ENTERTAINMENTS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLIV, Issue XLIV, 3 June 1924, Page 4

ENTERTAINMENTS

OPEKA HOUSE TO-NIGHT.

"THE PILGRIM" AND "PIONEER

TRAILS."

When Charles Chaplin ambles across the screen in the garb of a minister you will settle back in your seat and grin happily in the darkness. "The Pilgrim." is a big master picture, bigger, even in a comedy sense than "The Kid," which was in six reels as compared with '' The Pilgrim JB'' four. But in these four reels subtle humour is combined with pantomimic action in a way that Charlie has not heretofore duplicated. The story? Imagine Charlie Chaplin as an escaped convict helping himself to a.minister's clothes and as a result finding himself the unwilling occupant of a pulpit. Let your imagination run a bit and it will tell you that here's Charlie at his funniest. And your imagination will not lie. "Pioneer Trails," the supporting picture, is a dramatic photoplay which has been rightly termed an epic of the Golden West. It tells of the perils and adventures of the pioneers who blazed fresh trails through virgin prairies and untrodden mountain wilderness. It depicts the mad excitement of the gold rush, and the raids of the war-painted Indians, overwhelming caravans, and wreaking vengeance with scalplock, knives and tomahawk. In short, it depicts life generally in the far west during the period from 1849 to 1870, and, in particular, the adventures, joys and sorrows of a youth who could use his punch and pep to advantage, a girl who found herself the object of a man's devotion and another's treachery, and the villain. It is a stirring story, full of incidents and suspense, and grips its audience from start to finish. Fine scenery, feats of daring horsemanship, and a sensational coach drive, combined with artistic photography, makes "Pioneer Trails" ( good meat. The programme is being screened for the last time to-night.