ENTERTAINMENTS

Southland Times, Issue 17972, 13 March 1917, Page 6

ENTERTAINMENTS

POPULAR PICTURE PALACE. There was a very large attendance last night, when the new programme met with the heartiest approval. The selection of tiie pictures is a happy one, and there is a cheerfulness and brightness throughout that cannot fail to please. The star feature is a livepart .Metro play, "The Sunbeam,” with popular Alabel Taliaferro in tiie name part, and an excellent supporting cast. It is a story of sadness and gladness, pathos and humour, and leaves one with a pleasant feeling that a smiling face and a cheery word go a long way towards building up happiness for others. "Men of the Moment and their Machines,” introduces all the successful aeronauts of the French Army, and terminates with a trip in an aeroplane. The Eclair Journal is also distinctly interesting. "Nobody Home,” a AletroDrew Comedy, is very amusing, but pride of place easily goes to Charlie Chaplin, who kept tiie house in roars of : laughter as "The Champion." Patrons | are advised that “The Sunbeam" will be j screened once only each evening at 8 I o’clock sharp. | ALBION THEATRE. The public should not miss seeing the great Scotch Comedy "Peggy,” which was screened for the first time at the Albion last night to a crowded house. "Peggy,” Billie Burke’s entry into the moving picture world, bids fair to make many of the recognised queens of tiie film look to their laurels. Her winsome beauty is known in every large capital of the Old World, and her American successes made her the talk of that whole continent. In this play, specially written for her debut, she lias a role which provides an opportunity for seeing every one of her alluring moods. Her resolute determination is seen when she faces the elders of the kirk who are sitting in judgment on a girl who has gone astray. Her delicious wink must not be lost sight of, as it is one of the "high lights” in a bright series of incidents, which happen from the beginning to the end of this great comedy. The verdict of the large audience last night: “The best seen in New Zealand." GRAND—FULLERS’. CHARLIE CHAPLIN AS "THE PAWNBROKER." "The Pawnbroker,” a Alutual comedy, screened for the first time at the Grand Theatre yesterday, gives the renowned Charlie Chaplin ample scope for his mirth-provoking comedy work. Tiie spectators were forced into one long laugh by the antics of the ’inimitable Charlie, who found himself in some novel situations. In this, his latest success, Charlie is seen at his best and manages to instil tiie maximum amount of comicality into his acting of the part of the pawnbroker’s assistant, in which capacity clients are treated in extraordinary fashion. Possibly the best work was enacted in his clever balancing on a step-ladder whilst cleaning the windows, his crude way of examining the inside workings of a clock, and his sojourn in tiie kitchen as a helpmate to the cook. Patrons were kept bubbling over with laughter throughout Charlie’s appearance on the screen. Another good picture was shown entitled “Airs Dane’s Danger,” with Lilian Walker in the title role. The story concerns the young wife of Dane, a rich and busy stockbroker, who lavishes gifts upon her. Dane makes an enemy of Jasper Dicey by refusing him a loan, and the latter swears to get even. He uses Rex Gordon, a former lover of Airs Dane, but Mrs Dane's intibccnre upsets all Gordon’s schemes, and at last, in desperation, he resolves to steal from her a pearl necklace given to her by her husband. The denouement is interesting. The several supporting films were of a choice variety and thoroughly enjoyed.

.1. C. WILLIAMSON'S DRAMATIC CO. IN “DAMAGED GOODS.” To be staged at the Municipal Theatre for one night on Monday evening next is a propagandist play, described as of the deepest and most serious purpose. The subject treated is necessarily one of an unpleasant nature. The management of "Damaged Goods" are aware that there are doubtless those who will claim that the theatre is a place of amusement, and that the entertainment of the audience should be the supreme purpose of the management. Many, again, maintain that the theatre should have a higher aim than mere amusement, and that it should cater for serious thought in the public interest, as well as for laughter and tears. The management urge that if the theatre can be used to educate the public mind and reform the public morals, there is every reason why so powerful an agency should be enlisted in the crusade at present waging war against the vilest and most cruel enemy of mankind. The Melbourne Leader says; "We are inclined to think that the sincerity of 'Damaged Goods’ will prove its salvation. It enforces the magnitude of a very present evil in a straightforward manner, and inveighs against the dangers of ignorance and indifference with an emphasis that cannot fail to arrest the attention. <. Apart from the subject itself, there is nothing in the method or treatment to which exception could be taken. There is a sense of tragic intensity created in the development of the theme, and in consequences which invariably follow on the neglect of warning, involving both those who sin and those who arc entirely innocent, in the penalty. It is the truth of the presentation which gives it it’s convincing power.” Concerning the production of “Damaged Goods” by the J. C. Williamson firm in Sydney, Mr Mathews. M.H.K. for Melbourne ports, who was chairman of the recent Fedeial Committee on Venereal Diseases, considered the piece ought to be staged as a serious contribution to public education in the matter “The best mode of staging such a play.” said Mr Mathews, when interviewed on the subject, "is to select a special cast and perform the play in a suitable theatre not too closely associated with current popular amusement. So performed, the play would be free from suggestion that it was looking for a 'prurient or sniggering public. It would be wise to restrict it to an adult audience The benefit of a production of this kind would be to open the eyes of the public to a serious problem.” Dr Cumpston, Director of Federal Quarantine who was also a member of the committee, sneaks of Brleux's play as a fine drama with a splendid and serious purpose, and believes firmly that Us production under proper conditions would be of educational value. The box plan will open at the Bristol next Saturday morning at 9 o’clock.