STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 103, 22 July 1927, Page 14

STRAND

TWO BIG PICTURES All who love drama, and a dash of comedy, will have a rare treat at the Strand to-night. Two pictures m % e from two popular novels will be screened, in addition to a fine musical programme by the by the Strand Symphony Orchestra, under the conductorship of Eve Bentley, who has just returned from a long holiday in Sydney. She has brought the latest popular songs and orchestral numbers back with her, and promises Strand patrons a real feast of new melodies, as well as some of the old favourites. Josef von Sternberg, the producing director of “The Salvation Hunters,” has justified the judgment of officials of the Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer studios who signed this interesting young man to a long-term contract because they believed him to be one of the greatest directorial geniuses of the screen. Von Sternberg’s “The Exquisite Sinner,” his initial film for Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer, will be shown at the Strand to-night. It is the direct opposite of all in “The Salvation Hunters” inasmuch as it moves with a speedy tempo and is a mass of colour as against drabness and slow tempo of “The Salvation Hunters. “The Exquisite Sinner” is said to prove that von Sternberg is not only a master director but a master scenarist and story-teller. His technique and dramatic treatment, as well as development of characters, is totally different from any other director. His latest picture is a screen adaptation of Alden Brook’s novel, “Escape,” and is a satirical study in psychology. It is the story of an aristocratic

young Frenchman, who is soul-weary, and who breaks all social conventions and severs all family ties in an effort to tear away from :i matter-of-fact existence and plunge into the sunlight romance. The story is interpreted by a large

all-star cast, which includes: Conrad Nagel, Renee Adoree, Paulette Duval, I 1 rank Currier, George K. Arthur, Matthew Betz, Helena D’Algy and Claire Du Brey. William Fox will present another dramatic picture based upon the struggles of a young girl in New York, when “ Bert ha, the Sewing Machine Girl, will be shown on the same programme at the Strand. Madge Bellamy, ideally cast, is said to have drawn one of the most sympathetic parts in which she has appeared IR recent months. The action centres about the efforts of a sewing machine girl to raise herself to a place of power. Irving Cummings, in working out the details of this intensely human plot, has handled story and characters with broad understanding. „ T. he £«■<* includes Allan Simpson, | all f j, Farrell MacDonald, i aul Nicholson. Anita Garvin, Harry Bailey, Ethel Wales and Arthur Houseman.