ENTERTAINMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 171, 21 June 1926, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

OPERA HOUSE.

“SUNBEAM CHILDREN.” . PICTURE AND PANTOMIME. A miniaturo.pantomime with forty clever Australian gill and boy performers—they are known asuhe “Sunbeam Children” — was presented at the Opera House on Saturday afternoon' and evening in- association with an English picture production, “The Only Way,” which features an eminent stago player, Sir John Martin-Har-vey. The pantomime, “The Wedding of Baby Kerr,” is really a splendid _ show. It is more than an hour’s entertainment without a moment of boredom with children who have a great deal of savoir-fairo and, with regard to those who figure prominently at tho wedding and reception, histrionic ability one has not before seen rovealed by children of a similar age. The orchestra opens and tho conventionallyattired bridal party marches through tho auditorium and mounts steps leading to tho stage, where smartly-attired guests aro waiting in a setting that is bright, but not tawdry, with small tables effectively arranged and lighted, with a three-tiered cake fog the bride’s cutting and a huge pendant bell. From then on we liavo boautifully-dressed, well-executed ballets of grace and evenness of movement, 60103 and duets 6ung charmingly and intelligently, and acrobatic work that, though familiar, is done so smartly that it is most acceptable. Miss Frances Scully, who is very wellknown in Australian arb circles, lias a company of clever performers who will not detract from her reputation. In two scones is tho pantomime presented. There is the wedding reception and tho late arrival of the bride’s aunt, Miss Stella Lamond, who is a good comedienne in the making, and then follow a number of songs and dances that all lead to the inevitable going away of the bride and groom. The guests foregather for the last goodbyes, a white satin ribbon is pulled, the big pendant bell tolls confetti and tbo happy couple depart in their two-seater “limousine.” , The most juvenile of tho juveniles are the star performers, and the most outstanding is Master Jackie Clark as the best man. Jackie is billed as the “Australian Jackie Coogan,” and in appearance lie is uncannily like tho overboomed American picture lad, .though lie is much younger. The boy under notice is clever and sings twico with a wealth of expression that is remarkable for bis years. The bride. Baby Kerr, and the groom, George Foster, aro a delightful couple, she in a white satin gown, ho in a miniature dress suit. In econo two, when they join in the duet, “Just Married,” they sing with charm reminiscent of Miss Maude Fane and Mr W. S. Percy, who rendered the same number in the musical comedy “A Night Out.” That is praiso indeed for them. There were also many other features of delight, including a particularly charming costume dance to the music of Paderewski’s “Minuet in F” and tho appearance of a lad who sings in a surprisingly good, resonant tone of voice. The film, “Tho Only Way,” which is adapted from a stage play version of Dickens’s “A Tale of Two Cities,” is a great improvement on previous Englishproduced pictures. The present vorsion of an episode of tho French Devolution lias been done as well as if not better than two other American attempts. Dickens’s story is too well known to need rccapitula. tion. Sir John Martin Harvey is a great success on the screen (so many stage players are not and vice versa); and is tho backbone of the production as Sidney Carton. Tho other players in support aro refreshingly English and act well. The lighting and direction, common faults in other tilms mado in the Homeland, aro beyond reproach in this venture. The entertainment is to bo produced to-night and again to-morrow evening.

KOSY.

MARION DAVIES AND RICHARD TALMADGE. The acme oE thrills, woven in skilfully with tho fresh young romance of a poor boy and a rich girl, forms tho basis of the mystery photoplay. "Stepping Lively,” a Master picture. It taps the vein of drama entirely now in the history of detective stories on the screen, and provides its athletic young star with one of the best opportunities of his career, of which Mr Talmadge takes full advantage. Mildred Harris and a largo cast of capable players suppoit the star. Comedy as well us romance and mystery lias been interjected into tho story, through the medium of a “fat-licaded” detective, who leavens tho drama with plenty of laughs. “Stepping Lively” is the current feature at the Kosy Theatre. “Zander tho Great,” the famous success which has been adapted to the screen by Frances Marion, and which stars Marion Davies in a modem role, will be shown at the Kosy Theatre to-day. Seldom has Miss Davies been so admirably cast as in tho role of tho whimsical yet humorous Irish heroine of “Zander the Great.” The quick-moving story keeps pace with tho daring doings of mysterious ranchers, bandits and moonshiners who clash in the sweeping spaces of the Mojave Desert, Arizona. With Harrison Ford, Holbrook Blinn, Ilobart' Bosworth, Harry Myers and others in tho east, “Zander the Great” is carried along dramatically with many humorous touches to relieve its intensity.

