PRINCESS AND TIVOLI

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 91, 8 July 1927, Page 15

PRINCESS AND TIVOLI

MYSTERY, THRILLS AND COMEDY Whether you prefer mystery, thrills, comedy, vaudeville or a pleasant mixture of all of these, you are bound to get what you want at the Princess and Tivoli Theatres this week. The management has done its best to un - derstand the wants of the forget-the-day’s-worries business man, the fill-up-tlie-evening-somehow housewife, and the lets-go-to-the-movies couple. There is nothing like a little “flesh and blood” vaudeville to separate the shadow show of the moving pictures into halves; to bring the patvon back fresh and willing for the remainder of a long programme. Two good vaudeville turns have been engaged this week.. Kadoma, who practises an ancient Japanese art, that of juggling with his feet, manipulates great, unwieldy, crosses and barrels with an ease and sureness which would put to shame the people whose strenuous efforts in the circuses of the past left audiences in amazement. His pedal expertness with a Maltese cross which must be about four or live feet high is magical. Delroy and Delaney, a comedy duo. do not do anything exactly new and yet they put across a laughter-making act. They step dance, sing a little, joke a lot, and become wonderfully popular.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, one of the pioneer writers of the thrilling detective story, and still the unchallenged master of it, wrote the original plot of “The Sign of Four,” the big attraction on the bill at both the Princess and the Tivoli. Here we have, slightly brought up-to-date, the strange story of a blood pact and mysterious murders which, of course, completely baffled Scotland Yard. Sherlock Holmes, probably the best-known character in Action, complete with his mouse-col-oured dressing gown and his violin, makes a great series of deductions and clears up the affair, though not before there has been an abduction (the murders happened long before) a speed boat race down the Thames, and a rescue from a burning yacht. “My dear Watson” develops “mourousness, and he cannot be blamed after seeing the heroine. Glimpses of London, especially Limehouse, add to the interest of the picture, which is a rattling good one. The story begins in the Andaman Islands, wrhere a convict discloses the place where treasure is buried in order that the governor will allow him to escape. Four men agree to share the treasure equally, and a blood pact is made. The treachery of one brings the story about. A certain element of mystery dwells in the second star film, “O Baby,” also, but it is a farcical one. Little Evangeline, the terrible infant who smokes strong cigars and drinks neat booch, causes the butler to raise his hands in horror, and the spectator enjoys the joke because he or she knows well that the child is really Bill Fitz Gerald, the fight promoter. Bill, who is minute, agreed to act “Little Eva” because his pal has to have a daughter on short notice, and the masquerade brings some extremely humorous incidents, especially when they threaten to undress him.