AMUSEMENTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 18, 23 January 1919, Page 8

AMUSEMENTS

HIYWABfID’9 PICTURES,

■‘EMPn r POCKETS.”

“Empty' Pockets” "will be screened at the Empire Theatre to-night, This is the screen, version of the novel by Rupert Hughes, and it is' doubtful if ever any picture has moved off at such express speed and succeeded in mainitaining it to the very end. It i» also doubtful if a more unsolvable mystery tangle has- ever before been devised. The picture is a First National release, and the cast includes Hetty Galanta, Barbara Caatleton, Bert Lytell, and Malcolm Williams. The last-named takes the role of Perry Merithew, a millionaire about town who has a special weakness for girls with copper-coloured hair. He is found murdered on the roof of a tenement' house, and five women, all with red hair,' are implicated, because in the dead man’s hand is found a knot of hair bf that colour. The plot retains a remarkable clarity'id 1 spite of amazing - complications and all sorts of cross cur- j rents which go to, increase the mystxfi-. cation. The ending is very dramatic and unexpected. The characterisation and setting of the piece are perfectly done, and the contrasts between the, slum dwellers and the millionaire mansions is very effective. Ihe latest Patho Gazette supports the above super-fea-ture. “Empty Pockets” was to have been initially screened last evening, but by a delay in transport this could not be done, and in lieu thereof the management! presetted “Oates of Gladness” and “The Bridge.”