PATHE PICTURES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XL, Issue 13258, 17 December 1913, Page 4

PATHE PICTURES.

Millionaire Paul J. Rainey's "African Hunt," which has been described by the press arid public of America and England to be the greatest animal subject ever produced, will be the unique attraction which Pathe Pictures will introduce to theatre-goers at His Majesty's tonight. Air Rainey set out upon his expedition like an army taking the field, with great herds of sheep, spans -of oxen, camels, mules, horses, and carriers, and with an armament of sporting rifles sufficient to account for all the wild beasts m Africa. But the novel point about his expedition was -that he chased his quarry with a ! pack of hunting dogs and brought it to bay with a pack of fighting dogs. Tlie first engagement of the latter with a cheetah furnished a scalp-tightening fight/ The cheetah was driven to tlie summit of a tree, where the audience saw him standing rampant, like the lions of the famous statue. Two of the hunting dogs actually followed him to his retreat, and by nibbling his toes compelled him to juriip into the thick of the fighting dogs at the base of the tree, where a short, fierce struggle brought deith to him. Later on- the pack cornen d a lion m a donga, ,and engaged him until the guns came up and despatched him. Mr Rainey shot 76 lions during the expedition, and broke many recordsj as Yankees have a way of doing. But the most praphic and interestinc portion ot . the picture has to do -with" observation rather than killing. Mr Hemmant, the photographer, to get this! picture, lived for six weeks m a "blind" m the branches of a tree over the only water '. hole within a radius of 80 miles, and : to this spot all the wild animals of the plains came to drink. The audience will see the timid giraffe, the eland, monkeys, ' baboons, rhinoceroses, elephants, wildebeeste, orynx, zebra m their native fearlessness and amity. It is a spectacle of unrivalled interest. A later feature of more intensive interest was the charge of a huge rhinoceros, weighing close on ! four tons. The rhinoceros is almost blind, and charges purely on scent. He gets 1 his first inkling of danger when the rhino birds (that feed oh the vermin on his skin) desert him; and it was curious to see him when, m face of the ( camera "click-clacking" 40 yards from' him. lie began to scent danger. 1 The < lumbering charge had' hardly begun when the heavy rifle bullet brought him down, and one sees the final^ quiver as the , second ball penetrates his brain. Apart , from the wonderful exhibition of wild beasts, the film takes the audience through the land of Livingrstone and Stanley, and gives rare sights of the tropical fauna arid flora. There are birds of bright plumage, which have not a note of song; there are ravishly-beau-tiful flowers that have no perfume. The remarkable journey will be described : by Mr Kenneth Carlisle, who comes with the film. Mr Carlisle is a brilliant ' raconteur, and his running commentary ' on Mr Rainey's thrilling adventures is ' quite a feature of the entertainment.