THE SHADOW WORLD

Southland Times, Issue 19460, 27 January 1925, Page 9

THE SHADOW WORLD

LATEST REAL NEWS ~ OF REEL FOLK.

WHAT TO SEE THIS WEEK. ALBION THEATRE. To-night: “Missing Daughters” and “Mord Em’ly.” Wednesday: “The Danger Point” and “Desert Driven.” Saturday: “Let no Man put Asunder” and “Riders of the Dawn.” CIVIC PICTURES. To-night: ‘Triumph” and “K the Unknown.” Wednesday: “A Self-made Failure” and “Environment. Saturday: “On Time” and “Men.” When Zane Grey’s “Riders of the Dawn” screens at the Albion Theatre on Saturday, seats should be at a premium. For this popular author has written no better book. George Melford has completed “The Top of the World” for Paramount. Claire Windsor will reappear at the Civic soon in the First National picture “For Sale”. Milton Sills, lured by a fat. contract, will continue to star for First National in big special productions this year, instead of > joining the ranks of famous directors. First ( National gains and the industry loses much needed directoral timber. “Desert Driven,” Hany Carey’s latest melodrama which comes to the Albion tomorrow, was adopted from Wyndham Martyn’s colourful story. The desert scenes are said to be remarkably fine. j It is quite a jump from ex-diving to one jof the most famous characters in fiction, but Marie Prevost is about to make that leap. She has been chosen to play Camille in the Warner Brothers’ “Lover of Camille.” “Strangers of the Night” with Barbara La Marr, Matt Moore, and Enid Bennett, i is coming to the Civic in the near future. Baby Peggy has just run away with the honours in her newest Master Picture “Captain January,” adopted from Laura E. Richard’s story. For the first time she has been given the right environment for her ability. This big little star slips into this loved story of the old lighthouse keeper and his adopted daughter and stays within i bounds from start to finish. | That the best English productions are j very popular with Albion patrons is plainly : .«hown by the crowds who have seen the lat- : est Betty Balfour feature, “Mord Emily,” j which has its final screening to-night. j Famous Players has signed Edna Murphy, who has done good work in Pathe productions, for a part in Richard Dix’s new picture, “A Man Must Live,” which Paul Sloane is directing. Edna has charm and ability and her work with Dix spells opportunity.

Completing her/ work in “The Dark . Swan” for Warner Brothers, Marie Provost was divorced and married again in one week. : Kenneth Harlan won the fair Marie. And i now, they are off on a honeymoon.

| Charlie Murray, Mary Carr and Virginia i Pearson have been added to the cast cf I “The Wizard of Oz,” which Larry Semon jis making for Chadwick Pictures. Those ■ already announced, in addition to Semon j himself, include Josef Swickard, Oliver I Hardy, Dorothy Dwan and Bryant Washi burn.

i A lesson of life as it really is, that is j “Missing Daughters,” the special attraction ' dealing with the White Slave traffic, which . screens finally to-night at the Albion. No mother, father, daughter or son should miss seeing this timely picture.

Riding as she is at present on the crest : of the wave Anna Q. Nilsson is the embodijment of the successful actress. There is no • pose about her, but there is a well carried ' pose of commingling of complacency and i confidence. She has reached the point where producers must bid against each other ; for her services; she is a box office name; books are read with her in mind as the possible star. She appears next in “Broadway After Dark.”

I Pola Negri and Raoul A. WaJsh, a new ‘ combination are to do “East of Suez,” a , Somerset Maugham play, in which Florence ' Reed starred last season. Miss Negri may : show us what real passion is. For “there I ain’t no Ten Commandments” in this one.

| Undoubtedly the great charm and appeal of “Babbitt” is in its brilliantly achieved ' domestic scenes and in the inspired naturalism of Willard Louis’s portrayal of the title role. The romantic entanglements share the honours, however, and we get 1 fascinating glimpses of Carmel Myers as •j Tanis Judique luring Babbitt from his , wife with beautiful clothes and eyes and deceptions and the gay love affair of Theoj dore and Eunice. Thousands of pounds of art treasures will be seen in “The Man from Brodney’s” I including tapestries, famous paintings and ' other works of art. One of the finest art specimens is a priceless Gobelin tapestry which was made in the fifteenth century. Genuine paintings by Corot and Whistler and several beautiful statues are also in the film. Warren Kerrigan heads the cast playing the title role and is supported by Alice Calhoun, Miss Dupont, Wanda Hawley, Pat O’Malley and Kathleen Key.

