AMUSEMENTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 31 July 1924, Page 8

AMUSEMENTS

EMPIRE TO-NIGHT

DOUBLE STAR ATTRACTION

One of the greatest motion pictures of tho year will be the screen attraction “The Woman in His House,” presented by an all-star cast. Tho photoplay is founded on an original story by Irene Heels. Tho age-old theme emphasising the divine power of mother love is effectively employed in this powerful and moving screen drama. It is' the story of a neglected wife, a too busy and ambitious husband, a philosopher friend, and % baby. The work of Richard Hedrick in portraying the role of a youngster who is stricken with infantile paralysis is one of the outstanding points of this compelling photoplay. How mother love triumphs where science fails and straightens out the crooked limbs of tho child is revealed in a fascinating story. In the Southern Seas, far away from tho turmoil of civilisation, lies tho little island of Manea, the Beautiful. Here the owner oi‘ the island. John Royal and his daughter, Shona,' lived. They were the only white folks on the island —the rest were natives who spent their days diving for pearls and trading in copra. The most skilful diver in the South Seas, as swift and sure as any creature in the Waters was Shona. One day she and her father were out in their yacht, watching tho native divers gather (he pearl oysters. Below the surface they swam closely together for fear of sharks. Ono of them, however, had a “find,” and trying to smuggle the pearl, f threw the shell overboard, while another native dived for it, to hide it in the secret “cache.” “Daddy, Beni is stealing pearls again, I will go after him,” and Shona dived into tlm water. Deep down she followed the native were her knife, and after a fierce struggle, she mastered him and secured the pearl. There would have been no pearl stealing among the natives had it not been for Captain Drake, of the supply ship, who called at the island every three months, and traded with the natives for tho stolen pearls. “And some day I will own that island, for I’m going to marry Shona,” remarked the captain to his mate. John Royal favoured his suit, but Shona hesitated.

THEATRE ROYAL. FRIDAY “MERRY-GO-ROUND”

What is love without handicaps.? Beery philosopher and poet who ever amounted to anything has declared that without obstacles in the path of its glorious advance love would bo unattractive. It would be colourless. Most people who read much have noticed that in all powerful love stories the thing that makes them interesting and thrilling is the final victory over, apparently insurmountable handicaps. ‘Merry-Go-Round’ tho Universal Super-Jewel spectacle feature which was in the making for many months and comes at last to the Theatre Royal next Friday tellsf of the love between a peasant girl of the Prater, the famous Coney Island district of Vienna, Austria, and a young count of the Emperor’s highest staff. In real life a successful consummation of that love in happy marriage would be absolutely impossible, and “Merfy-Go-Round” is not a fairy tale. It does not try to pie ture the impossible. But the recent world war knocked the foundation out from under Austria’s proud aristocracy and left a ponderous emptiness where before there had been splendour and pompous idleness- To-day members of noble families work, no better than tile peasants they once despised. “Merry-Go-Round,” a multiple reel film story, tells this in dramatic form and pictures the social ohauges that fate made will a drastic hand in the once proud nation. A cast of unusual calibre, including Norman Kerry, George Ilackathorne, tlm new surprise “discovery” girl, Mary Philbin, Cesare Gravina, Dale Fuller, Maude George, George Seigmann, A] Edmundson, Anton Vaverka, Spottiswoode Aitken and Sidney Bracy, Dorothy Wallace, Edith Yorke, Lillian Sylvester. Strong supports. Pleaso note usual prices