CHRISTCHURCH SHOWS.

NZ Truth, Issue 250, 9 April 1910, Page 6

CHRISTCHURCH SHOWS.

RING'S THEATRE.

West's Pictures.

The blaze of electric light that at-, tracts the crowds nightly to West's Pic-; tures m Gloucester-street is visible for many miles and suggests a disastrous; fire under a lowering sky. The pictures are of Parisian and American origin, and are good, with a capital Cr. American drama is quaint and unexpected, sometimes. A newspaper artist falls m love with a dancer at the halls, for instance, but doesn't know her occupation. For some singular reason, she is fearful lest he should learn the truth ; his pals, who know her, . try to induce her to renounce, him ; the artist is inexpressibly shocked when he learns that she is a dancer (she wears a .long skirt when she dances) ; but Love (with a large L) prevails, and a prosaic pram, and human contents materialise later. The astonishing part of it is that everybody should be shocked because the girl is a dancer. Judging by the Divorce Court records of some American artists, the discovery of her lover's profession should bave>choked the girl off her shallow adorer. Darjeeling and Molucca Islands arc really fine scenic films, and the comic and dramatic elements are wholesome parts of the show, which moves with animation to its close to music by the orchestra from the best masters. Much of the American Wild West appears m the pictures these times, and the habit of en- • forcing, an argument with a six-shooter (provided the hero is at the right end of the ironmongery) is greeted with enthusiasm. ■ ; The seating of West's house of , entertainment is undergoing important alter.ation, so that no person will sit immediately-- behind another. By this arrangement even a person m a Merry Widow hat, or a bearskin busby will be m nobody else's way.