PRINCE OF WALES’S RANCH

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12406, 27 March 1926, Page 7

PRINCE OF WALES’S RANCH

SHOWN IN DRAMA AT KING’S. Particular interest is attaclmd to this week’s star feature at the King’s Theatre, for there is in it a topical element which makes it more than an ordinary film. Described as an epic of the West, “The Calgary Stampede,” features the fast-moving Hoot Gibson, and moves for the greater part through the carnival scenes of the Calgary stampede. Stampede week, during which all the Westerners gather in Calgary, was used to bring together the various threads of the story into one whirlwind' finish at the great racing finals of the celebration. The scenes were taken on and around the Prince of Wales’ ranch, and among the big situations is the great stampede, the 1925 rodeo-cham-pionships—Canada’s national annual event. Thousands of buffalos are seen in a huge thundering herd. Seldom was there such a thriller screened. Dan Malloy, champion Roman rider of the United States, is roaming about Canada when he falls in love with a rancher’s daughter. The father, game warden of the district, tries to break up the match and is conferring with Malloy when Fred Burgess,' a former convict with a grudge, shoots and kills La Fargo and escapes. Circumstances force Malloy to flee and he gets kitchen work on a distant ranch near Calgary, Alberta, where he poses as a rather thick-witted yokel. However, he keeps his eyes „ open and gets in his horsemanship practice at nights. He is discovered by a member of the Royal North-West Mounted Police at the Prince of Wales’ ranch admiring the fine animals. This arouses the suspicions of the mountie who several times nearly catches Malloy at his night rides. The mountie returns and brings Barie La Fargo to identify the man, but she pretends not to recognise her sweetheart. As stampede time approaches everyone becomes excited and Malloy’s employer bets his entire wealth and all his cattle that his own man will win the Roman- riding race. At the last minute the rider is injured and Malloy changes with the substitute, a ruse not discovered until the race jb under way. After the race there is a big showdown, a climax that does.full justice to the thrilling scenes preceding it. The King’s Select Orchestra, under the baton of Mr A. H. Jerome, excels this week in a specially written musical score to suit the rapid action of the picture. The overture, “The Lightning Switch,” which was played »’by request, was particularly enjoyable/ and the players were accorded a generous measure of applause from the" audience.

Altogether the programme is extremely enjoyable and well up to the usual high standard of the Kings Theatre.