PALACE, SYD CHAPLIN AS A MAID. In “Tho Man on the Box,” the Warner Bros.’ classic of the screen, which is opening' at the Palace Theatre to-night, Syd. Chaplin, who is being starred, impersonates a flirtatious maid in one sequence, and is said to have piled up even a higher percentage of high voltage laughs than ho did in tho female disguise in “Charley’s Aunt.” “The Man on the Box” as a novel was ono of the gayest and smartest stories of a generation. Turned into a play with Hendry Fixey in the title role, it delights everybody, and still affords an outstanding memory of merriment to theatregoers. And now, as a photoplay with Syd. Chaplin as the gentleman idler who disguises himself as a cabman and as a housemaid in tho fast, furious complications of an enjoyable farce, it becomes one of the funniest pictures of any season.

PARAMOUNT. FAMOUS NOVEL PICTURISED. “Drums of Jeopardy,” tho outslanding picturisation of Harold Magrath’s popular novel, commences its three "days’ season at tbo Paramount Theatre to-night. The “Drums of Jeopardy” are .in reality the two finest emeralds in the world and get thoir namo from the fact that they are sot as drum-heads in two drums which are held between the knees of two squatting Hindu figuros. There is a legend that theso two emeralds, when held to the ears, will echo the rumpity-tump-tump of a beaten drum, and that thon always something tragio will happen. Tho story opens in tho atmosphere of a Russian castle •whore the jewels aro recovered by their rightful owner —the young prince of a Russian house. He is tracked to tho new world, to New .York, where his adventures aro entwined with a beautiful American girl, the daughter of the great banker, in whose caro he has placed tho jewels. Through a series of thrilling episodes, tho romance weaves its way to final love triumphant—but not until a mysterious murder, and two strango disappearances aro solvod. . Although the dainty and winsome Elaine Ilammorstoin is the star she is supported by players who are in reality stars in their own right—Wallnco Beery, who plays tho character of Karlov, tho secret agent of tho Russian tfoveininent. and chief of all their foreign agents, and Jack Mulhall, who takes the leading male role opposite Miss Ilanimerstein. Other prominent artists are David Torrence, who, with his brother Ernest Torrence, has created a standard amongst character artists in motion pictures; Maude George, a favourite of many, years’ standing, who

has been starred in pictures of her own, and. Eric Mayne, well-known character actor.

DON COSSACK CHOIR. COSTING TO PALMERSTON NORTH. Ono lof the most notable events in the history of vocal music in the Antipodes is the coming to Palmerston North of tho historic Don Cossack Malo Choir of 36 voices, which is to give one concert in the Opera House on Friday next, Juno 25, under the direction of Mr E. J. Carroll who assures us that there can bo no return concert. These singers have voices of an exceptional character and unusually wide range, and have been carefully selected from amongst tho Cossacks of tho Don, the province famed for its beautiful voices. A French composer gives his enthusiastic testimony to tho effect left on him by these voices and by the vocal technique of tho singers on an occasion when lie was admitted tio hear tho' choir during a stay he made in Vienna last year. “Church music,” he says, “is superior to any other kind of music in Russia, because it alone is typical, and is not an imitation of the musi» of other nations, at any rato as far as the execution is concerned. But what gives their performances the sense of peculiar strangeness is the character of the bass voices, which extend fuom low A (three linos beneath the bass stave) to middle C, and produce an incredible effect by doubling the ordinary basses at the interval of an octavo below them. These living double basses never cease to ho singers singing in chorus, their voices, if heard separately, would be intolerably heavy; but when they are heard in' tho mass the effect is admirable.” The box plan will open at the Opera House ion Wednesday.