Warner Bros.’ “New Twenty,” produclions for 1924-25, are being signed up rapidly by the leading theatres throughout America and Britain, The sale has progressed to such an extent that Warner Bros.’ executives feel confident that the firm’s business for the new season will be the biggest in its history. These exceptionally fine productions will be shown throughout New Zealand as Master Pictures, and include “Get Your Man,” featuring Rin-Tin-Tin, the amazing wonder dog, “Lover of Camille” (“Deburau”), written by Sacha Guitry, peer of European playwrights, Edith Wharton's “The Age of Innocence” (awarded the Columbia prize as the best novel of the year), “Recompense,” the sequel to “Simon Called Peter,” by Robert Keable, and “The Dark Swan,” by Ernest Pascal, one of the most popular young American writers. All these productions will be shown at the Albion.

“The Enemy Sex,” James Cruze's latest Paramount picture which features Betty Compson, has one of the strongest casts which has ever been directed by the man who made “The Covered Wagon.” In Betty Compson’s role of “Dodo,” Baxter brings together an actress and a part remarkably well suited to each other. “Dodo” Baxter is a girl who goes to New York armed with beauty and wit. She disturbed the equanimity of New York’s smartest set, and teaches a number of male members that money does not buy everything. The part is ideally suited to Miss Compson. Contrasted with the tragic characters she plays in her recent Joseph Henabery production for Paarmount ‘The Enemy Sex,” it is all merriment and fire.

Baby Peggy was asked if she would like to see Rin-tin-tin, the famous dog, and she inquired if it were a Henry Ford production.

A tribute to the devotion of women, who will risk life itself or the living death of dishonour for the men they love is paid by Thomas H. Ince in “Those Who Dance”, a First National release scheduled for early release at the Civic, starring Blanche Sweet, Bessie Love, Warner Baxter, Lucille Ricksen and Robert Agnew.

For the first time in her career Pola Negri has been cast in a role of her own nationality. Although the star has played Russian, French and Italian characters for the stage and screen, her first Polish role will be that in “Lily of the Dust,” which Dimitri Buchpwetzki produced for Paramount and which will be released in New Zealand shortly.

“Modernity filmed” describes “This Freedom,” the Master Picture version of A. S. M. Hutchinson’s novel with Fay Compton in the leading role. It answers the questions: “Can a woman be really free in the modern sense?” “Will her natural longings and instincts allow her?” This interesting picture will come to the Albion.

William Farnum, star in Paramount pictures, will present as his next starring vehicle “The Man Who Fights Alone.” Mr Farnum started work for the magnificent sum of 3 dollars 75 cents per week. He ran errands for the village grocer in his old home town of Bucksport, Maine. During the winter his salary increased to one dollar a day, and for this he would put in a strenuous ten hours on the river at twenty below zero cutting ice. He attributed hijs strength and robust health to the solid foundation of hard work laid in his youth. Lois Wilson and Edward Horton are featured opposite the star.

Katherine Ray, beauty contest winner and featured in “The Girl in the Clock” number of Earl Carroll’s “Vanities,” makes her bow in pictures as a model in Sidney Olcott’s Paramount picture, “Salome of the Tenements.”

A romantic love story set amid a background of Canadian forests with plenty of thrills and humour intermingled can be found in “The Critical age,” an adaption of Ralph Connor’s well known novel, “Glengarry School Days.” The producer took his company from New York up to the upper reaches of the Ottawa river upon the exact locality in Mr Connor’s novel.

“The Marriage Chance” is a mystery drama with situations that Sherlock Holmes himself could not have solved. Interpretating this extraordinary story is an extraordinary cast, Milton Sills, Irene Rich, Henry B. Walthall, Tully Marshall and Alta Allen. It screens at the Albion.

