THE STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 14, 7 April 1927, Page 15

THE STRAND

“THE ROAD TO MANDALAY” The Orient—uncanny and mysterious always, is even more so in the present day, as in what is one of Lon

Chaney’s most startling vehicles of the screen, “The Road to Mandalay,’’ which comes to the Strand Theatre tomorrow. It gets away from the mysterious Far East of conventional drama, and with a grim realism .plunges into the

land of to-day—through Singapore, the melting-pot of the races, Mandalay and the regions around the Bay of Bengal. “The Road to Mandalay,” which is one of the outstanding mystery dramas of the year, presents Chaney in a role that is more than usually interesting. He appears as “Singapore Joe,” in a disguise that eclipses almost anything he has done in the past for grim realism; and he is the centre of a plot astoundingly daring in conception, one of the most powerful dramatic situations ever conceived by a playwright. It is a vivid story of a sea captain who degenerates into the sinister ruler of an Oriental underworld, to be redeemed through a combination of circumstances almost unbelievable, but still, as worked out in the story, perfectly logical. A splendid cast surrounds Chaney, who plays the sinister cabaret-keeper of the story. ' %ois Moran, of “Stella Dallas” fame, appears as the heroine, daughter of the grim underworld ruler, who never knows the father who loves her from afar. Owen Moore appears as the dissolute “Admiral,” a former naval officer, degenerated in Singapore, and Kamiyama Sojin. famous delineator of Oriental types, is compelling in his artistic but grim interpretation of the Oriental satellite of the cabaretkeeper. * The supporting programme includes the Strand “Magazine,” an “Aesop Fable,” “Mistress of the Sea,” and a mirth-making Lloyd Hamilton comedy “Nothing Matters.” On the stage, the Harris Family, that family of picturesque personalities, present the latest comedy stunts and mirthmaking songs.