AMUSEMENTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19759, 9 April 1926, Page 7

AMUSEMENTS.

EMPIRE THEATRE. One of the most distinctive beauties of the screen, Corinne Griffith, First National star, was born in Texarkana, Texas, and was educated at Sophie Newcomb College, in New Orleans. Later the family moved to Mineral Wells, Texas where her father practiced medicine Miss Griffith, seeking a field for aesthetic expression, went to Dallas to become a terpsichorean attraction at the fashionable Adolphus Hotel. She attracted the attention of Ilolliu Sturgeon, veteran kinema director, when she won first prize in a beauty contest and started her screen career in pictures under his direction in Vitagraph three-reelers. Later Vitagraph co-featured her with Earle \\ illiams in five-ree} offerings, then featured her in a series of O. Henry picturisations, and followed this with nine starring vehicles for the now celebrated beauty. Remarkable work as a free lance followed, her role in “ Black Oxen ” attracting particular attention, this being the first of her productions for First National, to which concern she U now under contract. Her latest offer ing is “Classified.” This is an adaptation from a magazine story by Edna Ferber, and will open at The Empire Theatre to-day. Jack Mulhall ably supports Miss Griffith, and others who con.. .bate striking characterisations are Ward Crane, Chas Murray, Edythe Chapman, Carroll Nye George Sidney, Bernard Randall, and Jacqueline Wells. Alfred A. San tell di rected the picture. The Empire orchestra, under the baton of Air C. Par noil, will render a programme of incidental music. OCTAGON THEATRE. The now feature at the Octagon Theatre to-day will be “Wild Horse Mesa,” a Zane Grey story which has been adapted to the screen and in which the featured players are „ack Holt, Billie Dove, and Noah Beery 'Die story is an interesting one, tolling of good-natured Lige Melborne who runs a store, in a little western hamlet, but is facing failure when Bent Manerube sells him the idea of using a large quantity of barbed wire, which he has in stock, to fence in a part of a mesa and to trap wild horses. The scheme is to catch and sell them. Soon after they arrive at the location of the wild horses and get the wire in place, Chane Woymer, a horse buyer, who has been chased bv B--n ' -son's gang, arrives in camp thoroughly exhausted and is nursed back to health. He falls in love with Sue Melborne. Chane finally shows Lige the cruelty of the plan for trapping the hordes and he decided to abandon the project Rent Mnnernb" le-’-os after'bein'* thrashed by Chane and, still angry, joins Bud who with his gang, has come to rob the Melborne outfit qf the few horses that they might have caught. They join forces and agree to carry through with the brutal scheme, dividing the spoils between them. They start a stampede of horses, but Cbatie manages to head them off and then the "imcr make prisoners of Chane. and t.ne Melbornes. But an Indian chief who a e daughter has boon wronged by Bud, shoots the leaders of the gang from ambneh and the party is rescued. Back in the little hamlet Chane and Sue decide to marry. PLAZA AND GRAND THEATRES. A Western picture without an inhuman poltter or a single cattle rustler who places the blame on the shoulders of the hero, has been produced by Universal in “ The Outlaw’s Daughter,” a blue streak Western, which will be shown at the Plaza and Grand Theatres to day. All the old ingredients of the common hackneyed picture have been thrown aside, and an entirely new and novel chain of incidents welded togethei to make this picture. How well this was done is attested to by “ The Outlaw’s Daughter,” which is heralded by those who have seen pre-views as one of the most exciting, logical, and new Westerns they have ever seen. Josie Sedgwick, the famous cowgirl, stars in the picture, playing the role of the daughter of the leader of a band of bandits. Besides presenting a story of great suspense. Jack O’Brien, the director, has made a picture of surpassing beauty amid the locale selected after months of travel through the West. The cast includes such well known Western players us Edward Hearne, Robert Walker, Jack Gavin, Harry Todd, Ben Corbett, and Bob Burns. queen’iTtheatße. The mine location used in the latest Fred Thomson picture, “The righting Sap.” which will be screened at Queen’s Theatre to-day, is one of the show places of Southern California. Situated just outside of Hollywood, this same giant rock crusher has been winding out product for the past £1 years, long before anyone ever dreamed of Hollywood. In that period of time they have moved an entire mountain side, or rather dug a valley in the heart of the mountain, and it is in this manmade valley, amid the intricate mining machinery, 'that Fred Thomson performs tlie most, hazardous feats of daring and has the most exciting adventures of his entire picture career. Twenty years ago, when operations first started, they- of course, used the crudest methods, and. as time passed and these methods advanced and newer machines were nut in place, they allowed the old one to remain. To-day there stands as a monument to science all the stages of mine development for the past 20 years. In addition to “The Fighting Sap,” excellent supports are also shown. EVERYBODY'S THEATRE. “In the Name of Love,” the romantic comedy drama, which will have its initial screening in Dunedin at Everybody’s Theatre to-day, was written by one of the most popular novelists of the last century. Nevertheless it is a story, and has been modernised, making a picture that for entertainment is one of the we have had the pleasure of presenting. The great cast is headed by Ricardo Cortez and Greta Nissen. The supporting picture is "Iho Three Keys,” a Lasky production, which tells the story of a man who tried to help his fiancee’s father. He does so by taking some bends entrusted to his care, but the owner, learning the cause of the theft of bonds, protects him from the law. Finally, the bonds are returned and everything is well.