MUNICIPAL THEATRE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 1 October 1927, Page 10

MUNICIPAL THEATRE.

Saturday, Monday, Tuesday. October Ist, 3rd and 4th. “Stage Madness’ (Fox).—Starring Virginia Valli.” The life of a famous Parisian dancer with a true depiction of all the ups and downs of a stage career. Episode No. 9, “Strings of Steel** (Universal) . Supports include:—Comedy, Travelogue, Educational Film, and Gazette. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. October sth, 6th and 7th. “The Volga Boatman** (First National). —Cecil B. de Mille’s mighty production of Russia, that makes amazing and pleasing entertainment. “The Collegians” (Universal).—The sixth complete story, as “The Fighting Spirit.** Comedy and Gazette.

M STAGE MADNESS * The Star Attraction at the Municipal Theatre for Saturday. “Stage Madness” presents a theme which, it is said, confronts the mind of every woman at least once during her life-time, the desire to express her personality in avenues which are representative of art and beauty at their most genuine and finest. It is a thought which naturally gives rise to some controversy, for there will always he found minds who more or less heatedly deplore this ambition for histrionic expression. “Stage Madness” answers these Jeremiahs in no uncertain fashion, at the same time studiously abstaining from “preaching,” not pointing any moral, for that does not count for anything in entertainment, and -ucreeding in presenting a very lucid and forcefully dramatic case for the girl who feels the interpretative urge. The story is one of the Paris theatre, with all the shadows as well as di the lights which make for realistic amusement. There is an ingenious flecking of all the situations with tragedy am! drama as well as comedy ami romance, and the whole picture, comprised of so many pieces and tones, becomes, through the grace of a great director and a distinguished cast, one of the few all-round good pictures of the year Vi”ginia Valli playa the

starring role, and plays it with just that nicety of restraint and abandon to make the character alive. Opposite her is Tullio Carminati, for three years leading man to the late Elenora Duse, and who scored so sensational a success in “The Bat.” “THE VOLGA BOATMAN.’’ Starting on Wednesday at the Municipal Theatre. It is all very bewildering. There is so much, so very much to absorb into the mind and into the heart; there is so much to remember, so much to dwell upon, a profusion of emotional colour, stark tragedy and intermingled with lilting humour, the loves and hates of Russians, plebeians and particians at daggers drawn—everything that is “The Volga Boatman” quietly enters the mind and remains there. The pictore is one which instinctively sends the supersensitive and the merely fastidious running from its terrible realism. Apart from its exquisite love scenes, there is nothing dainty or pretty about this sombre and ruthless page of peasant life. Russian peasant life was never Utopian, and de Mille. the producer, has fearlessly brought this tragic hopelessness vividly and effectively to the screen. The utter despair of the serfs is shown with a touch of vertahle genius, as is also the irresponsible, gilded lives of the aristocrats. There were no happy mediums in Czarist Russia, just as there are none in Bolshevik Russia. The Volga boatmen were harnessed to the barges and towed them along the icebound banks of the river, the rythmical swing of their untamed chant clashing

strangely with the high-bred voices of princes and nobles who gathered occasionally to marvel at such vulgar strength, and to apply the knout whenever some wretched slave dropped in exhaustion. No, there is little prettiness in “The Volga Boatman.” It is not a charming picture, it is not a dainty romance, hut it is a great and magnificent drama of life as it was lived a decade ago, and if it is not charming it is forceful and fascinating. The ideals and asperations of a nation is the cental theme, the love of a great lady for a Volga boatman the grand passion on which the mighty structure revolves. It is vital and elemental and big. “THE LADY OF THE HAREM.” Starting on Saturday at Cosy de Luxe What kind of music would you like to have played if you were about to die? It probably wouldn’t be a wedding march. In “The Lady of the Harem,” which Raoul Walsh directed for Paramount, Greta Nissen drinks a cup of wine she believes to be poison. When requested to select the piece of music she wished to have played for the scene, Miss Nissen asked for “The Wedding March,” from Lohengrin. When pressed for a reason, Miss Nissen explained that in the scene she was to think of her lover, William Collier, Jr., and was not to be afraid to die. . Mi-.- Nissen declared that the wedding march pul her exactly into the ■ iood lor the scene, where a slow, uournful dirge was entirely too heavy, matured players in the cast of “The Lady of the Harem” are Ernest Torrence, William Collier, Jr., Miss Nissen and Louise Fazenda.