ENTERTAINMENTS

Southland Times, Issue 19345, 10 September 1924, Page 7

ENTERTAINMENTS

ALBION TONIGHT. “TORMENT,” “THE HEART LINE” AND “COVERED SCHOONER ” A very fine collection of artiste and attractions have been secured for Albicn patrons, commencing to-night, headed by the Maurice Tourneur special picture “Torment.” The stars in the play are Bessie Love and Owen Moore. In the main the tale of “Torment” is one of life in the raw. Blood-mad revolutionists storm the palace cf Boris, a prince of the Russian royal family, in search of the crown jewels. Escaping, he is pursued over the frozen steppes, until finally he makes his escape and, eventually, his way to America. Here is a breath-taking race between an automobile and a train and an attempted holdup of a speeding express. Relief comes in gome beautiful scenes at sea, where the plot of a band of American crooks to deprive the Russian of his gems is hatched. Just I as the spectator is nicely settled in his seat comes the Japanese earthquake. A cameraman with his tripod all set up on the August day when Yokohama was demolished could not have more faithfully pictured the scenes of devastation and horror that follow. A building tumbles. All the characters of the story are in the vaults below. Slowly the chandelier sways. The floor heaves. The wall curves in and out. Plaster falls. Girders crash to the floor. Marble pillars tumble through the walls to the floor. The walls cave in. And through it all the human-insects scurry. One is hurt. None are killed. For days they live, without food and with but a little water, in the vaults. And there comes the climax revealing the tme characters of this little group of imprisoned humans—a climax which shows how character can be made or marred by hardship and suffering. “The Heart Line,” in* which Leah Baird is starred at 7.30 p.m., is a vivid, gripping story told in the atmosphere of a palmist’s velvet-draped studio; in the seance room and behind the scenes of a spiritualistic niedium; in gay Bohemia where good fellows get together; and in the homes and gardens of wealth and'aristocracy. Gelett Burgess’s novel, “The Heart Line,” created quite a furore because cf its daring expose of fake mediums and clairvoyants, and its photoplay version, presented by Arthur F. Beck through Pathe, will prove equally entertaining and diverting. Miss Baird is happily cast in the role of Fancy Gray, a girl who could rule the destiny of her sympathetic heart with her sensible head. The supporting cast is headed by Jerome Patrick, popular leading man of stage and screen, that lovable youngster, Ben Alexander; Frederick Vrcom, Ruth Sinclair, Mrs Charles C. Craig, and others. Frederick A. Thomson directed. A very clever comedy, “The Covered Schooner,” and the latest English Gazette complete the programme. Seats may be reserved by ’phoning the Albion 738. Day sales all day at Dunlop’s. CIVIC PICTURES. I BUCK JONES, ALICE TERRY, RAMON NAVARRO. “Where the Pavement Ends,” there romance begins. At least so said John Russell in his series bearing this general title. Rex Ingram, master director of such famous pictures as “The Four Horsemen,” “Prisoner of Zenda,” “Turn to the Right” and others, has again been singularly successful in visualising the story of “The Passion Vine,” in the picture which bears the title of “Where the Pavement Ends,” and in which is one of the featured attractions on the new programme to be presented in the Municipal Theatre to-night. The trade magazines have unhesitatingly declared for “Where the Pavement Ends” as being Rex Ingram’s best picture to date. If that is so, and the ones we have mentioned earlier in this paragraph have been bettered even one little bit, then Invercargill picture goers are having something exceptionally good placed before them by the Civic management. “Where the Pavement Ends” out in the places of the earth where the last vestiges of civilisation exists, out where the broken and the weak ferget they are men and just exist, beach-comb-ing, begging; and the glittering islands of the South Seas are such places as these. Every man who is in the islands knows of their romance, and on a small island, off the end of the pavement, a missionary and his daughter fought hard with nature and a seller of bad rum for their religion. To quote from the story: “It is hard to find an excuse for Miss Matilda. She was a missionary’s daughter, committed to the sacred cause of respectability in a far-off land. Motauri was a gentleman of sorts, and a scholar after his own fashion, a high chief and a descendant of kings ... it should have been nothing to Miss Matilda that Motauri locked most distractingly like a young Woodland god, . . . with the features of a Roman cameo and the build of a Greek athlete.” Alice Terry, bewitching as ever, makes a charming Miss Matilda, and Ramon Navarro will set many a feminine heart a-flutter by his presence in the role of the pagan Motauri. Harry T. Morey, a favourite of a bygone day, is also in the cast.

Friendship that is backed by sacrifice and bullets without limit and without reservation, is the kind which Charles (Buck) Jones brings to the screen in “Not a Drum was Heard,” the William Fox screen version of the story by Ben Ames Williams. Jones never appeared in a picture better suited to his particular talent. Betty Bouton, as the western girl with the eastern education, does the best work of her career, and the principals have excellent support from a capable cast. Frank Campeau, as the inevitable villain, a western banker, deserves particular mention. The story is a romance in which two cowhands love the same girl. One drops out for the other, and later makes still further sacrifices for the man who has been his “pardner,” The old west is pictured vividly, with all of its glamour and picturesque revelry. There is plenty of excitement not umnixed with pathos in this appealing story. “The Leather Pushers" and Sunshine Comedy are also on this big bill, for which prices will remain as usual. x GARRISON BAND CARNIVAL. The Grand Jubilee Carnival in connection with the Invercargill Garrison Band will be officially opened at King’s Hall this evening by the Mayor (Mr Andrew Bain). The Carnival is being held to raise .funds to send the band, which has the..

honour of being the oldest institution of its kind in Southland, to the Auckland Contest. The Carnival Committee has been steadily working up towards the present effort for several months past, and it would be difficult to imagine a more varied and extensive programme of amusements than that which has been arranged to cater for the amusement of young and ’old. CHAUTAUQUA. “A Message from Mars." During the last few weeks it would be interesting to know how many radio stations have been listening-in for a message from the Martians. On Friday evening, at the Municipal Theatre, Dr. Arthur Carpenter will bring a direct message to the people of Invercargill from the whole starry firmament. The eminent astronomer delivers his lecture in a manner that is at once easily understood by all, and spiced with a unique humour. He has the rare art of bringing abstruse subjects within the scope of the ordinary mind, and of making scientific and philosophic statements without recourse to “the jargon of the schools.” A man of infinite humour, his jests arise naturally from his .method of treating the subject matter, and

thus equipped, and aided by the tricks of speech of the land of his birth, it is no wonder that Dr. Carpenter is able to grip his audience and carry them with hirn through fields from which so many people shrink in dismay as wastes too rough for ordinary people to travel The first part of the programme will be provided by Miss Pascoe-Webbe and Miss Lesbia Dobson, contralto singer and pianiste respectively. These two talented young ladies have received wonderful receptions wherever they have appeared, proving themselves to be possessed of exceptional ability.