EVERYBODY’S THEATRE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20708, 4 May 1929, Page 11

EVERYBODY’S THEATRE.

“ Tho_ Crimson City," a Warner Master production, heads the new programme at Everybody’s Theatre. It can be described as a thrilling romance of the China coast, and features Myrna Loy. “The Crimson City” vividly pictures'the adventures of Gregory Kent, an Englishman wrongfully accused of embezzlement, who flees to China, and there, in the “ house of a thousand daggers ” intercedes for Nan Toy. a slave girl, who ,s tortured by her brutal Oriental master. Kent is thrown from the “ dive," and seeks the sea with the intention of ending hie life. Nan Toy follows, helps him to a hiding place, and nurses him to health. Her master finds her and takes her hack. The story hinges on the fact that a former sweetheart of Kent, with her father, is visiting Brand, a wealthy oil magnate, who himself loves the other girl. _ Proof is sent from England that Kent is not guilty, and then follow the complications, which involve ’all the actors in the thrilling drama. How Kent’s former sweetheart comes to claim him, and how Nan Toy fights to keep hie _ love, forced by her own sense of the futility of further struggle to keep him, make the picture one of the most exciting photoplays of the season. Myrna Loy is seen at her best as the brave and broken Nan Toy. The cast includes John Miljan, Leila Hyams, Matthew Betz, Anders Randolph, Anna May Wong, and Richard Tucker. Some of the moat famous Oriental character actors appear in “ The Crimson City,” among them being So Jin, Anna May Wong, and Matthew Betz. Richard Tucker is cast as the influential Mr Brand, who tries to prevent the white man’s exoneration that he may claim the English girl’s love. Suspense and excitement, as well as unusual scienic beauty, are seen with the showing of “Wild West Romance” the second feature picture. Rex Bell, Pox Films’ new cowboy star, makes his first appearance in this production, which is a story of the modern West, but of a section of the range country which has not yfc been wholly tamed. The story deals with life in a small Western town on the borders of the bad lands, and concerns itself principally with a goodnatured, easy-going youngster, played by Bell. He never allows anything to trouble him. until he sees a small boy thrown from a freight train by a, brakeman. Then Bell becomes a raging demon. He adopts the boy, and the two "ride range” together. It is a logical, fast-moving story, in which Bell falls in love with an evangelist’s daughter. The latter, however, prefers the bad young man of the town. Then a series of robberies take place, for which suspicion falls on Bell. The cowboy, with the aid of his young pal, sets out and eventually captures the real perpertrators of the crimes, and Bell- succeeds in winning the girl. A fine cast of players supports the star, including Caryl Lincoln, in the feminine Jead. Many beautiful scenes of mountain, plain, and desert serve as backgrounds to the action of the story. Several good supports complete a programme of high merit. KING EDWARD THEATRE. "The Street of Sin,” which features Emil Jannings, i s the chief attraction at tho King Edward Theatre. Jannings created his own characterisation in this Paramount production; The story hinges on the regeneration of a giant bully in She slums of Loudon. The transition of a brutal gang' leader of the slums' to & godly man through the power of love is detailed in “ The Street of Sin.” “ Sledgehammer Bill,” portrayed by Jannings, drops his meanness, and devotes his life to the welfare of humanity, but only •after the girl he loves Buffers through an act of his own hatching. The two leading women, Fay Wray and Olga Baklanova, are cast as extreme characters. The settings and technical work are regarded with the highest importance in the production, and the background of the Lon* don slums was executed at Paramount’s studio. Emil Jannings gives one of hi* best performances in " The Street of Sin.’ " The Crimson City ”is the title of the fieepnd picture, with Myrna Loy in the featured role of Nan Toy, a Chinese slave girl. The action of the play takes place in a “ dive ” on the Chinese coast, and the story ie built on the adventures of Gregory Kent, who, wrongfully accused, of embezzlement, has fled from England. In an attempt to protect Nan Toy from her master, Kent is thrown from the “dive.” The subsequent sequences show how Nan Toy fights for Kent’s love after his honesty hao .been proved. The action is exciting all through. MOSGIEL PICTURES. Rich in romance and action, and with John Barrymore giving one of the finest performances of bis screen career, “ Tempest,” a spectacular picture, having as its background Imperial and revolutionary Russia, will be shown in the Mosgiel Theatre to-night. " Tempest ” is said to be crammed with action from the opening of the story, when the star is a peasant officer plunged into the gay life of prewar Russia, to the final scene, when he rescues a princess, his sweetheart, from bloodthirsty hordes and escapes with her to a new life of happiness.