THE STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 13, 6 April 1927, Page 12

THE STRAND

“THE ROAD TO MANDALAY” Lon Chaney, the great screen favourite, who always stands for thrills, mysteries, and acting of the highest order, will arm- 't the Strand in his latest picture, “The Road to Mandalay.” This is undoubtedly one of his finest pictures, and this “magician of make-up"” is said to show his “thousand-and-first face” in this great and thrilling sto*"* of the Orient. The atmosphere of Kipling’s famous poem, "On the Road to Mandalay,” is reproduced in this picture, and one can understand how “the best is like the worst” in these strange surroundings. Breathless suspense, and one of the most beautiful love stories ever told on the screen, combine to make a screen masterpiece of “The Road to Mandalay.” It is through the grim realism q£ vivid mystery drama of the Orient tnafc the love story, perhaps, is so forcible. It holds the audience fairly spellbound, and thus takes its place as one of the best bits of screen entertainment for a long time. Chaney plays a character, a ruler of an Oriental underworld, hiding in a strange dive on the Singapore waterfront, and secreth* adoring an orphaned daughter, who never learns her parentage; a pathetic bit of realism injected into the colourful mystery. It is a story that lays bare human hearts, and Chaney rises to some magnificent of acting as the father torn between almost heavenly love and almost satanic environment. He wears one of the most gruesome disguises in his history, but gains sympathy through it —a strange trick of the dramatist and the actor’s own part. Lois Mor;r. r % pears as the heroine, he*’ first roie since her success in “St‘f i Dallas,” and Owen Moore appears as “the admiral.” dissolute former navy officer, whose own sense of shame brings about a regeneration. Kamiyama Sojin is a weirdly menacing figure as “English Charlie Wing,” chief of the Oriental gansters of Singapore. The ever-popular Strand Orchestra, which is noted for its bright and attractive music, will play the overture “Morning. Noon, and Night” (Suppe), while on the stage the brilliant Harris Family, well known to vaudeville audiences, will create mirth and melody. The latest Topical Budgets, an Aesop Fable, and a Lloyd Hamilton comedy, complete an excellent and varied programme of entertainment.