AMUSEMENTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue XLIX, 31 December 1915, Page 8

AMUSEMENTS

PERMANENT PICTURES, A splendid programme has been arranged for to-night at the Empire Theatre. Half the items are entirely new ones; the other is called from, tre programmes "which were screened on the nights of Wednesday and Thursday last, the whole making a programme of great interest. To-omrrow, New Year's Day, we shall give a matinee at 2.30, and iu the evening we shall screen what is undoubtedly the most interesting film pertaining to the present- war vet produced. The makers axe the celebrated Phillips Company, of London, the only firm authorised by. the Army Council to take this class of photography. The title is "JDefenders of ou r Empire." The following is a brief resume of the important incidents of this most interesting subjebt: A landing of invaders is effected; trenches are dug and barbed -wire entanglements made to stop The attack commences; the operation of long tnbes of dynamite" used when all other efforts fail to destroy entanglements; British, airships and aeroplanes in' action; reports brought in from, airmen; cavalrv and guns going into action; the mine in modern -warfare; caring for the wounded, and manv other items of profound interest. The supporting items will be-entirelv new. Motueka will be -visited" both "to-night and to-morrow night, when a change each night will be given.

PEOPLES PICTURES. SCHOOL OF MUSia ♦WILD FLOWER." The final screening of "A Daughter of Russia" will take place to-night. On Saturdav (New Year's Day) the management -will fiavd much pleasure in pres'ettting another Famous. Players masterpiece, namely, "Wildfllower." Marguerite 'Clark takes the leading roie. This ctever little actress is Mary Pickford's most serious rival, and it is a closely contested race between the two for supremacy in public favour. With Jher charming gracefulness, her sweet and appealing manner, her magnificently 'beantiful portraval of "Wildflower, combined with nature's glorious setting and the brilliant supporting company, anakes the film the rarest and best. The story is as follows:—Letty Roberts, an tinsophisticated child of Nature, and frolics her time away on a -little -farm on the edge of the woods. ArnoldBovd. a wealthv man who meets Lettty, ~IW-"delighted with her daintiness and fragile beanfcv. He thinks of. 'her only j as'an.-interesting child, however, and whan -visited by his scapegrace -brother,Gerald, -who is by his .own confession a constant worshipper at the shrine _ of yanm*&j " Arnold views with alarm Ger- • attitude toward little hails Arnold's nickname! as appropriate to Leta tempestuous wooing, Letty * elapei'with Gerald. Arnold immediately '.■ pursues the pair, Teaching them just after the -wedding ceremony has been concluded. After a struggle -with his ' brother, Arnold knocks Gerald down, and .'-spirits Letty awav from her new-made, husband, detspite her desperate efforts to : escape. ' Arnold introduces her to the '"members of-his household as his wife, telling Lettv this course is necessary to he*"reputation, 'but not fully explaining whv. Overborne by Arnolds : arguments and masterful manner, Letty . wlnctantlv consents to remain in the Boyd .home for a while, as Arnold s " "wife-in name only," till such time as •Gerald should come to claim her. The -strange, secret that Arnold is guarding ' from, her is at last revealed, and the stern older brother, who had at first only'songhfc to save a woman's reputation and guard his own family honour, -now" comes to dream only of love. As Letty grows to know Arnold better she - finds that the older brother is not the master she -had thought him, but ''the-finer man of the two. and at last -the drooping little Wildflower revives ; .and'blooms happily in the garden of "AinoldVv faithful love"3 -". : "THE JUNGLE." A/film, of very great interest will be " <Aown shortly at the School of Music, "namelv. - "The Jungle.'V> production ' adapted -from the ,-world-famous novel J by Upton Sinclair, depicting the not, 'disorder, and starvation CHiiggo mann--facturers cause thair employees to undergo'/ even to the length of driving ' them into the hands of the White Slave ••traders. -