PLAYS, PICTURES, PEOPLE

Northern Advocate, 16 March 1929, Page 7

PLAYS, PICTURES, PEOPLE

By A.T.B.

t “Heart of a Nation” stars George Sidney. Amid scenes of Jewish, German and Italian family life in New York, the children are out of sympathy with the ideals of their race and parentage. Then comes the war in which the Jewish boy is killed and the Italian boy loses a leg. By his death the Jewish hoy saves the life of his sister’s lover, one of New York’s aristocracy. It is for this deed that the aristocratic parents consent to their son’s marriage to the lowly Jewish girl. This film is described by the “Linema Review,” as a “Social drama ■ Ne;v York’s Ghetto in war time ;i m erely treated and portrayed with real is tie atmosphere of the -world's molting pot. It is excellent entertainment,”

si si is d “The Play Girl” ia a comedy romance with a good sound point—-you can’t take expensive gifts from wealthy men without discovering that this way of roses and champagne suddenly becomes lonely, bleak and dark, with a precipice yawning. Madge draws back in good time, and flings her glad.rags in the giver’s face. She doesn’t leave herself over much to go home in, but she has kept her independence and that’s a pearl of greater price than all the finery she tore off. Madge Bellamy is the star. !S 'Bl ® a “The Divine Woman” is an attempt to represent something of the wonderful life of a wonderful -woman, Sarah Bernhardt. Special features of this production are the superb portrayals by Greta Garbo, Lars Hanson, and the powerful supporting cast. The masterly treatment by Victor Seastrom, affording an intimate glimpse into Parisian life from the Montmartre to the fashionable salons. The lavish settings include the reproduction of the Paris Opera House, H B/ H B '

“Fireman Save My Child.” Wallace Beery and Raymond Hatton are too well known to need introduction. Their names are a guarantee of a thoroughly good comedy-drama, and that’s what this picture is, with some great scenes of thrilling power and absorbing interest. This film has made a reputation in the big cities of New Zealand and Australia and it will draw crowds in Whangarei. Follow the crowd! v a a gt t Milton Sills in “The Crash” is ititanic. This is a picture to stir yon with elemental .things, and as the drama'unfolds it may be safely said no audiences have, yet failed to feel the grip of dramatic power in a moving story of tremendous force; a a b a Cleopatra. Egypt. Ancient splendours. History come to life} All portrayed with a wealth of wonderful colour. This is the technicolour, triumph “Cleopatra.” aa' . a s The Camera Face. t A camera face takes on beauty from the camera. There is the countenance that lights well; eyes that movie make-mp’ renders gleaming and deep; skins that are sallow and uninspiring without the gleam of the silver screen to give them glory. But a great deal depends on the fine art of make-up. Movie beauties seldom have the sleek modishness which characterises the femininity of great world centres. Some there are who would do justice to the sartorial traditions of Paris itself; more there are who let colour supplant line and eutenoss play substitute for chic.

Screen Make-Up.—When you see a lady standing before a camera with her .prune-coloured lips, daffodil-yellow face, and sometimes grass-green eyelids you realise that the movie has aii art all its own; that the people of the theatre are mere infants with their rouge and lip-stick and kohl; that the line art of painting out a double chin, painting in a dimple., glueing oil the long, insouciant eye-fringes of dewy youth and lifting away the delicate dewlaps of encroaching’ age all developed with the art of films.

11 0 |g Eg On Your Toes.—Speaking of being "oil your toes, ” Thelma Todd exemplifies this saying in "The Crash. " She is on her toes in both senses of the word. As the prima donna of a travelling .burlesque troupe, she dances before an audience of riotous railroad workmen in a small mountain town: The skill she displays in her performance stands her in good stead when the audience decides to rush the stage, and she is on her toes, figuratively speaking, until the burlesque train gets out of the town. Miss Todd plays the principal supporting rolo to Milton •Sills, star of "The Crash," which is one of the outstanding pictures of the rear. It was directed for First National by 'Edward Oline. The supporting cast includes William Demurest, Made Bolder, Sylvia Ashton, Be Witt Tennings and a host of others.