Adolphe Menjou has a fashion of looking sidelong at a woman the while his eyebrows go up and his eyelids down and his lips, beneath a perfectly proportioned moustache move into a cynical smile. His look says “Woman, I know you. I know every trick you have in your cabinet, and can match it with a smarter one.” He plays the part of the wealthy man about town in “Broadway After Dark,” a Master Picture.

“Western Luck” is the title of Buck Jones now starring vehicle for Fox. which will be screened at the Civic next Wednesday. Supporting the star are J. Farrell MacDonald, Beatrice Burnham, and Gordon Bruce.

'Daddies,” a sparkling comedy, will chase away the glooms and the joy-killing blues, and produce merry laughter. It tells the story of an air-tight bachelors’ club, which was wrecked bv one of Cupid’s darts. If you are married, expect to be married, or never intend to be married, you will thoroughly enjoy this comedy featuring Mae Marsh, Harry Myers, Claude Gillingwater, Willard Louis and Claire Adams.

“A Self Made Failure,” a First National comedy drama with a big cast headed by Ben Alexander, Lloyd Hamilton, Patsy Ruth Miller. Mary Carr and Matt Moore, will be screened at the Civic on Wednesday. Lloyd Hamilton, with his own particular manner, is well-known as an irresistable comedian, and he excels himself in this, his latest feature. In opening, the story shows the people of a curative resort known as Sulphur Springs, awaiting the arrival of Professor Strauss, who is to take charge of the newly installed massage parlour and swimming pool. At this stage, Hamilton as a tramp, together with a small boy and dog, strolls into the picture, and, by some mistake, is taken for the professor, and. duly given charge of the massage parlour. From that point he becomes responsible for a series of screamingly funny episodes, into which is woven the love story of young author and a pretty girl.

An argumentative subject is given a visual hearing in ‘This Freedom,” and it may be called a first-rate picture. It carries out its author’s theories to the dot. A. S. M. Hutchison has not written another “If Winter Comes.” In the first place it doesn’t present any such idealistic figure as Mark Sabre. However, once its characters are all introduced it swings into its main argument and finishes with a stirring climax.

Seena Gwen has been engaged by the Fox Film Corporation to play in" “The Hunted Woman,” a James Oliver Curwood story which Jack Conway will direct.

“Environment,” a Fox picture, starring Milton Sills, will be at the Civic on Wednesday. It is an American underworld story with a great deal to recommend it, this being made more possible by the work of Sills, as the, farmer, and Alice Lake, a female crook from necessity rather than choice. As the confederate of a notorious thief, the girl subsequently finds herself in Chicago, where she has followed her working partner with the intention of dissuading him from robbing poor hard-working people. They are both caught, but in the end she is proved innocent.

Coming to the Albion on Saturday is the drama “Let No Man Put Asunder.” One of the unique features in “Let Not Man Put Asunder,” the Master Picture version of Basil King’s novel on the evils and frivolities of society which lead to the divorce Court is the dance of the camouflaged figures at the great New Year’s Eve Ball. The dancing platform was especially designed in a sort of futuristic style and the figures of the dancers were so painted that they merged into the platform without being detected. Not even the lens of the camera could distinguish between the walls of the platform and the human bodies. When they danced it is as if they had been summoned by magic.

The next picture starring Mary Philbin which is scheduled for early release at the Civic is the Universal production “Rose of Paris.” In the role of Mitsi, Miss Philbin is at her best, as the young girl fresh from Convent, with no knowledge of the world or it’s ways.

At present Rin-Tin-Tin the star in “Find Your Man” is on tour making personal appearances. One of his greatest tricks is jumping a twelve foot fence.

“On Time,” the Universal picture coming to the Civic on Saturday, is an exceptionally vivid melodrama of startling motives and decidedly wierd action which verges at times into an uproarious farce. It deals with the uncertain and much-crossed road to success of Harry Willis, a young man of pluck and ambition, as played by Richard Talmage. Naturally, there is a girl—the same one at the beginning as at the end of the adventures. Billie Dove has the leading feminine role, the other players being George Siegman, Stewart Holmes, and Charles Clary.

