and who is further hampered by the activities of a band of crooks who keep his retreat. There is a perpetual uproar through six reels of riotous action. “Sporting Life,” is the title of the added attraction, and there are gazettes and orchestral selections. “ZEEBRUGGE.” We are apt at times to think of Drake and his legalised pirates as being wonderful heroes when we read of their hand-to-hand battles with the enemy, their glowing deeds, and their thrilling escapes. We have a parallel to this naval hero of old, and where he singed the beard of the King of Spain, Sir Roger Keys, on the night of St. George’s Day, 1918, singed the pointed ends of the Kaiser’s moustache, he having no beard to singeNo hero of old took such risks as this intrepid band of 2009 hard-headed, devil-may-care volunteers who went in on that memorable night in the face of every known projectile in the war, with tons of metal being fired at them from every direction, blocked up the viaduct, stormed the mole, and sunk the cement-laden ships at the mouth of the Bruges Canal, and so bottled up the Hun submarines for the duration of the war. This is one of the most glowing exploits in the history of tho war, and Sir Roger Keys and his merry band of die-hards must have felt a wonderful glow of satisfaction as they steamed away in the mists to Dover, knowing that they had obeyed orders, and that tho canal was bottled up “ship-shape and Bristol fashion.” A wonderful picture of this exploit has been made, correct in every detail, from Admitall.y records, and will bo shown at Everybody's Theatre, Napier, for three days, commencing on Wednesday, September 8. It is a picture that will make every Britisher feel proud that he belongs to the British nation.