PARAMOUNT AND ARTCRAFT

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11411, 6 January 1923, Page 6

PARAMOUNT AND ARTCRAFT

"UNDER -TWO FLAGS." Algiers, the Afrioxn efty. of mystery, the city of send, the French, stronghold of the Dark Continent, is the background of an extraordinarily fine picture entitled “Under Two Flags," shown at the Paramount and Artoraffc Theatres during the current week. The story opens with a man of mystery drifting into a oafe, a public-house, which is the rendezvous of members of a French regiment stationed at Algiers. Hie aporoaches a corporal and requests permission to enlist, but as ho declines information regarding himself other than his name is Victor, he is refused. With a toss of his head he offera to shako the dice to see if ho j&ne enemies—thj Arabs. ; The . oorporal re. fuses, but standing by is Cigarette, half-French, half-Arab, a child of the desert and “daughter of the Regiment." Shi leaps forward and agrees to shake with Victor. He accepts her challenge and loses, and so becomes one of the regiment. Years speed by and Cigarette has fallen in love with the handsome Victor, who always repulses all her advances. His feats of bravery are wellknown throughout the regiment, bat be is still enshouded with mystery. In the interim the Sheik, Ben Ali Hamman, has made overtures for a peace pact with the Marquis de Chateauroy. colonel of the region nt, and the latter falls into the trap and accepts. The Sheik now plans for a desert uprising, which will sweep the Freich menace from his domains. At this point there enters tho Princess Corona, a powerful Ehglish noblewoman, who is visiting Algiers, and the marquis entertains her. During u visit to the barracks ah> is struck by 'some hand-carved work of Victor, ana offers to buy it He refuses to sell, but expresses a d.sire to make the princess a present of if. This she declines, and the marquis becomes jealous and spiteful when he sees the impression this soldier has made on the princess. He plans tho downfall of the trooper and tries to lay him op. n for court-martial. The Sheik, sensing how things are going, sees a chance to win Victor to his side and arranges to Lave him kidnapped on his way to the barracks. Cigarette foils the plot and saves Victor’s life. He is taken to his quarters, where fever sets in, and during his ravings he reveah tuat he is of noble English birth and has fied to save his brother. Also, he tells how the princess is his one and only love -if those days in England. The French girl is enraged, and owing to the persuasions of the Sheik joins the Arabs, who are plotting to seize Algiers. The crafty Sheik, just before leaving, decides to get Victor out of the way and hatches a false charge of high treason, which he presents to tho commandant. Tho complications which follow- are intensely interesting, and tho (Hiding is one of the most realislio and vivid ever seen <n the screen. Priscilla Dean; as Cigarette, played her part cleverly and entered into the cpirit of tho whole plot. Among the supports is a fiveact picture entitled "The . Fighting Streak ” This is one of Tom Mix’s best and is a typical story of the west.