“The Fire Patrol,” a forthcoming Master Picture, is a picture of the sea, and the men who go down to it in ships. Hunt Stromberg, the director, has qualified as a realist, for he never gives way to sentiment until he has established the stirring qualities of the story. There are fights more thrilling than the Dempsey-Firpo affair. There are wonderful shots of a fury-lashed ocean. Anna Q. Nilsson and Madge Bellamy, two screen favourites, are featured players in this picture, which shows at the Albion.

Lon Chaney will be seen soon in a sympathetic part in “He Who Gets Slapped,” the Victor Seastroni production for MetroGoldwyn. Chaney’s career in motion -pictures has been an unusual one. He began his theatrical career in his home town, Colorado Springs, Col., and branched out into musical comedy, vaudeville, and for a short time, into a circus career. He began his screen work as a slapstick comedian in a one-reel comedy for Universal about 1912. That company put him in stock, and he played in a number of pictures, generally as the “heavy.” Then came his memorable part of the cripple in “The Miracle Man.” Here Chaney was given a chance to display his remarkable talent for make-up, and for simulating physical deformities. Immediately the parts began to pour in. He has played in such pictures as “The Penalty,” “Blizzard,” “TTie Night Rose,” “The Shock,” “Treasure Island,” “Victory,” “False Faces,” “His Children’s Children,” “All the Brothers Were Valiant” and many others. His most recent notable part was as the star of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” considered his greatest characterisation.

Douglas Mac Lean seems to have found good luck these days. He has chosen for his pictures winning stories which were tried out on the stage and proved meritorious enough for long runs. He has not gambled with untried material, but with subjects which have been thoroughly tested, and which have come through with flying colours. Consequently, Mac Lean is basking in a strong spotlight of popularity to-day. He has solved the problem of filming a comedy and bringing out the laughs. He merely substitutes dazzling action for crisp dialogue. “The Hottentot” and “Bell Boy 13” took him high up on the ladder, and he is content to stay there with “Going Up,” a stage comedy which met with sue-, cess wherever it was shown. This Master Picture is realistically mounted and offers an avalanche of laughs. The Albion will show it locally.

The darling of an underworld cafe who becomes the toast of the underworld, is Pola Negri’s latest role in “Men.” a Paramount attraction, coming to the Civic on Saturday. It is a story of the type that has made the star famous, a love drama of fire and passion, with a novel twist. The theme of the story tells of a young girl, who knew very little of life before men entered it, and then she learned the great lesson of experience, of the world and it’s ways. Dimintri Butchowetzki, a famous Continental producer, was brought from Europe under special contract by Paramount, to direct Miss Negri in this picture.

Those who have homes and those who want a home will view with delight the uniquely beautiful house shown in “The Danger Point,” a remarkable Master Picture, scheduled to be shown at the Albion Theatre to-morrow. The cast includes Carmel Myers, Wm. P. Carleton, Vernon Steel, Jos. J. Dowling, Harry Todd, Margaret Joslin—and the house. It is as important—almost—as any of the players because it is exactly the sort of home everyone at one time or another has dreamed of living in. And it has an individuality as pronounced as if it were a living things

After over seven years work the film version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel, “The Lost World,” is now nearing completion. Earl Hudson, the director, hopes to O.K. the final scene within a month or two—depending on the screen conduct of the prehistoric dinosaurs which are brought to life for picture purposes in this photodrama. Production progress was delayed a time owing to an injury to the leg of one mighty monster that has been reincarnated from the Jurassic Age of 10,000,000 years ago into the Twentieth Century. In the photo-play this giant reptile—bigger than twelve elephants and captured in South America —breaks loose in London, wrecks three-storey buildings, throws thousands of people into a panic and finally causes the collapse of London Bridge. Watterson R. Rothacker started work on “The Ix>st World” over seven years ago, with Willis H. O'Brien as shepherd of the dinosaur eorral. Last Spring he joined forces with First National for its completion. Bessie Love, Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone and Lloyd Hughes finished with their roles in the picture some weeks ago. But after they said bood-bye to the thirty-odd species of dinosaur appearing in the film, the reptilian actors still had much work to do.