The Tivoli

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 7063, 24 January 1933, Page 3

The Tivoli

RUTH OHATTERTO.N IN “ONCE A LADY”

One of those «rents looker] forward fo ami cherished by movie millions, a new Ruth Chattcrton picture, is currently the draw at the Tivoli Theatre to-night. The newest Paramount opus tor the “first lady’' of films is titled "Once a Lady,’’ and is a melange of the sure-fire dramatic clay which this emotional sculptress so effectively handled in "Madame X,” "Sarah and Son,’’ and "The Better Wife.” Although Miss Chatterton has been surrounded with a notable and gifted cast, including a goodly sprinkling of English celebrities who ideally snit the earlier British environment of the action, it is. again the royal sense of dramatic values which the star possesses and so facilely projects from the screen, which carries off the honours. The story is of a- Russian adventuress transplanted from Paris, scene of many amorous conquests, by the different wooing of am English son of wealth. The changed environment, with the husband's disapproving family alienating the affection of a daughter from her mother, and a moment of indiscretion with a former admirer on the eve of an important election in which the young man is interested, provoked a breakup. Reported killed in a train wreck, the outcast wife remains "dead,” becoming a famous butterfly in Paris, but jealously watching the career of

her daughter from a distance. The manner in which the husband’s faulty divorce decree, fear of scandal, and the woman's anonymous devotion to he? grown daughter's love urge, are dramatically woven into a happy event for the second generation, and makes an impressive climax. To-morrow’s screening will bo "The First Year," starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. A matinee will be held to-morrow afternoon.