IN FILMLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18297, 13 January 1923, Page 8 (Supplement)

IN FILMLAND.

It is stated that there is an intention to revive the stage version of Sir James Barrie's " The Little Minister " in London very shortly. This should provide another interesting comparison of film and stage versions of a popular novel, since the Uaumont film of '" The Little Minister, in which Betty Compton plays Babbie, is also due for public exhibition shortly.

Lady Diana Manners, we are told, is now engaged in her second film, "The Virgin Queen," in which she figures as the Princess, and later as the young Queen Elizabeth. As the title implies, "The Virgin Queou " is a romantic drama with an historical background affording scope for much Elizabethan pageantry. The production, by Mr. Stuart Blackton, will be an elaborate one.

A • decision' to enforce the Sunday closing of cinemas was arrived at almost unanimously at a meting of the Middlesex Countv Council recently. Supporting the cases of 62 applicants for the opening of cinemas on Sundays. Mr. Cecil Whiteley said those whom he represented were willing to devote a largo proportion of their takings on Sundays to charitable purposes, and there would bo . six days work only for their employees. Mr. Newton Brook, on the other hand, said he represented 25,000 musicians who would be affected by Sunday opening, and who were opposed to the extra day's work.

A short film entitled " The Secret Life of the Exiled Kaiser" is to be publicly shown by the Qaumont Company. It is interesting only m. that : it indicates to what lengths the film-producer will go to satisfy what is really a somewhat morbid curiosity, says a London critic. There is nothing* of permanent value, except a few views of the ex-Kaiser's residence at Doom, of the exterior of the chapel where he was recently married, and of the grounds of the house. The " thrill " consists in rather indistinct views, obtained with a long-range lens, of a vigorous but ageing man, taking exercise in the park or conversing with a gardener. He is hatless, and his hair and beard are almost white. As a contrast a few interpolated scenes, taken in 1913, represent the exKaiser in his full Imperial panoply, surrounded by his staff. It is a pitiful display, and was obtained.by a ruse, the exKaiser being persuaded to receive a deputation of The Order of St. George," a non-political association of gentlemen of birth in the old Empire led by Baron de Radowitz. A concealed camera was employed while the ex-Kaiser was off his guard, for it was well known that he resented any attempt to photograph him-

A thrilling picture of ; great whit* clouds bursting like giant bombs on tho summit of Mount Everest and dissolving in golden "spray" -was shown to members, of the Boyal Geographical Society and Alpine Club ,at the s Central Hall, Westminster, London, recently. This wonderful film', which shows the climbing party making their final assault on the peak, was taken with a telephofco lens and a British camera at a distance of two miles, from a height of 23.000 feet, by Captain J. B. It. Noel, official cineraatographer with' the Everest expedition. Mountain pictures from all parts of the; world hare passed over screens, but nothing to equal in awesome splendour these views taken on the Eonebuk Glacier and the now famous North Col. The most ' striking characteristics of the Everest panorama are the ranks of ice' pinnacles, carved and fretted sentinels hundreds of feet high, whose wind-blown architecture occasionally has. a cathedral-like aspect. Fierce galea sweep the rocks bare and drive the clouds at furious speed. This Everest film, begins at Darieeling, find traces the 1 gradual climb of the caravan. Views of curious walled villages, perched dizzily on precipices, are shown, some of them with tinted sunset back-grounds, which make them look life* dream castles in the air. A general sense of adventure and mystery pervades the film, which should "produce the funds necessary for a third expedition. '