ENTERTAINMENTS

Southland Times, Issue 19396, 10 November 1924, Page 7

ENTERTAINMENTS

CIVIC PICTURES. VAUDEVILLE AND PICTURES. The high standard of entertainment to which Civic patrons have become accustomed is well maintained in the new programme screened on Saturday night. Louis Bloy the talented banjoist, received quite an ovation on his re-appearance after on absence of three years on the leading Australian vaudeville circuit. There is no doubt that Mr Bloy stands, alone as a performer on the banjo. His execution of difficult and popular selections must be heard to be thoroughly appreciated. The picture programme, too, is excellent. In the chief film, which bears the title of “Cordelia, the Magnificent,” Clara Kimball Young makes her return to the screen after an all-too-long absence. The film relates a story that grips attention throughout. The keynote is an amazing mystery, cunningly contrived and concealed with a subtlety that produces a climax as striking as it is unexpected. No picture is complete without its villain, but in “Cordelia the Magnificent,” the “villain” is an exceedingly elusive person, since several of the central figures are fashionable blackmailers, whose social position appears quite above reproach. The film is some 7000 feet in length and almost every inch of it brings a thrilL Agnes Ayres and Antonio Moreno are the featured players in “Bluff.” In this picture Miss Ayres wins a name as a designer of gowns, and also the love of the hero in one of the leading comedy-dramas that the screen has given us. The story deals with a girl’s struggles in New York where she is an unknown designer with ambitions, and the responsibility of a crippled brother. She failed to obtain a situation, and hits upon the idea of impersonating an English fashion authority , who has mysteriously disappeared. But complications ensue. She manages, with the aid of her lover, to get out of her diffficulty, and the manner in which she does so makes a thrilling climax to a most interesting picture. ALBION PICTURES. FINE PROGRAMME OF DANCING AND PICTURES. It was not to be wondered at that the comfortable Albion was filled to capacity at an early hour on Saturday, for the programme is one that- has attracted record audiences all over New Zealand. The screening of the great fire picture, “The Midnight Alarm,” at the Albion should arouse in people who have the opportunity of seeing it the big necessity of more carefulness, both in young and old people to obviate the terrible losses that are incurred. No finer bit of work has ever been done by any actress than that displayed by Alice Calhoun in one of the swiftest-moving photoplays ever produced, “The Midnight Alarm.” Whimsically charming as Sparkle, lost daughter of wealth, Miss Calhoun gives a characterisation that wins its way into the sympathetic hearts of spectators. “The Midnight Alarm” reacts with the creative genius of the famous Vitagraph director, David Smith. It is a melodrama so rapid in its action, so tense in its scenes that frequently the spectators find themselves actually breathless. The first half of the programme presents Pat O’Malley, Carmel Myers, Alec Frances and Milton Sills in one of the finest dramatic novels of the day, “The Last Hour,” from “Blind Justice.” A clever kiddie comedy, “Our Gang,” and dancing on the film and stage by Mrs Turner and Shaddick of the “One Step” complete a programme that has everything to recommend it.